Well, things have taken an unexpected turn since my last post.
I took a trip to Queensland in February for the amazing Voices on the Coast writing festival, days before a virus shaped wrecking ball called COVID-19 smashed its way around the world. I’m not sure when I’ll see my Australian friends and family again, and the 724.2 square kilometre island of Singapore has become my bubble. It’s been…challenging…but I’ve been Zooming into lots of Aussie book launches, workshops and author chats, making me feel not so far away.
I’m so glad I managed to get to Voices and spend a few joyous days catching up with authors and illustrators, and presenting to hundreds of incredible students. My roomie during the festival was children’s literature dynamo Dimity Powell, and we quickly became kindred spirits. She is wonderful, and so are her lovely, thoughtful picture books. Check out Dim’s work here
I also got to catch up with writing friends I hadn’t seen in ages, like Malla Nunn, whose award-winning, suspenseful and beautifully written novel When the Ground is Hard is one of my favourite YA reads of the year; and Wai Chim, whose breathtakingly lovely The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling is rightly scooping up every award and accolade in town, and being published in the US.
Some things that have happened during lock down (known as the Circuit Breaker here) that have kept my spirits up:
The Little Wave was shortlisted for the CBCA BOOK OF THE YEAR: YOUNGER READERS I watched the announcement live from Singapore with my daughter Sophie and we both screamed with glee when Libby Gleeson held up my book. It was a gorgeous digital event - huge kudos to the CBCA for making it so special.
The Little Wave was also shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year awards for 8-10 year olds. This was not on my radar, and I was completely surprised and delighted.
Meerkat Productions, a theatre company, chose the Little Wave to adapt into a live show for Australian schools. In celebration of Book Week and Literacy Week, Meerkat adapt two books shortlisted for the CBCA Book of The Year Awards. Three by Stephen Michael King is the other book . So much yay! I can’t wait to see how they translate Lottie, Jack and Noah to the stage.
I signed a publishing contract for TWO new middle grade novels - the first one is due to be released in mid 2021 and I can’t wait to start work on the copy edit soon. I want to do a bigger announcement of this exciting news, when I have the cover to show you. Stay tuned…