sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Dear Book-baby

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Today is a special day. My latest book, Meet Mary MacKillop, is finally available in stores. I always regard my books as a bit like my children (though, rest assured, I do love my Murphlets best), so I thought to celebrate this special day I might write a letter to my new book. Maybe a little corny, but then I’m a corny kind of person. Anyway, here it is:
Dear Book-baby
Welcome to the world!
On the day of birth of each of my real-life babies, I gazed at them in wonder, grateful that the nine months of pregnancy and the toil of labour were over and I could meet this miraculous new being. And I wondered what life had in store for them, what they would grow to be, what we would weather together.
Your arrival is, admittedly, a little different. Firstly you took much longer than nine months to gestate, but just like a pregnancy that process had its highs and lows. The excitement of the initial idea, the bumps and nudges of my muse who doesn’t’ always know when she should be awake and when she should sleep and the agonies of self-doubt as I wondered if I was actually clever enough, and brave enough, to do it. Then the waiting, for feedback from the editor, for a contract, for the illustrator, designer, copyeditor, printer… Just like waiting for a baby to arrive, it felt like it might never happen. 
Secondly I did get glimpses at what you’d be like. First there were roughs, then proofs for me to admire and, of course, well before release day I was able to hold you in my hands when the postie delivered my advance copies. I was even able to show you off to friends and family, without having to wait till today, your release day.
But still, despite the differences, here on your official birthday, the day of your release, I sit and look at you and wonder what’s in store for you, for us. Will you be sit lonely on a bookstore shelf, or will you be picked up, read, loved by young readers?  Will readers young and old marvel at your tale, your gorgeous illustrations, your design? Will strangers stop me in the street to peer into the pram – oh, now that’s just a bit too far with the analogy. But I do hope critics, booksellers, teachers and parents will admire you enough to recommend and share you with youngsters.
I hope you and a long and successful life and that I will glimpse you not just around my own home but in stores, and schools and libraries. Like any proud mum I will tell the world about you, because I think your story is worth sharing. I’ll stroke your cover tenderly when no one is looking – and may even find myself sneaking you to the front of the shelf in bookshops so that you’ll get noticed. 
So, my book-baby, once again welcome to the world.  
Sally
Meet Mary MacKillop, illustrated by to amazing Sonia Martinez and published by Random HouseAustralia is the story of the woman who would become Australia’s first saint and her struggles to start a school for rural children. It is available now in good bookstores or online. You can see preview pages here.

The Graves of Gallipoli

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This be their epitaph. “Traveller, south or west,
Go, say at home we heard the trumpet call,
And answered. Now beside the sea we rest.
Our end was happy if our country thrives:
Much was demanded. Lo! our store was small –
That which we had we gave – it was our lives.”

L.L.

(Written by  an Anzac soldier, and published in the Anzac Book, 1916)

Lest we forget.

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.

March New Reads

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I had lots of reading fun in March. I’m currently immersing myself in collections of children’s poetry, which has given me a chance to rediscover some old favourites and discover some new (to me) gems. Of course, I’ve read lots of prose, too, but it may be the first month ever that the amount of poetry I’ve read outweighs the prose – and I like it. Hopefully it will reflect in my own poetry writing.
So, as always, here’s my list for the month just gone, with links to those that are reviewed over on Aussiereviews. Have a great April :)

The Hypnotiser Michael Rosen Lion Children’s Poetry
The Dog’s Just Been Sick in the Honda Colin Thompson Hodder Children’s Poetry
Great Anzac Stories Graham Seal Allen & Unwin Adult NF
Wouldn’t You Like To Know Michael Rosen Andre Deutsch Children’s Poetry
A Very Unusual Pursuit Catherine Jinks Allen & Unwin Children’s
Flower Moon Snow: A Book of Haiku Kazue Mizumura Thomas Y Crowell Children’s Poetry
Water Bombs: A Book of Poems for Teenagers Steven Herriick UQP Children’s Poetry
The Romance Diaries: Ruby Jenna Austen ABC Books Young Adult
Troy Thompson’s Excellent Peotry Book Gary Crew Lothian Children’s
Muster Me a Song Anne Bell Triple D Books Children’s Poetry
City James Roy UQP Young Adult
Honey Sandwich Elizabeth Honey Allen & Unwin Children’s Poetry
Man Drought Rachael Johns Harlequin Adult Romance
Songs for My Thongs Colin Thiele Rigby Children’s Poetry
Aunts Uncles Cousins and All Michael Dugan McMillan Children’s Poetry
Behind the Sun Deborah Challinor Harper Collins Adult
A Paddock of Poems Max Fatchen Omnibus Puffin Children’s Poetry
In the Garden of Bad Things Doug Macleod Puffin Children’s Poetry
Been to Yesterdays Lee Bennett Hopkins Wordsong Children’s Poetry
This is Just to Say Joyce Sidman Houghton Miffling Children’s Poetry
We’re Going on a Croc Hunt Laine Mitchell Scholastic Picture Book
I Love You Too Stephen Michael King Scholastic Picture Book
Bureau of Mysteries & the Mechanomancers HJ Harper Random House Children’s
Paper Chains Nicola Moriarty Random House Adult

A Magnet Poem

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Last year at the Perth Writers Festival family Day  I got a free magnet board and enough letter magnets to spell my name. This year  got a sheet of magnet words. Today I finally opened both – and wrote a poem.



Not a great photo – actually very hard to photograph because of white background and tiny size of words. But lots of fun.

Seventeen Years to Write

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One of the questions I’ most commonly asked when I do author visits is ‘How long does it take to write a book? ‘ It’s kind of like the old ‘how long is a piece of string?’ because each book is so different. And of course, when do I consider a book written? Is it when I finish the first draft? The second? The twentieth?  When I finally submit it to a publisher?
Often when I’m asked this question I answer with how long it took from first idea to publication, and audiences are usually surprised with the length of time – both Do Not Forget Australia  and Head Hog were over five years in the making, from idea to publication. Pearl Verses the World was pretty quick (possibly the quickest ), being only about a year.  Next time I’m asked this question, however, I may well enter the realms of disbelief – because today I’m holding in my hands a copy of a book which was 17 years in the making, from idea to publication.
Brace Yourself, newly released by Blake Education, is one of the first children’s novels I tried to write. The idea came to me almost 17 years ago, inspired by two events in my life. Firstly, I moved town to the lovely Donnybrook, and  watched my oldest son trying to adjust to life in a new town. Then, we went house hunting. Our budget was tiny and there were only three houses in the town that were in our price range.  The agent wanted to only show us two of them, but the third was one I drove past every day and was fascinated by. It was old and run down, but something about it called to me. I insisted she show it to us. She was right – we should not (and did not) buy that house: it was a mess. There were holes in the walls and floors, the plumbing and wiring were shot and the kitchen was unusable. We could afford to buy the house – but we couldn’t afford the money to make it habitable.
We didn’t buy it – we bought a little house just up the street, where we were very happy. But that house, that falling apart house, stayed with me. I loved its pressed tinned ceilings, its big rooms and its front veranda. Most of all I loved its character.  That house spoke to me – and sparked a story. What if you were a kid, a bit like my son, dragged to live in a new town – and when you got there, you had to live in that house?
I wrote that story and I rewrote that story and I rewrote that story. And I submitted it to publishers – and it was rejected. So I rewrote it. I ran it by critique partners. And I submitted it again. It was a hard story to place – partly because of its length – and it had many different versions, including an attempt to rewrite it as a verse novel, which wasn’t very successful. The story changed quite a bit – the character was not my son any more, the town was not Donnybrook, but one thing was constant – that house was always the same house. 
I almost gave up on the story several times. It spent long periods of time in a bottom drawer. But I kept going back to it, kept believing in it. Then a couple of years ago I saw a call from Blake Publishing for books for a series – and knew Brace Yourself fitted the bill. I dusted it off, reworked it a little and sent it in.  And boy am I glad I did. Because eventually the story was accepted, and today I held my advance copy in my hands for the first time – seventeen years after I was inspired to write it.
So, how long does it take to write a book? As long as it takes. How long to get it published? As long as it takes. In this case: 17 years.
Brace Yourself is available now from Blake.
sallymurphy.com.au