Dim's Write Stuff

Do you have a Harry Potter trapped within you bursting to be free? Do you know someone between the ages of 10 and 19 who find it hard to suppress their written words? Then check out the latest Young Writers' Program for Kids on offer by the Queensland Writers Centre. These workshops are sure to bring out the budding author in you. I'm especially intrigued by the Story Safari and wish I knew the appropriate age-reversing spell which would make me 10 again so I could don my khakis and tag along with Tristan Bancks. Aimee Lindorff Write On! (Age 12 – 17) with Aimée Lindorff Tuesdays (Term 2) Commences 16 April, 4:30 – 5:30pm. Do you love to write? Want to make new friends with similar interests? In this 10-week workshop series with Aimée Lindorff, you’ll learn the secrets of building tension between your heroes and villains though narrative, themes and story structure. Discover the core ingredients of great storytelling, from getting ideas out of your head ...

Once upon a time I wrote a book. It was about kids and magic and Christmas. It was loads of fun to write and even more fun to share with people. I shared my book with kids; little kids, big kids and kids, like me, who still believe in Santa. A few days before Christmas, when the blizzard of excitement from sharing my book with everyone died down, I crept back home to my own family  and quietly wrapped a few presents and baked some Christmas goodies share with them. As I sat through dozens of Christmas movies, sang along badly to carols and paraded the streets every night to ooh and ah at the decorated houses, lit up like...well...Christmas trees, I realised what a brilliant thing my little book about Christmas was part of. Kids jumped with glee when they recognised a familiar line, idea or concept shared by the wider Christmas audience. Christmas is after all, more or less, universal. PS Who Stole Santa's Mail? formed part of the magic, the ...

Yesterday marked the beginning of a 14 day festival for the Chinese New Year of the Snake . Without labouring on the origins or traditions of this colourful and significant celebration which I've been fortunate to know since childhood, here are a couple of reasons why I like it: It's a chance to restart 2013. If the first couple of months or so haven't quite panned out expectation-wise, no matter. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, this is when it really all kicks into gear. It's cool labelling each new year with a symbolic zodiac animal. This is the Year of the Snake (or Black Snake). Meticulous, agile and able; usually gets on with everyone, but often quick tempered. These are snake attributes which quite frankly apply to this little black rooster too. None-the-less I am hoping to apply some sophisticated, silky and smart snake-ness to my writing world this year. I love stuffing my self with Chinese delicacies. I don't follow the traditional fare ea...

Life should be about caring and sharing right? And while I concede there's a rightful time and place to smoast (trendy new term and semi-acceptable behaviour for social media boast, but not quite as trendy and acceptable as gangnam style ), I do care to share other things when time permits. And what better time than the school holidays? Sick of dragging the kids in and out of the pool? Tired of endless outings to the local shopping centre? Free-activity'ed out? Broke from repeated visits to other 'worlds'? Seen all the age-appropriate new release movies? Then why not get back to basics with your kids or someone else's if you are short on kids and big on love and time. OK this is where it gets a bit bookish...but this is a wonderful way to spend time with your under 10 year olds, while generating a little creativity at the same time. It takes place over a week - 5 days, but could be condensed to less days or increased to cover the number of days yo...

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: Won placings in writing for kids competitions 5 times. Published on line several times. Won my first publishing contract. Released my first children's junior novel, PS Who Stole Santa's Mail? Hopped aboard Boomerang Books Blog as Children's book reviewer. Join the Socie...

You may have seen the pictures. You may have read the book. For those who missed the official launch of PS Who Stole Santa's Mail? in Brisbane on Sunday, here is the speech that Her Excellency, the Governor of Queensland, Ms Penelope Wensley AC , gave to launch my new book. An enthusiastic crowd packed into the Black Cat Paddington book shop and cafe to witness the birth of my first children's chapter book. Smiling kids and candy canes, snow and eventual sunshine were the order of the day spectacularly fulfilling the Christmas dreams of this little kids' author. Excerpt from Her Excellency's speech: Managing Editor, Morris Publishing Australia, Ms Elaine Ousten, President, Book Links (Queensland), Ms Jenny Stubbs, Owner, Black Cat Books and Cafe, Mrs Stephanie Hogan, Author, Mrs Dimity Powell, Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys. As 2012 is the National Year of Reading and as I am Patron of Book Links Queensland, of th...

What follows is a recent post of mine some of you may have read in last week's Pass It On e-zine by Jackie Hosking . It attempted to lift the lid on the curly question of 'Do books need a rating? ' As predicted this is an absorbing topic for debate, one that I'm probably not fully qualified to adjudicate but am fascinated by. Ben Marshall raised some interesting and salient points in his response (thanks Ben) in this week's PIO issue 415 . He argued 'that censoring books is a form of lying'; that young people can in fact enact their own form of censorship merely by closing the book; and that exposure to the warts and all darker bits of life through the written word is a good way to prepare them for if. I tend to agree with him. From an author's point of view, rigorous and formal censorship would only create another loop through which writers, publishers and agents alike would all have to jump, further frustrating the actual production of a book f...