sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Writing Kids’ Poems: Five Exercises

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April is poetry month. In the USofA it;s called National Poetry Month, but here in Australia I’m just calling it Poetry Month, since I’ve been unable to figure out if the month is officially recognised as such here.

Anyway, whether it’s only a US thing or not, how wonderful to have a month which celebrates poetry! And, because it’s poetry month, I’ve been digging around looking for some inspiration for children’s writers who might want to have a try at poetry.

So, here it is. Five wonderful writing exercises to get you writing your own poetry. Some of these exercises are aimed at kids, but since all children’s writers are kids at heart, you’ll find plenty there.

So, get reading, and get writing. Poetry is good for the soul.

The List:
1. Write an exaggeration poem – exercise on the Poetry 4 Kids website.

2. Write a simple list poem, from poet Bruce Lanksy on the Giggle Poetry website.

3, How to write a Funny Poem – chapter three of How to write Poetry, by Roger Stevens, the whole text of which has been reprinted online.

4. Write a descriptive poem with Karla Krusky on Scholastic online.

5. Write a stretchy metaphor poem at the ReadWritePoem blog, which is posting a new poetry prompt every day this month.

If you know of a great poetry writing exercise that I’ve missed, let me know and I’ll start a new list for another post.

15 Words Poetry

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It’s fifteen words or less day. Here’s my effort:
I wanted
someone who
would think I was cool
but you gave me
a fan.

To see the photo which inspired this response – and/or to have a go for yourself at writing a poem of fifteen words or less, visit this link.

My Interview With Katie Hines

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In anticipation of the release of Pearl Verses the World on May 1, yesterday I was interviewed on Katie Hines’ blog. You can read the interview here.

Best Aussie Writing blogs

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Jonathan Crossfield at the Copywrite blog has compiled a list of the top 50 Australian blogs on writing. There’s some goodies there – including several which are children or YA related. You can check it out here. There’s enough reading to keep you busy for quite some time.

Guest Blogger: Sandy Fussell

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I know it’s April Fools Day, but today’s special guest is no joke. When Sandy Fussell talks, you should listen. Today marks the release of Shaolin Tiger, the third title in Sandy’s amazing Samurai Kids series, and, to celebrate, Sandy agreed to drop in as a guest blogger and tell us all about the genesis of her series.

Thanks for being here, Sandy – and congratulations on the release of Shaolin Tiger.

Sandy Says:


How did one book suddenly become a series of four.. and maybe more… ? I am still shaking my head in amazement. It seems only fitting that April Fool’s Day is the release date for Shaolin Tiger, the third book in the series. It’s as if someone has played the most wonderful joke on me.

My life as an author began with the big phone call: ‘We (Walker Books Australia) would like to publish your ms…” and it was soon followed by more calls: “We would like to illustrate your book…” and “How would you feel about turning this book into a series…”

Writing a series has been a challenging journey. I have had a chance to develop my characters and get to know them much better. Kids write to me with their own ideas and it’s a huge reward to see how involved they have become in the story. I’ve had the opportunity to explore and expand my love of eastern ideology, martial arts and Japanese culture with an audience eager to listen. Much to my surprise, I enjoy visiting schools as an author speaker.

But it hasn’t all been easy. Samurai Kids, which became Book 1: White Crane had no hooks in place for further plotlines. Much of the dialogue was based on the repartee between Sensei Ki-Yaga and his students which focussed on the kids’ ability to achieve despite what others would perceive as obvious physical handicaps. This, and Sensei’s eccentric witticisms, could potentially become tedious.

The story itself was based around the children learning the Samurai skills they needed to compete at the annual Samurai Trainee Games. It was episodic in nature and complete in itself. So how could I turn it into a series?

The first idea came from my 8 year old son. After I finished reading him White Crane he said, “I love it mum, but where are the ninjas?” Before I could explain there weren’t any, he answered himself: “I know. They’re in book 2.” At that time it wasn’t a series but when the time came, I ‘borrowed’ his idea. Knowing that the samurai and ninja were traditional enemies who often worked in secret together despite their open disapproval of each other, I knew I had rich pickings for a story about friendship and espionage. Then I also realised that Ki-Yaga, in order to give his students the best possible training, would expose them to other skills. Not only those of the ninja (in Book 2: Owl Ninja) but the Shaolin monks in China (in Shaolin Tiger) and the clandestine Chinese ninja (in Book 4: Monkey Fist).

My other immediate problem was in White Crane I had hinted at Sensei’s flaw, his great weakness. He had done something terrible and possibly been punished with transformation into a Tengu, a black crow mountain priest capable of taking bird and human form. Now I had to come up with a more concrete explanation. I had to determine what, if anything, he had done and was he or was he not a Tengu. The grey area had to become black and white. With some more 8 year old expertise I’ve resolved that one. Keep reading and you’ll see…

The problem now is where does the series end? I know the geographic location and I know the catalyst but how many steps and how many journeys lie in between? And how much should an author pay an 8 year old plot consultant?

Thanks for being here, Sandy. And congratulations not just on the release of Shaolin Tiger, but also on yesterday’s announcement that youahve been shortlisted in the CBCA’s Children’s Book of the Year Awards.

You can find out more about Sandy by visiting her website or her blog. You can order Shaolin Tiger online at Fishpond.

March Update

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It’s the last day of March, and so time for another of my monthly updates.

Lots has happened in my writing life in March, with things moving along on three of my forthcoming books. I feel more and more like a ‘real’ author every day.

At the start of the month I was featured in Susan Stephenson’s column at Muselings, an ezine for writers. Susan is an Australian based reviewer of books and passionate advocate for reading to and with children. I really appreciate her taking the time to interview me.

My picture book with Koala Books, which was previously known as Constantine and Aristotle, has now been retitled The Head Hog, after discussions with the publisher. I am quite delighted by this new title as it was, in fact, the earliest title I gave the manuscript before settling on Constantine and Aristotle. It now seems my earlier instinct was a good one. As well as being retitled, I spent some time this month on the editing. A good tidy up of the manuscript was needed, ready for the final illustrations. It’s amazing how a manuscript which you feel you’ve already got perfect, can be made so much more perfect after an editor or two cast their eyes over it and point things out to you. I’m really happy with the edited text and can’t wait to see the illustrations, which are being produced by Ben Wood.

My other forthcoming picture book, Snowy’s Christmas, is also progressing. This month the illustrator, David Murphy, finished the final colour illustrations, which I have now seen (and love). I also got my first look at the cover which has a nice teally kind of background and, of course, the delightful Snowy. I also worked on, and finalised the blurb for this one,which will be released by Random House in November.

And, of course, Pearl Verses the World. the release date for my verse novel-baby is only a month away and I am getting really excited about this one. The rest of my author copies arrived mid month. Although I’d already had one copy for a while, it felt exciting all over again to open the parcel and see my name on that beautiful cover. Walker Books have truly done an outstanding job of putting it all together.
With the release date getting closer, I have spent a lot of time planning promotional activities. I am planning a blog tour for the first ten days of the book’s life, and will be visiting the blogs of ten fellow Aussie bloggers who have kindly agreed to host me. Although I’ve done a blog tour before, and hosted plenty, I’ve never been on one that lasted ten days, so that’s both exciting and a little daunting. I have also decided to invite other authors and poets to visit this blog during my month long celebration, and share some advice and exercises about writing poetry for children. I have had some great names sign up for this, so am really looking forward to having them here. I’ve also got some interviews lined up, and have contributed to teaching notes for Pearl, so there’s lots happening.

Aside from my three forthcoming books, I have been chipping away at a new project for upper primary aged readers, and also started researching for a nonfiction project for adults. For the latter, I am keen to talk to as many country-dwelling Aussies as possible. So, if you are an Australian living in the country, or who has previously lived int he country, and are willing to talk tome about via email about your experiences, drop me a line at my special email address for this project – ruralaussies AT gmail.com (remove the spaces and use the ‘at’ symbol).

I’ve also been writing and editing children’s poetry. inspired by the poetry workshops I attended at Apropos last month, I have started revisiting some of my older poems and tidying them up, and have also written several new poems. I am trying to shape them into a collection – culling some, fine tuning others and seeing where the gaps are. Very challenging but I’m having lots of fun. I love playing with poetry.

What else? Partly to promote Pearl (but also for the love of it), I started a new blog which focuses just on the verse novel, called Versing. It’s still in its infancy, but I’m hoping to create a useful resource both for lovers of the form, and for those who perhaps don’t know much about verse novels. My most recent posts is a list of verse novels for children and young adults.
I also started blogging on an occasional basis for a website called Ourpatch, discussing living and writing in rural Australia. You can see my blog posts here.

Aussiereviews continues to keep me busy, with sixteen new reviews added in March. As always, there’s a real range,from children’s picture books to adult nonfiction. A favourite this month was A Beginner’s Guide to Living. I was fascinated by how the author managed to make her prose just so poetic – and then discovered, when I read her bio, that she is in fact a poet. The influence of her poetic craft on her prose is really apparent.
So, that was my March. The year is marching on, and for once I’m glad of it – as each day brings the release of Pearl one day closer.
See you next month.

sallymurphy.com.au