Don’t forget to keep an eye out for Pemberthy and let me know where you see him.
Have spent the past couple of hours updating my review site, aussiereviews. I’ve added ten new reviews of a range of books – from the story of Queensland’s Dr Death, Sick to Death, to the fun new Leigh Hobbs’ title Freaks Ahoy.
I do have eclectic tastes when it comes to books – I’ll read almost any genre or subject – but it should come as no surprise that I mostly read children’s books, and these are the ones I get the most pleasure from. I especially enjoyed Ogre in a Toga, a new collection of poems from Geoffrey McSkimming. The poems are laugh-out-loud funny, and as I read the book, I found myself reading some of the best to the Murphlets, who share my sense of humour.
Another goodie is Become a Children’s Writer, by Jill McDougall, a fellow Aussie author. This is a really useful resource both for beginning and more experienced writers.
As well as uploading the new reviews, I also added the special search engine to some more pages. Google has a new facility which allows you to set up a unique search facility for your own site, or to only search selected sites. I could, for example,s et it up to only search book review sites. Anyway, I’ve created a search engine which just searches aussiereviews, so site visitors can more easily find reviews of specific books or by specific authors. It should be a useful tool.
No sightings of Pemberthy reported since Friday. Have you seen Pemberthy Bear? Is so, drop me a line or post a comment here and I’ll add you to my list. If you have no idea why I’m asking, you can see my first post on my quest here.
A while back I posted a link to what I described as the best article about writing in rhyme I’d come across. It’s an article by Dori Cahonas, a US-based author of picture books, and (to save you digging for my original post), you’ll find it here.
Anyway, I still think it’s the best I’ve come across, but today I came across another useful article – well, actually a series of three articles – which are also really good. K. Pluta is another US Based author, and she tries to demystify the writing of rhyme by using lay-man’s language. If you try to write in rhyme, you should check out her articles here.
Writing in rhyme is hard work, but it’s lots of fun and can be rewarding. Some stories demand to be written in rhyme – others demand NOT to. But, if you do want to write for children, don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to write in rhyme. Rhyme is hard to write and harder still to get published. If you’re going to do it, you need to take the time to learn about rhythm and meter.
I write in rhyme and I write in prose. Good luck with whichever you decide to do.
No sightings of Pemberthy today. If you’ve seen Pemberthy Bear be sure to drop me a line and I’ll add your spot to the map.
Have a lovely weekend.
Earlier this week I wrote here about the mistake of posting a blog entry without proofreading, and I discussed how important proofreading was in all communications. So, imagine my dismay when I just sent an email meant for one member of an elist to the whole group. Fortunately there was nothing in my email that I wouldn’t have said to anyone in the group, but my mistake was just embarrassing, having just said ON list that I would email the person OFFlist about something she’d asked.
Which brings up an important point, related to the topic of proofreading. Anything you say in an email is, in a way, just like anything you say in a blog – potentially very very public. Even an email to just one other person can be forwarded – usually with no malice or ill-intent. Just as we forward jokes and fun stuff, we also sometimes forward things which might be of interest professionally.
Anyway, I digress. If you have anything to say which you don’t want other people to read, don’t say it in an email (or, for that matter, on your blog). Be careful what you say, and how, because it can be misread – by the person you’re emailing and by other people too. If it really is private or personal, use another form of communication.
I don’t think my misdirected email offended anyone, but I still wish I’d changed the recipient field before I hit send, because now I feel a little silly. Silly Sally, that’s me.
Oh, before I go – another sighting of Pemberthy has been reported. Robyn from Adelaide emailed to say she has a copy. Thanks, Robyn – this is the first report from South Australia, so I’m happy. The new dot is the nice purple one on the South Coast.
Two more Pemberthy sightings to report. the first is from Helen and her daughter Anna in Bull Creek, a suburb of Perth. Helen tells me: ‘My daughter, Anna,is a big Pemberthy fan!’
Thanks Anna and thanks Helen too.
The second sighting is from Melbourne where illustrator Jacqui Grantford tells me she has several copies of Pemberthy. Of course she does – Jacqui is the very talented illustrator who brought Pemberthy to life!
So the map now looks like this, with the two new dots the teal ones.
Pemberthy has now been spotted in:
Corrigin
Melbourne (three times)
Brisbane – in a bookshop
Cairns
Logan (QLD) in a bookshop
Sydney (twice) in a bookshop
Stanwell Park (NSW)
Bendigo
Boyup Brook (Country WA)
Redland Bay, Cleveland and Victoria Point in SE Qld
Perth
Mapping Pemberthy’s travels is proving a fun exercise for me and I’m rapt with the interest being shown from Pemberthy fans. If you’ve seen Pemberthy, in your home, in a bookstore, or in a library, be sure to leave a comment and let me know. And, if you’ve just tuned in and are wondering what this is all about you can read the original post for an explanation of what I’m doing.
Have a lovely Friday. It’s the last day of school for the term here in the West, and I’m looking forward to having my babies home. Murphlets one and two came home from Perth last night, and the other four will be on holidays as of 3.15, so the house will be noisy – but it is the noise of fun, so that’s okay 🙂
Thanks to Lyn and Lorraine who reported sightings of Pemberthy – in Bendigo, Victoria (the pretty pink dot North East of Melbourne) and in Redland Bay, Cleveland and Victoria Point in SE Qld (the red, pink and browny dots south of Brisbane). I also added a green dot in Western Australia for the copy I saw in the school library in Boyup Brook when I was down there recently. Boyup is a lovely town and I thoroughly enjoyed being ‘headline author’ for the Boyup Brook Book Bonanza.
So, with five dots added, the map of Pemberthy sightings looks like this:
If YOU have seen Pemberthy, drop me a line and I’ll add a dot. There’s still lots of room.
I went to work this afternoon – my teaching job (as opposed to the jobs I do from home – writing, reviewing, mothering et al) – and, as it’s the last week of term, thought I’d have some fun. So, I read two gorgeous picture books to my grade ones – Boris Monster Scared of Nothing, by Sophie Laguna and Tough Ol’ Teddy, by Bruce Atherton. I’d grabbed these out of my review pile on impulse as I headed out the door, so didn’t know what to expect, but I loved both, and the kids enjoyed them too.
Then, we danced. On drama day, which is usually Thursday, I’ve been teaching the kids the birdie dance, hokey pokey and the Mexican hat dance. But because it’s the last week, we had an extra dance session. It was only when I spotted an adult watching me through the window as she walked past that I realised how much I was enjoying myself – and how silly I must look. When I teach the kids to dance, I dance, too. But these past weeks I’ve struggled with it, being sore and unwell. Today I was dancing and not feeling it (though a little puffed afterwards).
Yay! I must be getting better. And I don’t care how silly I look!