Dim's Write Stuff

Take one fluffy, scruffy, undersized excuse of a dog, add a love struck teenage boy desperate for a dog to love and bit of female recognition of the human kind, mix it up with a dopey best mate and one granny who’s lost her marbles and the creature you’ll end up with is My Zombie Dog . My Zombie Dog is Queensland author, Charmaine Clancy’s first self-published novel for young readers but not her first encounter with zombie-type dogs like, Fossil, the lead non-living character in this quirky little tale. Zane is the main living character whose one desire for his 14 th Birthday is to receive his very own dog. The kind of dog a boy his age would be proud to run around the block with; a Rotty or even a Border Collie. What he ends up with thanks to his well-meaning but slightly askew mother, is a mutt too large to be a rat, and too small to be a werewolf, but as repulsive as both. And this dog is apparently not well. It promptly drops dead before Zane has a chance to blow out his birthd...

As part of the recent Reading Roadshow held by Marj Osborne at Aquinas College this month, I was honoured to be invited to speak about GETTING KIDS TO WRITE . My audience of primary and senior teachers and librarians were a delightful group keen to fine tune and learn ways to engage their charges in every aspect of literacy. Here is the condensed version in case you wish to enhance your child's literacy or have a child who is eager to write but not sure where to begin. Why should we get kids to write? Because stories connect us and help define who we really are. When we tell our stories, we share part of ourselves. It's vital to foster storytelling and writing  in kids so that they become better at it, for enjoyment and for life . “But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think . ” Lord Byron We tend to learn less by reading alone than by reading and writing co...

How to Get Kids to Write: That was the question or rather the focus of my break out session presentation which formed part of the School Library Association of Queensland's (SLAQ Gold Coast ) Reading Roadshow. Held at Aquinas College  on the Gold Coast, and facilitated by the ineffable  Marj Osborne   this timely event encompassing the 2012 National Year of Reading and new National Curriculum  allowed an audience of teachers and teacher librarians to gain an overview of a variety of literacy based ideas. Dimity with Narelle Oliver and Marj Osborne I was fortunate to be able to work alongside esteemed and hugely talented children's author and illustrator, Narelle Oliver . She gave us a detailed look at how Picture Books contribute to the Literature Strand for Primary Levels (years 4 - 7) within the Australian Curriculum. I found it fascinating that the various Focus Points of each year level could be so succinctly and beautifully identified within the...

There is nothing an author, fledgling or fully flown, likes better than to see their own name in print. Well that's not 100% accurate in my book. I prefer to see my actual written words in print. But to be perfectly clear; the thing that really rocks my boat, is having others see my words in print. Which is why, when the good folk at Australian Women Online  chose one of my short stories for inclusion on their dynamic online info hub as part of their Bedtime Stories for Children , my little heart lurched and pulsed with pleasure. Read all about "Marcie's Green Eyed Monster" online. Print it out and share it with a small child you know or anyone who loves a wee story because there's nothing that would make this author happier than knowing her words have been seen and shared. Oh, and feel free to let me know what you think. Please be gentle. 'Let us Read, and let us Dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.' Enjoy.

News Flash ~ You've got just two more days before the international release of Charmaine Clancy's   newest book   My Zombie Dog . Zombie Dog promises gore, humour and insanity on a canine level and is aimed at our sometimes gory, often silly and verging on insane, tween market. But before sales go crazy on the 1st of March , I managed to pull Charmaine aside to a quite corner of the cemetery and find out a bit more about this exciting new Queensland kids author. Here's what I discovered: 10 Things you didn't know about Charmaine Clancy and Zombies 1. This is your debut release. How long have you been writing for? Tried and failed to write novels many times in my youth. What I didn't know then is imagination is not enough, I needed to LEARN the right skills. About 4 years ago, at Uni, I came across a classmates blog; Amy from Ink-Fever. Amy was making her writing a priority. This motivated me to get stuck in and see a novel through to the end.   2. Why ...

I may not be the most tolerant of people at times. But I do try to be charitable. I turn a blind eye when one of the chooks demolishes a chili plant. I don't mind the fruit bats gorging themselves silly on my guavas and mangoes night after night. I allow the wretched wasps to build their mud condos all over my house because they do such a good job rounding up the spiders and caterpillars for their babies. But the thing which sets my blood boiling is the nightly, ritualistic, denuding of my veggie patch by those slimy, stealth like, slug faced molluscs that call themselves, Snails. Don't be fooled by their cute whiskery apperance here either. Midnight torch raids have revealed a revelry of ruminating renegades. Marigolds droop, caught in a slick skin of slime like something out of Ghostbusters. Whole rows of seedlings are eradicated in less time than it takes to say What's Up Doc? Honestly, I have enough in my back yard to start my own French bistro. Apart from ...

Dearest England, Forgive me. It's been too long since I've been in touch. But while sorting through my shoe box of snap shots the other day, I came across splashes of colour, images frozen in time, which reminded me of you and of Christmas last. I thought you'd like to see some. I can't believe it's been nearly five weeks since we left Nelson's country. The bracing cold air of Norfolk in winter is losing its bite. The memory of it, burning my cheeks and causing my ears to throb, fading like a dream upon waking. I cling to it just as fervently but it's hard to retain such a memory when the humidity here makes you sweat even as you sit unmoving.  Frost on the field of Norfolk, early morning.  We expected more snow. You gave us the second mildest UK Christmas on record. We expected rain. You cleared away the cumulus revealing crystalline blue skies day after day. It's been raining nearly every week since we got back. Heavy, relentless sub trop...