Dim's Write Stuff

My ability to draw is only slightly less inspiring than my ability to handstand. I can however, picture my stories as I write them with razor sharp clarity, in my head at least. Translating these internal storyboards to a real life illustrator is not always easy so I'm lucky that illustrators like, Siobhan McVey who provided the striking visual narrative for, Oswald Messweather , are adroit enough to create strong ' visual partners ' for my words without my input. I was fascinated to learn that when a storyline and language resonate powerfully enough with a potential illustrator, their creativity leaps into unsolicited action. In other words, sketches and images, characteristics and colours flow authentically and without hesitation. The organic way a visual narrative uncurls in an illustrator's head, eventually spilling onto the page to hug and caress my words is, for me, the most magical part of the picture book making process. To experience more of the magic, read thi...

For the last few SCBWI Australia East & New Zealand Conferences, I've been involved as a Roving Reporter and for the last two, including the most recent 2019 Conference in Sydney in February, I had the absolute good fortune of assuming the mantel of Head Blogger, aka Media Coordinator, aka Head Gardener, aka Rocking Rover. Not bad for one of the world's biggest Luddites. Fortunately, coordinating social media feeds, compiling a comprehensive blog log of every detail of the conference and directing a merry band of roving reporters is not just a matter of operating a smart phone - thank goodness! We'd be reading conference reports on slabs of slate if it were. Why I did it One of the most satisfying aspects of this role is the opportunity to nurture a fertile group of talented women (and man!) and witness the creative fruits of their labour flourish into useful, usable resource. (Yes, I adopted a slight flora turn of phrase for the blogging event this year.) Ea...

My conference triage is reasonably simple: if I manage to glean a new sliver of information that enables me to improve my craft or  happen upon a revelation that deepens my understanding of story telling or  experience affirmation of a belief or method I am already practising, then I feel I have gained something useful. The following round-up highlights some of the sessions I attended while swanning around the Asian Festival of Children's Content this year. Deep Point of View (DPOV): What is it and How to Write It with Kathleen Ahrens  Kathleen encouraged us to first re investigate our Intention - why we write. Knowing that then allows us to engage with the readers' emotions and therefore establish, DPOV. She introduced us to different POV Characters and the tenses and view points they can be portrayed in for example, first person, third person, second person etc. as narrator omniscient multiple viewpoints  single major viewpoint Deep Point o...

Today's feature in the Gold Coast Bullentin's Weekend Coast magazine lift out, sums up much of what I feel about what and why I create as a children's author. Read John Affleck's impressions on my 'compelling children's book in which healing a broken family takes more than a quick fix'. Befittingly, illustrator Nicky Johnston's melting illustrations 'say plenty' as well.   Read John's additional article in the Bully about, The Fix-It Man and my next picture book due out with EK Books in 2018, here .

Coomera Rivers State School  launched itself into National Book Week today with all engines blazing. Enthusiastic teachers and volunteer parents transformed the recently opened school's i Centre (library) into a vibrant journey of countries around the globe in keeping with the One World, Many Stories theme. A tour of the World Each class put together fantastic displays depicting all corners of the world including the Arctic, Africa, Asia and Australia.    To promote a love of all things literary, a Galaxy Book Fair is also running all week courtesy of Scholastic Books . Kids can browse through the hundreds of titles on display and purchase their favourites as well as participate in some fantastic competitions.   Angela shows grade 4s how easy it is   Last but by no means least, to celebrate the art of story telling and the magic of reading, local, well known and talented children's author and illustrator, Angela Sunde  w...