sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Teacher Characters #4: Mary MacKillop

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As my series of posts about my teacher characters continues, today I move to a teacher character who is from history.

Who is my teacher character? Mary MacKillopmeet-mary-mackillop

What book does she appear in? Meet Mary MacKillop, part of Random House Australia’s Meet… series.

Why is she there? The book attempts to tell Mary’s story – or at least part of it. I was approached by Random House Australia to contribute to the series, and delighted when they suggested Mary MacKillop as the subject, as she is such an important Australian.

What role does she play? She’s the main character and the topic of the book, which shows how and why she set up her first school in Penola, South Australia. Mary and her sisters had to overcome many obstacles to start their school and ensure children had access to education.

What did I learn writing about her? I thought she was significant because she was Australia’s first saint. What I realised was how amazing she was as a strong woman in a time when women were expected be seen and not heard. Her role in establishing schools throughout Australia was very significant.

Favourite Mary moment? In the book, it’s when she tells the rich lady that although her son is very welcome at the school, he will receive the same treatment as everybody else. In real life, I think my favourite Mary MacKillop moments are when she stood up to Bishops and Priests who tried to dictate to her and treated her very shabbily.

Meet Mary MacKillop, illustrated by Sonia Martinez, and published by Random House Australia is available in good bookstores and online.

 

The Reviews are In (Well, one of them, anyway)

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There is nothing more nerve racking than waiting for the first review of a new book. Okay, apart from waiting to see if a publisher likes it enough to publish it. Or if you can actually get the text right in the first place. Or if the .. .Well, you get the idea. But I digress. I get pretty nervous waiting to see if reviewers will like my book. After all, reviewers are more likely to be honest than friends and family, and potential purchasers read reviews. Reviews can affect sales, and can also stoke (or destroy) fragile author egos.

Meet Mary Mackillop

So, I have a new book coming out in just a couple of weeks. Meet Mary Mackillop, illustrated by Sonia Martinez and published by Random House, will hit the shelves on May 1.  And, knowing that review copies have gone out, I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting to see what the reviewers would have to say. Today, at last, news of the first review came from the publicist Zoe.  And, I’m pleased to say, the review is positive. You can read it here, on Lisa Hill’s blog.

I’m especially delighted that Lisa not only likes the book (which, you know, is always kind of nice) but that she focuses on the appeal to the secular market. Yes, Mary Mackillop was a Catholic, and so the book is likely to appeal to Catholics and Catholic schools. But she was also a woman, in a man’s world,  who had to work against the odds to set up her schools and bring education to children who wouldn’t have otherwise had access. I’m so glad that Lisa gets this.

Moments

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There are many exciting moments in the months ( or years) between writing a book and finally seeing it in print.

There’s the moment when you write (literally or otherwise) the words ‘The End’ (And, of course, it should be said that this may happen multiple times for the one book, as each new draft and set of edits is completed)

There’s the moment when you are offered a contract, the moment you sign it, and the lovely moment when the advance appears in your bank account.

For a picture book,  there’s the wonderful moment when an illustrator agrees to illustrate the story and ‘my’ book becomes ‘our’ book. And, later, the moemnt when you see the illustration roughs, and, of course, the final illustrations.

The special moment I had this morning was, I guess, two special moments.
The moment a Google alert first finds your new book, leading to…
the moment you see your book actually listed on your publsiher’s website and it actually starts to feel like the book is a real live thing that’s actually going to happen.

So, yes, here it is, my next picture book coming out in May:

And here’s where you can see it on the Random House website.

Thank you for sharing my moment.

sallymurphy.com.au