Dim's Write Stuff

Edward's battle has begun. He's apprehensive and concerned how the day will unfold so he dons his sturdy suit of armour and helmet and hopes for the best. And although Edward is fond of  hunting dragons and chasing ogres in his spare time, he is careful to sit in the back row of knights' school lest he bothers all the other creatures. The king of knight school generously dispenses kindness and understanding but Edward is wary of the attention so ducks and weaves his way into obscurity, to the furthest side of the playground. It's hard though; there are giants, ogres and dragons everywhere! Despite his best efforts, he is approached by a grinning ogre at lunchtime. She proffers cake...with sprinkles. Is it a trick? He decides to ignore his knight training and accepts her gift. But just as the cracks in his amour begin to widen, in troop the dragons. The first day of school or even returning to school after a long period of absence just as many children are c...

I've been tootling around writers' groups for over eight years or so now. They are always seeping with new knowledge, eager scribes and unbridled passion to pen something wonderful which often spills over into exciting writing projects.   The Ten Penners is a group of dedicated writers that encompasses all these elements of story telling and more. Today I welcome one of the founding members of this group, M arion Martineer to discuss more about their latest project, Mystery, Mayhem and Magic!   Ten Penners Co-ordinator and children's author, Marion Martineer Come with us as we launch into their Blog Tour.  

From the author who gave us the heart-jolting ,  Exit Through The Gift Shop , comes another show-stopping middle grade drama.  No Words  pulls no punches telling the story of 12-year-old refugee, Aria and moves with the same tumultuous pace as  Master’s  former novel. Don’t equate the tempo of this narrative with a rushed outcome however because Aria’s tale is told with measured sensitivity and precision. It just happens to be in the same voice as your typical upper primary school kid with as much energetic beat and bounce. Which is ironic when the story centres around Aria’s distinct  lack  of voice. Aria hails from old Iran, Persia having fled his country with his older brother and father. There was no time for goodbyes. No time to mourn the loss of his beloved mother. No time to digest the horror of their situation. We learn through the broken recall of Aria that his mother was persecuted for her liberated feminist beliefs. But that is not the main ...

A recalcitrant goat, a gung-ho orphaned boy. An exiled self-doubting monk and a battle-scared girl who would be queen. These are just some of the extraordinary characters that people The Beatryce Prophecy . Bubbling with medieval barbarities at a time when misguided kings and ruthless ambition collide with common decency and humanity, this tale embraces an astonishing number of ideas all deftly woven into one rich reading experience thanks to DiCamillo’s sure hand. Beatryce is found blooded and battered in the stalls of Brother Edik’s monastery. She is feverish and unresponsive. The monastery’s arch nemesis, Answelica, an irascible goat who prefers to bite first and consider later, stands guard. She answers to no one but when Brother Edik announces to the goat that he must tend to Beatryce, a reluctant acquiescence occurs on Answelica’s part. And so then begins an incongruous relationship the deepens with time and necessity. Beatryce is nursed back to health but presents a new dan...

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...

One of the most seemingly benign 'firsts' a parent and their child have to face - the first hair cut ... in a salon - is often fraught with some of the most intense emotions. Fear, confusion, grief, all the indescribable fears toddlers and youngsters encounter are distilled into this gorgeously rendered picture book, Max And The Haircut . The title sets the premise straight away, suggesting that the act of getting a hair cut assumes an entity too overwhelming to name.  By his own admission, Max's mane needs taming and at first a trip to Wendy's Hair Salon with his mum seems a fun interesting outing. The trouble is, the salon is too bright and noisy and full of sharp, spiky objects . Doubt grows faster than Max's curls. What is normal and accepted for us from learned experience, the odd smells, curious sounds and intrusive atmosphere, quickly overwhelm Max as they do many young children. Despite Wendy's gentle assurances that the all-encompassing aprons and shar...

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...

As the flurries of anxieties created by recent NAPLAN testings settle, I am reminded that even the youngest of minds can be beset with worries, which may manifest themselves so firmly within a child’s physchie that they become dangerously debilitating. I’ve seen it in kids around me, in my own nephew and most alarmingly, my own daughter (although not from NAPLAN – she loved that experience). The need to reach out to and persuade young people to fight their worries and to cultivate strong healthy convictions about who they are and what they are capable of spurred the urge to write a book to show them how. This is still a work in progress for me, however, fortunately, for the welfare of children everywhere, Australian author illustrator, Nicky Johnston has already penned a few useful books addressing these exact issues. Her first attempt to battle ‘worry thoughts’ in children appeared in 2008 with her self-illustrated picture book, Go Away MrWorrythoughts . Bayden sho...

Almost two years ago fellow author, Melissa Wray and I shared a marvelous first. We published our debut novels for children with Morris Publishing Australia . Each story grew from very different beginnings. Her's Destiny Road , is a story about decisions and consequences, walking the right path and growing up. A raw, non-comprising look at a young girl's coming of age, suited to older teens. But from where did the seed of this idea originate and how did it germinate within Melissa's writing realm? If you have ever wondered about the inside stories, the stories behind the stories of great writing, read on. It's goosebumpy good. What sparked the idea to write Destiny Road? Recently Melissa Wray was asked this question by Uncommon YA . Here is her very personal response. We moved to North Queensland when I was 14. After a year or so Mum could see that something about Townsville and I did not mix. Strangely enough it was her suggestion to ri...

I may not be the most tolerant of people at times. But I do try to be charitable. I turn a blind eye when one of the chooks demolishes a chili plant. I don't mind the fruit bats gorging themselves silly on my guavas and mangoes night after night. I allow the wretched wasps to build their mud condos all over my house because they do such a good job rounding up the spiders and caterpillars for their babies. But the thing which sets my blood boiling is the nightly, ritualistic, denuding of my veggie patch by those slimy, stealth like, slug faced molluscs that call themselves, Snails. Don't be fooled by their cute whiskery apperance here either. Midnight torch raids have revealed a revelry of ruminating renegades. Marigolds droop, caught in a slick skin of slime like something out of Ghostbusters. Whole rows of seedlings are eradicated in less time than it takes to say What's Up Doc? Honestly, I have enough in my back yard to start my own French bistro. Apart from ...