sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

blog tour day 6

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Good morning.
Thanks for dropping in to see what is happening on Day 6 of my blog tour to celebrate the release of Pearl Verses the World.
Today I am due to appear at Just Listen Book Reviews where the delightful Allie will be reviewing Pearl.
I am also delighted to discover that, separate from the blog tour, Pearl has received two other wonderful reviews online. Susan Whelan has posted a detailed review and analysis in her column at Suite101, and Susan Stephenson, aka the Book Chook, has posted a lovely review at her blog.
And, not a review, but Sandy Fussell has chosen Pearl for her Teaser Tuesday post, so if you’d like to read two tiny extracts from the book, you’ll find them there.
Have a wonderful day. See you tomorrow.

blog tour day 5

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Welcome to day 5 of my celebrations for the release of Pearl Verses the World.
Phew. The first four days have been action packed with blog tours, guest bloggers and the first big Verse-Off.

Before we go on, I just want to thank everyone who has dropped in here at the blog, or at the other blogs I’ve been visiting, as well as those who’ve participated in the Verse Off and, especially, the people who have taken the time to leave comments on the bogs or personally and by email. It’s been like having a birthday.

I have had some enquiries about where to buy Pearl. If you can get to a bricks and mortar bookstore here in Australia, it will hopefully be on the shelf – but if not, ask the bookseller to order it in. here are the publication details, which they need:

Pearl Verses the World, by Sally Murphy, illustrated by heather Potter
ISBN: 9781921150937
Imprint: Walker Books Australia
Distributor: TL Distribution in Australia & Macmillan Publishers in New Zealand
If you can’t get to a bookstore, Pearl is available online from various bookstores, including Fishpond.

Okay, so on with the party. Today I am visiting Claire Saxby’s blog, Let’s Have Words, where I am chatting with Claire about book promotion. I would love to see you there, and, of course, back here tomorrow for more celebrations.

Verse Off : The Results

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Day four of my blog tour and today I’ll be visiting Persnickety Snark‘s blog – hope to see you there.
Thanks so much to everyone who called in yesterday and participated in the inaugural verse-off. If you missed out, and are wondering what a verse-off might be, see yesterday’s post.
The results are in – and today I’m delighted to share with you the responses to yesterday’s gorgeous photo. So, here goes:

From Dee White:

Necks bared to watching predators,
bask with apparent ambition
fearless heads point forward anticipate together
reflection
synchronised stillness
seep into slow dive
slide beneath the surface
and disappear
just in time.

An Acrostic from Fletcher Apel:

Turtles are interesting
Underwater swimming
Reptiles with shells
Terrapin a terror for pronouncing
Look cute swimming in clear water
Eating fish and shrimp
Sunning themselves.

necks craned
mute
turtles gaze
at untapped depths
of blue skies

Branyon Apel wrote:

shells on a branch
above water
sunning
Janeen Brian contributed:

‘Hey Charlie,
ever wondered
why they call this place,
Turtle Point?

Sally Odgers wrote:

T is for terrapins
Climbing from water into sky
The branch their bridge
Between realities

Finn (no link or second name) said:

on the log
looking up
where am I?

Felix Apel (rounding out the whole family’s contribution) said:

A reflection
seen by others
is not as we see

Andromeda Jazmon, from A Wrung Sponge, contributed:

Exposing our necks,
content to be still
dark marks hung
between mirrors of blue.
Waiting to fully
absorb the heat of
stillness;
nothing more.
But you see double;
see an arrow,
see hope or fear or
victory.We are just
turtles on a log.

J.R. Poulter‘s response:

Seamless
Sewn with invisible stitches
Earth and sky
No entry point and nowhere
To exit
We sit
In a line
Biding our time till
Something opens up
And something else
Will merge….

And Fletcher and Kathryn Apel combined for this one:

Turtles totter on the log
step-by-step
two-by-two
Splash!

Lisa Schroeder, an old critique buddy of mine (hi Lisa) contributed:

Where you go,
I follow.
For without you,
water is just water
and a branch is just a branch.
But when I’m with you,
we swim in a sea of love
and rest on a path of understanding.

If you want to see the rhyming responses to the photo, visit Kathryn Apel’s blog. Incidentally, not only did the Apel family contribute five of the above responses, but the photo, too, was taken by the talented Felix Apel. What a creative family!

Enjoy this verse-off? Wonderful! Then why not come back next week to do it all again with a new photo? We’ll be versing off every Sunday during May – with an extra installment this Friday to celebrate the launch of Kathryn’s picture book This is the Mud.

Welcome to the Big Verse-Off

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The celebrations to celebrate the release of Pearl verses the World continue, and today I am delighted to be visiting Tips for Young Writers, where I’m being interviewed by Dee White. Dee has also written a wonderful review of the book.

It would be great to see you there.
But, before you head off – drumroll please. Today is the first day of the much-trumpeted Verse -Off. Read on as all is finally revealed.
When verse versus verse – what do you get?

A Verse Off of course!

A Verse Off is what happens when two authors who have books to be released within days of each other, realise there is a common link in verse. One has a novel in free verse, and the other a rhyming picture book.

‘We should get together and celebrate,’ says Kat.
‘Great idea! We could get people to write poems on our blogs’, says Sally.
‘What blog?’ says Kat ‘I’ll have to start one!’
‘They could write free verse to my blog,’ says Sally.
‘And rhyme to mine,’ says Kat.
‘Hmmm… What would we call it?’ says Sally.
‘A verse off of course,’ says Kat.

That explanation should make everything as clear as mud (that’s appropriate!) so let’s put it more simply.

May is a dual celebration with the release of Kathryn Apel’s This is the Mud!, a humorous rhyming picture book, and Sally Murphy’s Pearl Verses the World, a free verse novel. Just look at the pretty covers:

To celebrate, we are inviting blog readers to have some fun by responding – in verse – to some prompts. You can choose your style – either free verse (unrhyming) or rhyming verse. This is your chance to prove that your preferred form is the best. So are you versed in rhyme – or free? May is your chance to find out!

Each Sunday in May we’ll post the prompt on both blogs, http://www.sallymurphy.blogspot.com/ and http://katswhiskers-thewritestuff.blogspot.com/ and invite readers to post their verse responses. If you want to respond in free verse, please post your response on Sally’s blog, and if writing in rhyme, you can post at Kathryn’s blog.

The next day – Monday – we’ll post the verses in a new post for all to see.

On Friday, 8th May we will be holding a special Verse Off – because that’s the day This is the Mud! will be launched.

Here are the rules:
1. There is no ‘right’ answer to the prompt. Be creative.
2. Limit your response to twelve lines (so there is room for everyone’s response)
3. You can respond in either free verse or rhymed verse. If you’d like to do both, post each at the appropriate blog.
4. This is your work, so add your name, and a link to your website or blog, if you’d like.
5. Everyone is a winner! But there is no winner.

Got it? Great. Then here goes with prompt number one.

Over to you. Write your response to this photo (remember twelve lines or less) and, if it is free verse, post it in the comments section below. If you’d like to respond in rhyme, head over to Kathryn’s blog. Don’t forget to add your name – and link, if you have one. And check back tomorrow to see your poem featured.

Go on – have a go. you know you want to. And thank you for celebrating the birth of our two books with us.

Guest Blogger: Kathryn Apel

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Thanks to all who dropped in yesterday to share the excitement of Pearl’s release. The excitement continues today, with day 2 of my blog tour rolling on to This Writing Life.

But, right here right now, I am delighted to welcome my first guest blogger for the month. Kathryn Apel is not only a fellow writer and friend, but also shares a special day with me – because yesterday, whist I was busy celebrating the release of Pearl Verses the World, Kathryn was celebrating the release of her first picture book, This is the Mud. So, it was fitting that I invite Kathryn to be my first guest blogger in this month of guests and celebrations. Over to Kathryn:

Firstly, a huge thankyou to Sally, who is not only sharing the excitement of a of a May book release, but has also invited me to share the experiences on her blog during this merry month of May. And I’m really looking forward to some poetic justice in our combined Verse Off, starting on Sunday. Check into either of our blogs for details then – because this one’s for you!

Secondly, congratulations Sally, on the release of Pearl Verses the World!!! It looks like a beautiful ‘heart’ story and I am really looking forward to adding it to my collection and savouring the story, richly told in poetic verse. I know I’ve said it before, but I have to say it here again… I love that title!! So very cryptically, cleverly done. It’s a pearl.

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I love writing poetry! The discipline that comes from good poetry enhances all forms of writing. After all, poetry develops the art of saying less, best.

Cinquains are beaut to start young poets off. But they hone the skills of adult writers too.

Cinquains have a few, simple rules that teach you to make every word count! Cut out needless words like ‘a’, ‘the’ and… ‘and’! Don’t repeat a word.

There are a couple of different formats for a cinquain, but this is one I like.

Line One: One noun
Line Two: Two adjectives
Line Three: Three verbs
Line Four: Four-word phrase
Line Five: A different noun

That’s right – just 11 words. But those few words create vivid pictures – often with sound effects too!

train
segmented, long
tilts, glides, toots
snaking across the country
locomotive

lorikeets
vibrant, colourful
screech, dance, quarrel
raucous, rainbow nectar collectors
parrots

(Commended in Yellow Moon, 2005)

Choose a subject and write to sharpen the reader’s perception. Play around with abstract connections then tie them together with a twist. It’s amazing how far 11 words can go.

S-Bend
sleek, white
gapes, swills, consumes
fatal fish roller coaster
pelican

(Winner in Yellow Moon, 2006)

The following cinquain planning and draft sheet is one I’ve developed for classroom use. It makes students think about the subject before they start to compose the cinquain – so they have a bank of images and words to play with when it comes time to craft the poem.


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I can’t write about poetry without talking about rhyme – especially since May is my month for Mud!

Sometimes writing rhyming poetry ties my head in knots and I feel like my skull will crack with the effort of finding the ‘perfect word’. Other times words spill out so fast that my fingers fly across the keys in a euphoric rush, and the poem literally writes itself.

This is the Mud! was one of those effortless efforts. It was written in about an hour, with very little to edit afterwards. Everything just seemed to fall into place – so much so, I was too embarrassed to show any of my usual writing buddies, because there was no skill in it.

It’s just as well I shared it with my boys, because a year later, my then six year-old chose This is the Mud! as my entry to the inaugural CYA preschool picture book manuscript competition, which it won, and from there, went on to publication. It was my first book contract. The breakthrough – at last!

Richly illustrated by Warren Crossett, This is the Mud! will be on sale in bookstores around Australia from 7th May. It is a gorgeous picture book for our Aussie kids, featuring a beautiful, beefy red cow, and loads of mud, muck, mess and mayhem!

That’s the dirt on This is the Mud! – just add water.

For a short form poetry discipline with a rhyming base, I have a lot of fun with the solage, developed by Australian poet, Cameron M. Semmens. Once again, this is great for classroom use – especially upper primary or secondary, where kids are sharp and witty.

The solage has three lines in an AAB rhyme scheme. The third line is a humorous twist on lines 1&2 – usually only one word. The solage is so short and simple, it’s a joke!

I haven’t met
the teacher’s pet…
dragon

Boys niggle.
Girls giggle –
Detention!

The recorder band
broke – then fanned;
wind

I don’t understand cricket,
with bails on the wicket –
Stumped!

The Big Cat Show
pranced in a row…
lion-dance

I hope you have some fun with these. Sharpen your pencil and your wits so you can pare back your poetry and reveal – a pearl!

Thanks Sally!

Kathryn Apel (All poems used © Kathryn Apel)

Thanks for coming, Kathryn. Follow these links to learn more about Kat.

This is the Mud is available from Booktopia.
sallymurphy.com.au