Happy Friday! AND Happy Birthday to Queen Narelle, my little cattitude filled verse novel, which is one year old today!
If you haven’t yet encountered Narelle, her story (and that of Maddie, her human) is still available instore and online, and would be a purrfect read aloud for your junior primary classroom, library, or just for at home reading with its focus on how kids tackle friendship issues, and the bond between pets and their humans.
Happy birthday Queen Narelle!
It’s Poetry Friday and, even while I still play catch up from my recent overseas trop, I am today on the road again, in the north of Western Australia visiting Port Hedland to speak poetry, books and writing as part of Scribblers on the Road. How lucky am I?
In the meantime, I wanted to share a glimpse of this amazing anthology, a copy of which was waiting for me when I got home last week.
It’s an absolute feast of nature photography and poems, with each contributor asked to submit both an original photo, and an ekphrastic poem responding to that photo. When Carol Labuzzetta put out a call for submissions for this project I knew I just had to take part – and I was lucky enough to have all three of the poems I submitted included in the final production.
While I won’t share all three here (we want you to read the book!), here’s one of the photos I submitted (and which I have shared here previously):
taken when this feathered trio paid me a visit last year. And here is the poem that I finally wrote for the anthology, after some earlier attempts.
Noisy Guests
What’s that ruckus
in my yard?
A feathered trio
laughing hard.
What’s that rumpus
I can hear?
They’re carolling
that rain is near.
What’s that riot
on my fence?
Kookaburras
making sense!
Did you know that the collective noun for a group of kookaburras is a riot? Isn’t that an excellent choice?
Speaking of riots, I’m off to make some noise in a school today, but after that I’ll be checking out what my Poetry Friday friends have been up to this week. Tracey will be hosting the roundup.
It’s June 3 which means it is exactly one month until my newest book-baby The Riding Gallery, is
released into the world. Hooray!
The Riding Gallery is my sixth verse novel, but the first that brings together my love of historical fiction and my love of the verse novel form. It tells a story based on a true tale of a man named Anton Weniger, who opened a merry go round (or, as the title suggests Riding Gallery) on the foreshore at St Kilda, in Victoria, in 1915. This should have been a really happy event, but by the time Anton’s ride was opened, World War 1 was raging – and Anton, although a naturalised Australian, had come from Germany.
The story integrates Anton’s story with those of two fictional characters, Evelyn and Rory, who are growing up in St Kilda, and also each impacted by the far away war.
Although you might (correctly) imagine that a story set against the backdrop of a terrible war will not be all happy, I do hope that sharing the story with readers young and old brings this piece of history to life, and does its part in making the world a better place.
Although it is not yet for sale in store, you can pre-order now in a bookstore near you – thus supporting both my book and the brick and mortar bookstores which serve your community or, online from bookstores including Booktopia.
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You’ll be hearing more about The Riding Gallery in the weeks to come her on my blog and over on Instagram.
It’s a new month, which means time to share what I read last month. I was on the road – in France, London and Singapore – for most of May, so was surprised when I tallied up and saw I’d still managed 12 books. Here’s what kept me up late in hotel rooms all over the world 🙂
Books for Children
1.Kitty and the Kidnap Trap, by Paula Harrison, illustrated by Jenny Lovlie (Oxford University Press, 2021). I spent some time browsing London bookshops and came away with several books including this one. Kitty is a human child by day but a superhero, with cat powers at night – and in this instalment uses those powers to rescue her friend’s pet hamster. Very cute.
2. Squishy McFluff: The Invisible Cat! (Squishy McFluff the Invisible Cat), by Pip Jones, illustrated by Ella Okstad (Faber & Faber, 2018). Another London purchase – this time an early reader chapter book, in rhyming verse, which I found quite novel. Ava and her invisible cat get up to lots of mischief.
3. The Lonely Book, by Meg Grehan (Little Island Press, 2023). Also bought in London, but recommended to me at my conference in France by a bookseller from Canada. Really pleased to get hold of this – a verse novel about a magical bookshop, families, gender identity and acceptance. Great stuff.
4. Keisha Jones Takes on the World, by Natalie Denny, illustrated by Chante Timothy (Little Tiger, 2023). And yes, also bought (and read) in London. This one is about a determined, feisty girl who is out to make a difference – in spite of her propensity to not always get that right.
5. Overheard in a Tower Block: Poems by, by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner (Otter Barry Books, 2017). Another one bought in London, a collection by the current Children’s Laureate that reads a lot like a verse novel, though many of the poems do stand alone.
6. Little Hero, by Emily Lim-Leh (Penguin, 2024). I was lucky enough to attend the launch of this book at the AFCC in Singapore this month, and headed staright to the bookshop to buy it. Inspired by the real life of the author’s father (who was on stage at the launch) it tells the tale of seven year old Xiong as he navigates life in post-war 1940s Singapore.
7. The Riding Gallery, by Sally Murphy, illustrated by Marine Heiduczek (Walker Books, 2024). Yes, I’m the author of this one, but also, I sat down and read it cover to cover after my author copies arrived. It doesn’t matter how much I have worked on a book, how well I think I know it, it’s only when it arrives in hard copy and I can turn the pages, seeing both text and image in physical form that I really know whether it works. I think it does – and can’t wait to share it with the world in July.
8.Eye Spy Singapore: A look and find activity book, by Pippa Chorley & David Liew (Marshall Cavendish, 2021). I was gifted this book by my wonderful friend David Liew (who, you might notice, is also the illustrator) and was lucky enough to have it signed both by David and by the author, Pippa, at the AFCC. A fun book exploring many of Singapore’s attractions and landmarks, with each spread also inviting young readers to find items in each scene.
9. Picture Perfect Poetry: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students, edited by Carol J. Labuzzetta (2024). What a treasure! I have been eagerly waiting for this anthology, because I had three photos and three poems included, but also because I knew it would be a visual and literary feast, pairing nature photography with poems, from members of the Poetry Friday community and beyond. I read it in one sitting but will be dipping in and out for a long time to come.
10. 
Abre, by Amandine Laprun (Actes Sud, 2022). I fell in love with this little beauty when I saw it in the window of a Paris bookstore. The shop was closed so I had to wait till the next day to go back and buy it. The image doesn’t do it justice – the book is shaped like a tree and has a ribbon which ties the front and back covers together so the book stands upright like a little tree. Each spread shows the cherry tree at different times of year, so that it goes from spring, through summer, autumn, winter and back to spring, with blossoms, leaves, cherries, autumn leaves and bare branches, as well as squirrels, birds, and even children all visiting the tree. Stunning.
11. 
Curly, by Rachelyn Gordon, illustrated by Cecilia Hidayat (2023). I bought this book at the AFCC after listening to the amazing author speak on a panel. Curly’s pixie cut makes her feel strong and confident – until she starts school and other children tease her about having short her. An important message, but also just a lovely story.
Books for Adults
That brings my total for the year to 57, with more to come. I brought home quite a few books from my trip, and often ponder whether I could read in my sleep to keep on top of all the amazing new books I want to read.
What have you been reading?
It’s Poetry Friday and I am home, after a wonderful month of travel, with a very full heart and three very full notebooks.
One of the wonderful experiences I had was a writing retreat in the South of France. It still feels luxurious just to say that! I spent six days at a French farmhouse (aptly called the French Houseparty) near Carcassonne, with a brilliant group of fellow writers, and under the tutelage of poet Anne Caldwell.
One post can’t do justice to all I learnt – about writing, and about life, with this wonderful group in this equally wonderful location. But, since it’s Poetry Friday, I thought I’d share two poems I wrote in one of the sessions. Anne had us focussing on all five senses as we took in our surroundings. Firstly, as we stood on the edge of a field of poppies. There was so much to take in, but I was especially drawn to keep looking up – the sky was crisscrossed with the vapor trails of seemingly dozens of planes, and I had to snap pictures, even while I was busily trying to focus on the exercise. 
I’ve seen vapour trails before – many, many times – but never as, on this day, so many. In fact, over the course of the morning, I lost count of how many planes I actually saw flying over adding to the pattern. It was magical. So, no surprise that when it cam time to write, that the trails made it into my first poem.
Blue Sky Day
Bumbling bee
dipping in and out
of red pockets of pleasure
hums a tale of spring.
Tottering tractor
rolls across
brown furrows
ensuring
summer’s sunflowers
are safe.
Winsome windmill
stands still
ready
for Autumn’s toil.
Crisscrossed sky
shows the path taken
by winter-weary travellers
following the sun.
The second exercise we did honed in even more on the senses, as we led each other, one with eyes closed, around the garden, and then stopped and asked our partner to tell us what they could see, hear, feel, smell and taste. I found myself saying, with surprise, ‘I can taste Spring!’ But, when I sat down to write, I was also still obsessed with those vapor trails. This is what I came up with:
Taste It
White trails
crisscross
otherwise perfect-blue sky
showing the paths of
winter-weary travellers
seeking spring.
Down below
I know
they will find it here.
The sun caressing my cheek
my legs
my soul.
The resiny pines
singing with the wind
the dove crooning –
they all know it too.
I can taste spring.
I am, as I said, home now in Australia, and the wintry weather has hit with a vengeance. It is cold and wet. But every time I think of France, I can still taste Spring!
And in other tasty news, when I got home, my copy of a brand new anthology was in the post. I’ll post more about this soon – but today’s Poetry Friday host, Janice, is not only sharing some glimpses, but has included one of the poems I have in the book. So head over there to learn about the anthology, and then you can see what other poetry Friday goodness is on offer.
I’m soooooo excited. Waiting for me, on my return from a month long trip to France, England and Singapore, was a box. And inside that box was author copies! So pleased to be holding The Riding Gallery in my hands for the first time, and can’t wait to share it with the world from July. You can see the unboxing video, and hear a little about the book, here:
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Out in July, you can preorder your copy at your local brick and mortar bookstore (support these if you can), or online.