Dim's Write Stuff

Balancing the extremes of childhood dreams, real-life realities and the myriad of other little collar-jerking moments that prevent you from ever walking a perfectly straight line is no mean feat. You'd be forgiven for feeling a little doo-lackey at times and having a laugh at yourself.  Debut picture book illustrator, Heidi Cooper Smith is someone capable of doing just that so today in celebration of her  launch of Two Birds on a Wire , along with author, Coral Vass , we uncover 5 Fun Facts about Heidi (+ one if you're counting, because I obviously can't. It's why I write.) When I was eleven, I wrote a series of picture books (unpublished!) called ‘Matilda Mouse and the War between the Cats and the Mice” and won a school award for them. I once played bass clarinet in a quartet with my principal, vice principal and senior mistress.   Yes, I was that cool. I have the worst sense of direction of anyone I know and am appallingly messy.   I often end up buying...

Q. What is as big as a mini iPad, more full of ideas than Paul Jennings and doesn't involve looming (of the rubber band type)? A. Awesome Aussie Things to do with Mum . Being a mum pretty much outstrips all other occupations for me. In spite of the startling similarities it shares to being a writer: negligible pay, crippling self-doubt and reoccurring frustration, the ecstasy received from ones own child is unrivalled. I wouldn't swap that feeling for all the stars and moons combined and neither would my Miss 8. Well, maybe she'd short-loan me for a few thousand looms. So in this age of screen-addicted, attention-deficient youngsters, books like these are worth their weight in mini-iPads. Awesome Aussie Things to do with Mum by Ed Allen and Simon Williams, is quietly sensational from this X-generation mum's point of view. Things I like: Nifty, no-nonsense hard-cover, compact size. It's an activities book disguised as favourite fiction. Groovy layout ...