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Wow! It’s been such a crazy few days that I haven’t had time to stop by my own bog and post my exciting news. But I’m here now, so please accept a glass of cyber champagne from my virtual butler, help yourself to the cyber nibblies and celebrate with me. Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net “Why?” I hear you ask. Well, on Friday night I attended the Western Australian Premier’s Book

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Have just spent a fun half an hour doing virtual jigsaw puzzles of the covers of Toppling and Pearl Verses the World, after fellow shortlisted author, Chris Bongers pointed out that Mrs B has a great interactive website which has puzzles and  other activities for shortlisted titles in the CBCA Childrens Book of the Year Awards for the past three years. How very cool. The Toppling page has links

I was asked recently why I only write sad books. I was quite taken aback by this question, because I don’t think of myself as someone who writes sad books. But at the same time I knew where the asker was coming from. After all, this person may have read some of my more lighthearted stories in the past, but most recently she had read both Pearl Verses the World and Toppling, both of which deal

Phew. I’m home, and have a little time to sit down and blog. My apologies to regular followers for my recent silence – my life has been a whirl! A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to fly to Brisbane for the announcement of the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Awards. Pearl Verses the World was shortlisted and, to my delight was named an Honour Book.  I travelled to and from Brisbane with

A couple of years ago I went through a period where I seriously contemplated giving up on writing as a career. I’d had books published, and was proud of that, but I had a very long spell of rejections, while the publisher of my first trade title went out of business, and the books I had had published didn’t seem to be selling. What kept me going was a combination of the inability to give up (I

It's always nice to read a good review of one of my book-babies, so I just had to share this review which says, in part,: "This touching free-verse novel shares a wonderful story of friendship as a young boy deals with his friend's serious illness." I'm smiling.

Just a quick post this morning, as I don't often blog between sending the Murphlets off to school and heading out the door to my day job. But my Google alerts led me to find a wonderful review of Toppling over at a site called MC Reviews and it brought such a huge smile to my face (and my heart) that I just had to share it. There is nothing nicer than when someone 'gets' your book baby. Have a

Last month I had a blog tour with a difference (more on that in a moment) to celebrate the release of Toppling. This week my writer friend http://www.catrionahoy.com.au/embarks on her first ever blog tour, to promote her new picture book Puggle (she’ll be calling in here in a few days’ time). So, with all this blog touring happening, I thought it might be timely to talk a little about what a

Phew. It's the last day of March and I'm exhausted, but elatedly so (is it possible to feel both elated and exhausted concurrently?) I could scramble for my dictionary to check, but, to be honest, I'm just too tired. Instead, I am going to sit here in my comfy chair and tell you all about the month that was, and why I'm just so tired (and elated). To start with, the end of February saw me

If you've been dropping in regularly then you'll know that all month I've been hosting visting bloggers who have been dropping in to help me celebrate the release of Toppling by telling me (and you) what it is that they like about chidlren's poetry. Please welcome today Jackie Hosking, poet, chidlren's writer and editor of the Pass It On newsletter. Welcome Jackie. Why I like poetry. I’ve

Today's guest blogger is Jo Burnell, here to tell us what it is that she likes about children's poetry and to join in the celebrations for the release of Toppling. Welcome Jo - and over to you.What makes poetry?Can an entire novel be written in verse?Do there have to be rules?Sally Murphy’s delightful verse novel Toppling crosses a few boundaries by its very existence. Her choice of simple

I am having such fun having so many different people drop in this month to blog about poetry. If you've just arrived here for the first time, I am having a month long bloganza of visiting bloggers telling me (and you) what they like about children's poetry. This is my way of celebrating the release of my new verse novel, Toppling. So, to today's post. Today I am delighted to welcome Laura Evans,

It's been wonderful having so many different guest bloggers drop by this month, and today is no exception. My visitor today is Lorraine Marwood, fellow verse novellist and poet extraordinaire. Welcome Lorraine. Over to you. Children's poetry can enthral an audience just as readily as a picture book. Recently I taught and read poetry across an R-7 school and the teachers were amazed that the

I am really excited to be welcoming today's guest blogger - because Rebecca Newman is a fellow West Aussie. So, please make welcome Rebecca, here to share what it is she likes about chidlren's poetry and to join in the celebrations for the release of Toppling.  Over to you, Rebecca. The Magic of Children’s Poetry I am excited to be here to celebrate the launch of Toppling, and I would like to

The month of March is marching by more quickly that I care to believe, but the great thing about that progression is that it brings yet another visitor to my blog to talk about their love of children's poetry. If you're new around here, in honour of the release of my new verse novel, Toppling, I have invited my friends to drop by during March and guest blog. Today's guest is Helen Ross, here to

How exciting! Today I welcome another visitor to my blog, here to help me celebrate the release of Toppling by guest blogging about what she likes about children's poetry.Please welcome the lovely Karen Collum. Over to you, Karen.The Thinking Reader’s NovelI’ve always been a voracious reader, devouring children’s books of every kind at an alarming rate. Verse novels, however, are a new discovery

As part of my celebrations of the release of Toppling, I have invited my writing friends to drop into my blog throughout this month to chat about what they like about children's poetry. Today, I'm delighted to welcome Alison Miles, librarian and writer. So, without any further ado, here's Alison.summer watermelon momentsWhat fun to be guest blogging on Sally’s site on what I like about children’s

As part of my celebrations for the release of my verse novel, Toppling, I have invited some of my friends - writers, poets, bloggers, teachers and more - to drop by during March. I will be asking each visitor the same question - what do you like about children's poetry? - but am expecting some real variety in their answers.So, without further ado, I'd like to welcome my first visitor for the

Thanks for dropping by! One of the hard things about a party is always the clean up the next day. But, in case you missed it, yesterday I had a big party right here on this blog, a cyber-launch to celebrate the release of my new verse novel, Toppling. And the great thing about a cyber-party is that there is no mess. Well, no REAL mess, anyway. The cyber streamers ar elooking a little limp today,

As I said earlier in the day, the release of Toppling is fast approaching, and it's time for me to start thinking about ways to celebrate. Having had three blog tours last year to celebrate my new releases, I thought I’d do something different this time. Instead of asking people to interview me, and have them try to come up with new and different questions for me, I thought this time I would

Like most writers, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my postie (actually, that’s not quite true – I really like the postie himself, he’s a nice guy and a friend of mine – really it’s the post I have issues with. Some days the mail in my letter box is just plain depressing, with rejections making me ponder whether this writing life is for me. Other days, there’s nothing writing-related