sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Things that made me smile this morning

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Another glorious Monday morning in Murphy-world.

Things that made me smile this morning:

One. Waking up with the knowledge that my beloved is here with me for another week, instead of 300km away like he usually is on Mondays.

Two. Diving into my pool and swimming a dozen laps of butterfly (it is not a big pool). At the start of the summer I could manage about 5.

Three. Swimming along the bottom of the pool and watching the way the bubbles rose to the surface – wearing goggles opens up a whole underwater perspective.

Four. The chapters of  today’s book I read over breakfast and morning coffee.

Five. The dragon illustration fellow author (and all round nice person) Gabrielle Wang emailed me to wish me a happy Chinese New Year – along with a rejoinder not to sweep the floor today, lest I sweep away my good luck. An excuse not to sweep the floor? Love it!

Hope you are smiling too!

November/December Update

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Happy New Year! I can’t believe another year is over, but am happy to look at the clean slate that a new year brings.
November and December were busy months for me, both personally and writing-wise, which is why there was no news posted in November. The biggest event in this time was my big road trip. With by beloved and the five younger Murphlets, a car and caravan, I crossed Australia’s famous Nullarbor Plain, travelling from our home in country Western Australia through South Australia, Victoria and into New South Wales. It was an awesome experience, seeing some of Australia’s most beautiful and diverse places, from the big city of Sydney, to the amazing natural wonder of the Great Australian Bight. We faced the challenges of some of the wettest weather of the year – it rained nearly every day, in places which were drought-ridden, and badly needed the rain, too. We considered applying for work as drought-breakers, given our record in taking the weather wherever we went. But, in spite of the rain, we had a wonderful time and arrived home still all speaking to each other – no mean feat after five weeks living seven of us in a space no bigger than my bedroom at home.
So, with the trip, my writing time was altered. I won’t say curtailed, as I actually did find time to write on most days – in the form of a diary. I wrote an average of a thousand words per day, which I was pleased with, though it fell down a little bit in the last week when I was getting pretty tired. I also drafted a new picture book, and jotted down ideas for several other stories which came to me inspired by what I saw or did.
Before I left, I worked on edits for Snowy, my new picture book with Random House (due out in November, 2009). ’m really pleased with how the text is shaping up and was lucky enough to see some of the roughs when I visited the illustrator in Canberra. David happens to also be my brother in law, so we stayed with him and his beautiful family, and they also came with us to the Snowy Mountains for a few nights.
I also made the final tweaks on my verse novel, Pearl Verses the World, due out from Walker Books in May. This has gone off to the printers now, so my part in the creative process is done, and I am really happy with the finished text, as well as with the beautiful illustrative work of Heather Potter, who has captured Pearl and her family so well.
I was also delighted before I left to receive my author copies of The Big Blowie (Aussie Schoolbooks), a new chapter book about a drought, blowflies and a big thing. The finished product is great, and available now from Blake Education. While we travelled, we saw lost of big things – including the Big Orange, Big Galah, Big Ned Kelly and the Big Lobster. I had to stop and get photos of them all, of course.
Travelling did limit my reviewing activities a little, but before I left I added 25 new reviews to Aussiereviews in November and since my return added 8 in December. There’ll be loads more reviews in 2009, with the pile seemingly never ending.
I’ve spent time the past few days thinking about my aims for 2009. Number one priority is to enjoy the release of my new titles. I’m really proud of the books I have coming out this year, and plan to enjoy seeing them in print. My next aim is to get a couple of projects I’ve started moving again now that I’m home, and get some manuscripts back out there finding homes for themselves. I’ve written myself a list of aims which I’ve shared with my online friends, and will check it regularly to see how I do. Mostly, though, I think the key thing I want to do writing-wise in 2009 is to keep writing – and to keep enjoying it as much as I did in 2008. If you’re a writer, I wish the same for you – a fun-filled year of writing!

Enjoy!

ANZAC Day

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ANZAC Day is coming up this Friday, April 25. This is the day that Australia pauses to remember both the first ANZAC Day, when Australian and New Zealand forces landed in Gallipoli, and all of Australia’s military involvement in international conflict.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about two new books coming out in time for ANZAC Day, but wanted to write about it again because this particular ANZAC Day is a special one for my family. Murphlet 3, you see, is overseas at present, on the Western Australian Premier’s ANZAC Student Tour. Along with eleven other high school students and their supervisors, he is touring the battle fields of France and Belgium, attending services and generally being steeped in this important part of Australian history. On the day itself he’ll be attending a big dawn service at Villiers-Bretoneaux along with about six thousand others, and laying a wreath alongside the Western Australian Premier.

So, yes, it’s an exciting time for Murphlet 3, and an experience he’ll never forget. To win a place on the trip, he had to firstly research the involvement of Western Australians in the creation of the ANZAC legend and present his findings as a six minute speech. This wasn’t an easy task, but it was a really rewarding one both for him and for the whole family. Both my beloved and myself knew something about our respective families being involved in both of the World Wars, but it was as Murphlet 3 went through this process that we began digging and discussing this history. We are now, as a family, much more aware of the role our forebears played – from both sides of the family, Murphlet 3 had one Great-Great Grandfather, three Great Grandfathers and several great uncles serve during one or both of the World Wars. Some of the sites he’ll be visiting are the very places those relatives fought.

The lesson for me in all this is an awareness of how important it is to ask questions of living relatives about family history, so that that history is not lost. As a writer, I should have already been aware of the importance of asking and recording some of this history, but with much of it not discussed, had lived in ignorance. I know now, and this ANZAC Day as I climb the hill behind my home to attend the local dawn service, I’ll be just that little more aware of the day’s significance.

New Reviews and a Good Interview

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I’ve spent a goodly part of my Good Friday afternoon updating Aussiereviews with twelve new reviews. As always, the majority are children’s and young adult titles, though this time round there are two nonfiction titles and one adult fiction. My favourite from this batch is probably Cold Skin, a verse novel by Steven Herrick, a master of the form. Having been recently working on verse novels myself I enjoyed reading one by someone who does it so well.

Have also ducked over to Sputnick57 to read an interview with a friend and fellow author Bren MacDibble – now isn’t that a wonderful name for a writer? When Bren speaks about writing it’s always worth listening to, and this interview is no exception. It’s clever, insightful and witty, a great combination.

My beloved is cooking fish and chips tonight in honour of Good Friday. He’s an excellent cook, my beloved, a nice bloke, too.
sallymurphy.com.au