Stuff I'm Doing

Look around here for odds and ends about me, miscellaneous musings, and any thing else newsy enough to make Reading and Writing more Inspired.

WHAT'S ON THE CALENDAR?
    2022 Well lots happened last year after maaaany postponements. And rest assured, more is (scheduled) to happen this year. Much of it is still hybrid: a combo of online, pre-recorded and live presentations but stay tuned for the hows and whens. Meantime if you are curious to know when I'm available and free to virtually visit or grace your school or festival IRL, please pop over and ask my agents at Speakers' Ink. Meanwhile...


    2021 The last year was a year to remember and one to forget all in one. Can't wait to see how the next one unfolds. More words, more stories, more books on the horizon!
    2020 Earlybirds are all a flutter as we roll into a new decade...

    • 18th January 2020 Pippa Story time and arts and craft at Books@Stones, 10.30 am, Brisbane, QLD
    • 20th February 2020 Write Like An Author Junior One Day Camp, Iona College, Brisbane, QLD
    • 20 - 21st February 2020 Voices on the Coast literature festival, USC, Sunshine Coast, QLD
    • May - June 2020 Reading@HomeTV Pippa National appearance on 9GO TV.
    • 28 - 31st May 2020 Conference presenter, Asian Festival for Children's Content, SINGAPORE COVID CANCELLED!
    • 13th 2020 May Easter Regional Libraries Storytime with Dimity Powel and Pippa! Facebook Live event
    • 17th June 2020 CBCA NSW Branch Lunchtime Storytime with Dimity Powell and Pippa. Facebook Live Event 
    • 29th June ABC New England with Kristy Reading - Recommended Reads
    • July, August, September, November, December G.A.T.EWAYS Compact Online student language program sessions, Australia-wide.
    • 20th October 2020 St Augustine's Parish Primary, Book Week presentation, Currumbin, QLD
    • 21st October 2020Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, Book Week presentation, Sunnybank, QLD
    • 23rd October 2020 Payne Road State School, Book Week presentation, The Gap, Brisbane, QLD
    • November 2020, G.A.T.E.WAYS DinoMite Online Club cross curricula presentations, Australia-wide
    • 28th November 2020 Big Kids Lit Quiz, Book Links, SCBWI, CBCA, IBBY event, Brisbane, QLD

    2019 It's hot hot hot so far. Click on the links to discover where and how I'm spreading more creative verve this year.



  • 12th February Somerset Storyfest Beach Activation Library 9.45 - 1.00 pm, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast, QLD
  •  24th February    SCBWI Biennial Sydney Conference Umbrella Event, multi-author book launches and signings, 2 pm The Children's Bookshop, Beecroft, Sydney, NSW
  • 25 - 26 February 2019 National Media Coordinator, SCBWI Biennial Sydney Conference, Sydney, NSW
  • 26th February 2019 Creating Creative Writes PD Conference for Teachers and TLS 8.30 am - 4.00 pm State Library, Sydney, NSW
  • 5th March CBCA and Book Links QLD Night of the Notable Book Slam, 6.00 pm Queensland Writers Centre, Brisbane, QLD
  • 8th March Book Links and Voices on the Coast Romancing the Stars, 6.00 - 9.00 pm Immanuel Lutheran College, Sunshine Coast, QLD
  • 15th March Book Links Romancing the Stars, 6.00- 9.00 pm St Joseph's Nudgee College, Brisbane, QLD
  • 19th March Kids Lit Quiz, Gold Coast Heat 10.00 am - 1.00 pm, TSS Gold Coast, QLD
  • 8 - 11 April 2019 Write Like An Author Boot Camp, St Stephen's College Upper Coomera, Gold Coast, QLD
  • 12th June, AB Paterson College, Business Industry Dinner, Gold Coast, QLD
  • 14th June, Gold Coast Romancing the Stars, 6.00 - 9.00pm, Somerset College, Gold Coast, QLD 
  • 3rd August Pippa Book Launch, with Samantha Wheeler, from 3.30 pm Riverbend Books , Bulimba, Queensland
  • 11th August Melbourne Pippa Book Launch with guest MC, George Ivanoff and illustrator, Andrew Plant, 1.30 pm, Ford Street Publishing, 162 Hoddle Street, Abbotsford, VIC 1.00 pm. More details coming soon!
  • 15th August, Regional Writers Festival, all day, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD
  • 21st August, Story Time 10.00 am at Carey Lane ELC, Gold Coast, QLD
  • 17th September, Book Week presentation, Logan Reserve State School, QLD
  • 14th October Ipswich StoryArts Festival school sessions all day, Woodlands Marburg, QLD
  • 10th November SCBWI Story Craft - Success & The Creative Soul, one day conference, 8.30 am - 4.30 pm, EcoCentre Griffith Uni, Brisbane, QLD
  • 13 November 2019, Author Presentation, Mansfield State School, QLD
  • 1st December Christmas Book Signing Big B Books, 10.00 am onwards, Burleigh, QLD 

    •  2018  Things are already looking positively creative in 2018. Why not join me as I uncover more creativity, explore the art of writing and of course, read my heart out.


    2017 -  The year to launch a picture book! There are almost too many events to list here. I'll be popping up here, there and everywhere with The Fix-It Man in tow. To keep track, visit The Fix-It Man page (for full book launch and signing dates listed) or EK Books events.
    Charging through 2016 already. Write on.
    2015 is progressing at a more sedate pace. This year I hope to let my pen do more of the talking. Here are some dates and workshops where you can still catch up with me.

    Well that was 2013. What's on the agenda for 2014? Much is still being finalised but you'll find me at the following places for now:
    2013
    • 25th November 2013   Author encounter and book signing at the Aspley Probus Club, Aspley, Brisbane 11.00 am 
    • 1st December 2013 11.00 am - 12.00 pm EST (12.00-1.00 pm QLD) Radio interview on The Author's Shelf by Georgie Donaghey from Creative Kids' Tales. Sutherland Radio 2SSR 99.7FM
    • 12th December 2013   Story telling session for children at Helensvale Library, Gold Coast 10.30 am
    • 14th December 2013   Christmas Story time and Christmas party at Books@Stones, Brisbane 10.00 am
    • 18th December 2013   Guest author and presenter at Crazy Christmas Celebration party at the Helensvale Library, 9.30 –11.00 am.
    • 22nd December 2013  Bookshop signing at Big B Books, Burleigh Gold Coast 9.30 am onwards
    • 22nd May 2014 Adults Writing for Children workshop at Robina Library, Gold Coast time tbc 10.00
     LATEST NEWS...

    Attended my first SCBWI Australian Conference in Sydney July 2014 and experienced an awesome three and a half days of intense work-shopping, seminars, socialising and  more. Experience some my thrills and impressions of being part of this amazing world wide organisation here.

    Awarded a CAL Creative Industries Career Fund 2013 to work on the development of my picture book projects. As part of the grant, I've enlisted the marvelous talent and skills of Dee White as my mentor for these projects. Happy days.

    Proud new member of SCBWI - Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Look forward to meeting and conversing with even more talented people from within this awesome industry.

    Thrilled to announce that I will be Creative Kids Tales Featured Emerging Author for the month of September. Check out this fabulous little hub of children's authors and illustrators. Take your time and read a few of my stories...

    In many ways I am still an emerging butterfly about to launch herself from her chrysalis into the unknown. Watch my flight from Creative Kids Tales, a fabulous site dedicated to new writers writing for children.

    I did it. Finally. Won my first full publishing contract with Morris Publishing Australia. Whoo Hoos all round. Relishing the first time feeling. Slightly daunted by the task ahead to bring this baby home. Hope to have 'PS What About Christmas?' all wrapped up by Christmas...

    Check out my first Author Interview with exciting new kids author, Charmaine Clancy. Her new novel 'My Zombie Dog'  was let off the leash March 2012. Read my Review of My Zombie Dog. It'll cause you're skin to tingle and toes to curl.


    A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS

    • Reading ~ it's why I write
    • Cooking ~ because I can't paint
    • Eating what I cook ~ live to eat kind of girl
    • Eating what others cook
    • Getting mucky in the garden
    • Sailing on the beam and being in the groove
    • Brown paper packages with or without string
    • Anything green
    • Crisp autumn days and the smell of spring
    • My daughter's smile

    I LIKE BEING PART OF...

     QWC

    SCBWI Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

    Book Links QLD
    Book Crossing Book Swap
    Books in Homes Australia

    Creative Kids Tales

    Good Reads

    Jacket Flap online children's literature community

    A Novel Approach Book Club

    Helensvale Writers' Group

    CAL Copyright Agency Limited

    Read Up

    Popular posts from this blog

    Review: The Goldfish Boy

    Image
    Twelve-year-old Matthew Corbin is your regular pre-teen boy living in an unspectacular cul-de-sac deep in British suburbia. The major difference between him and the other inhabitants of Chestnut Close however is the state of his red-raw hands and tortured mind and the fact that he barely steps outside his terraced-home second story bedroom. Matthew is afflicted with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, OCD and can barely function as a result. From his fishbowl vantage point, Matthew keeps track of his neighbours, dutifully recording their every movement, their comings and goings, and their habitual rituals in his notebooks. In this way we are introduced to the residents and their characteristic irks and quirks from the get go in a way that is both intriguing and comical. Matthew’s observations allude to his condition; he is both analytical and detailed in his approach. The orderliness of his notations suggest a mind used to repetition and accuracy, an intense desire to ‘get things r...
    Read more

    I've got a dream

    Image
    Almost a decade of moons ago, I made a serendipitous discovery that forever altered the spin of my world. Falling pregnant after so many years of waiting and yearning was nothing short of miraculous (for me) and a life event definitely worth waxing lyrical about. But did I? Sadly, not as much I as wanted to. There are those who find it hard to exist without sharing the contents of their dinner plates with the rest of  the world, then there are others who worry that a beautifully executed birthday cake photo shared on social media will somehow demean the starving populations of the world. I oscillate between the two but tend towards the latter, always fretting over how others will take good news in light of their own current situations and struggles, thus resorting to a severe downplaying of my own good fortune. The pregnancy of my first child should have been a joyous occasion - it was a joyous pregnancy after all - but I was acutely conscious at the time of another family me...
    Read more

    Review: Detention

    Image
    Tristan Bancks signed my copy of Detention with a note hoping it kept me turning pages . This book lived up to that promise and then some. Packed with page-turning tension and relentless drama, this is one middle grade novel that may cause a few kids to miss their dinner call. Yet despite the raw gritty urgency that suffuses nearly every page and the elevated sense of dread and desperation that keeps your heart in top gear, the pace is never too manic nor too hectic to enjoy the energising mix of edgy excitement and sincere emotion Bancks does so well. Dan is an inner suburban boy living on the outer perimeters of life. He’s classified as trailer park trash because of his permanent residence at the social-economically deprived Midgenba caravan park. It’s a title that comes with an ineradicable smear of hopeless. Deep down though, Dan’s a good kid, a caring kid. The type of kid who’ll risk his own face to save a vicious dying dog, which he does one day after finding Rosco tied ...
    Read more