Dim's Write Stuff

Playground pastimes in those informative primary school years tend to cement some of the most endearing and enduring memories of our time spent in school. These days it’s handball and (insert grimace) looming. I myself was more of a marbles and knucklebones kind of girl and can remember sacrificing lunch to compete in crucial playoffs and tournaments. Ah, the salad days of youth…What a party is was. Fortunately for me, I still get invited to the odd party and today I am delighted to be part of Robert Vescio’s Launch Party for his new early reader chapter book, Hopscotch Showdown .  Robert Vescio is perhaps best known for his picture books, No Matter Who We’re With and Marlo Can Fly but is a regular contributor to the children’s book scene and multi-competition winner, resulting in an admirable affiliation with Jelli-Beanz Publishing. His original Hopscotch Showdown short story was in the Jelli-Beanz Publishing Packed Lunch Volume 1 anthology for kids in 2011. K...

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 ...

In spite of my word faux pax, extreme convolutedness and tendency to hide behind mixed metaphors, I was okay at English as a kid. Actually better than okay. Then, on the morning of my Year 12 Matriculation Exams, an horrific backyard incident took place leaving me numb with shock and anger. The details are not important. What was important and even more tragic, was what I did with these raw emotions. I ripped out my heart and rammed it on my sleeve, alongside my anguish, and for the next three hours goaded and forced them to fit into the composition question of my English exam. It wasn't exactly an epic fail. But it did remove any chance of scoring the A+ I had in the bag 24 hours before hand. A lesson hard learnt. Zip forward a few decades... Five years ago I penned a picture book manuscript which I've been pushing around, in and out of competitions and past a few critical eyes. It is now foremost in my in-tray again, as my wonderful mentor, Dee White , and I...

Prepared to be Charmed! Out now, just in time to plump up your Christmas stockings, the first two volumes in the charming new Crock of Charms series , a project conjured up by Sally Odgers and coordinated through Prints Charming Books . This set of three anthologies features a delightful collection of children's stories, written especially for them by a dazzling line up of children's writers - including ME. Stories and volumes suit children aged 4 -14 years.  My story appears in Volume Two . Read it independently or as part of the full set. Each of the stories are linked by a storyline that flows through linking and embracing the stand-alone pieces by contributing writers.You don't need to start at the very beginning but the stories and poems included make for some very interesting and intriguing reads. Imagine chancing upon a crock of charms and discovering the story behind each one. What does it all mean?  This series is literally PACKED with dozens of st...

Understanding where you are from and appreciating it are two of the most important endeavours you can experience in life. Today, I am compelled to give my little Aussie flag a bit of a wobble because those patriotic juices, that deliciously dress ‘the salad bowl of culture and race that typifies our beautiful country’ are bubbling madly after reading Tania McCartney’s sparkling new picture book, An Aussie Year: Twelve Months in the Life of Australian Kids. More than a nondescript chronological listing of dates and events, An Aussie Year is countless moments of pure joy. It is fantastic factual fun. It is a riotous romp through the enthralling landscapes and cultures and flora and fauna of our land. And for me, it was a walk back down that footpath of life to a time when many of these sensations, sights and events were first captured in the wet concrete of my childhood memories.  McCartney has left very few stones unturned in this marvellous collection of celebrat...