May 1 marked the release of my children’s verse novel, Pearl Verses the World. To celebrate, May has been dedicated to celebrating Pearl and all things poetry.
Firstly, I headed off on a blog tour. If you missed this tour, you can still see the stops by clicking on the following links.
Day 1 – Spinning Pearls, where I guest blogged about the process of writing Pearl.
Day 2 – The Writing Life, where I was interviewed by Brenton Cullen.
Day 3 – Tips for Young Writers, where I was interviewed by Dee White.
Day 4 – Persnickety Snark, where I was interviewed by Adele.
Day 5 – Let’s Have Words, where I discussed promotion with Claire Saxby.
Day 6 – Just Listen Book Reviews, where Allie reviewed Pearl.
Day 7 – Look at That Book, where it was Lisa’s turn to review the book.
Day 8 – Write and Read With Dale, with yet another wonderful review.
Day 9 – Tales I Tell, where Mabel cleverly interviewed me in verse.
Day 10 – Robyn Opie’s Writing for Children Blog where I shared some hints for getting published.
I also visited two other blogs during May –Sandy Fussell’s blog. Instead of interviewing me herself, Sandy shared Pearl Verses the World with her nine year old son and got him to pose some questions both to me and to Pearl herself. What wonderfully curly questions! You can read both questions and answers here. And, later in the month, I visited Sheryl Gwyther’s blog.
And, to return the favour, I had several guest bloggers drop in here and share their thoughts on poetry. You can see their posts by scrolling through all of my May postings.
Pearl has received some lovely reviews, being reviewed in Magpies magazine, on ABC radio, in the Sunday Age, Readings Bookstores newsletter and, online at sites including Susan Whelan’s column at Suite 101 here, Dee White’s blog here and The Book Chook’s blog here.
The feedback and good wishes I have had during the month has May has kept me dancing – it has really been like a month long birthday party. But just because May is over, this doesn’t mean the celebration is over. Pearl Verses the World is still available online and in good bookstores all around Australia – and hopefully this will be the case for a long time to come. And, the wonderful news is that I have just had news that Pearl will also be published in the USA, so if you are in that part of the world watch this space for more details.
What else has happened in May? More writing. In between my promo work, and a new day job, and a sick mother, and a bad early winter cold, I have managed to make good headway with a third verse novel and also managed to completely rewrite a historical picture book which I have had on the backburner for some time. Sometimes I think that the busier I get the more writing I get done.
I also had time to do some reading and reviewing, with twenty two new reviews added to Aussiereviews this month.
That’s my may wrap-up. Keep coming back during June – there will be plenty more happening here to keep you in touch with the world of writing for children.