Rounding up the Reindeers

There were plenty of KABOOM moments in this little black duck's writing year.

Thanks to everyone for following, commenting, supporting and just turning up now and then for a cuppa and friendly chat; all necessary components to keep my writing wheels spinning. Here's the sparest list I could compile of my writerly milestones to date. I promise I will be bothering you a lot less in 2013 because I've ordered a giant vat of bum glue and plan to apply it to my writing chair early next year. Till then, Happiest of the Christmases to you all. May your holiday season be filled with interesting reads, words you'd like to write and keep, and inspiration to simply smile.

Writing Round Up:
If the world had ended, at least I could have said, I'd made the most of 2012, come what May-an.




AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Everyone is a winner when you're lucky enough to find a copy of PS WHO STOLE SANTA'S MAIL? in your Christmas stocking; but there can only be one winner from each of my Book Launch Competitions and here they are...

CONGRATULATIONS TO:
  • Ben  Winner of the Black Cat Book Launch Comp
  •  Edward Winner of the Marks and Gardner Book Launch Comp
  • Ashley Winner of the Jungle Cats Book Launch Comp
  • Nuaha Winner of the Coomera Rivers Author Meet and Greet Comp
  • Gabby of the Coomera Waters Tavern Author Meet and Greet Comp
As you can see, I love giving stuff to kids almost as much as Santa. Each of our winners receives a personally signed copy of my debut children's book plus a couple of extra prize vouchers courtesy of my sponsors:

Donut King, Westfield Helensvale, Gold Coast
Iceland Ice Skating rink at Burleigh, Gold Coast
Jungle Cats family restaurant and playcentre, Broadbeach, Gold Coast.

KIITOS to each and every one of you who came along to one of my little celebrations of Christmas. Thanks for entering the competitions and the spirit of Christmas. Thanks for helping make one of my Christmas wishes come. You are all part of my aspirations and inspiration. I hope you enjoy my story and many more to follow.

(Kiitos is Finnish for thanks - I'm sure Santa lovers need no further explanation)

Till next our words cross, in the best of ways, have a safe and happy festive season. Feast. Laugh. Remember.

Comments

Post a Comment

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

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

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