We’ve got Mothers Day covered!

Mothers’ Day is just around the corner and we have a range of books to help you show your mum how special she is!

Magic Mummy by Caroline Stills with illustrations by Christina Miesen is such a sweet celebration of all the magic things mummies do that make their child feel so special. From her magic hands that don’t hurt when she brushes hair to her magic hugs that make her child filled loved this is the perfect way to show the mummy in your life how special she is. This is a really good book for toddlers and would make a great gift for dads to buy for mum from the little kids.

If your kids are a little older then I’m Glad You’re my Mum would be great for them. This is kind of a reverse baby record book – instead of mum recording everything about the baby the children record their favourite things about their mums and then they give it to mum as a gift. The kids can draw pictures that show their happiest day or write why their mum is the best – it’s a really lovely way to help kids express themselves. And, there is one for granny too!

All of these books should be available at your local bookseller or you can order them at our website

Meet Kevin Burgemeestre!

Meet Kevin Burgemeestre at Dromkeen on Sunday April 26!

Bring the kids, bring a picnic and have a fun day! Meet Kevin and other authors and illustrators and explore the beautiful grounds of Dromkeen.

Say “Hi” to Kevin and then take a look at the scupltures that represent some wonderful moments in children‘s literature.

Kevin has illustrated two books for black dog books (due in June 2009) Uncle Eddie and the Hippos and Uncle Eddie and the Crocs both written by  Lucy Farmer. They follow the adventures of Uncle Eddie, the ranger in an African Nature Park, as he encounters pesky hippos, scary crocs and wild   killer bees!
Dromkeen is located in Riddells Creek in Victoria. You can find out all about them at the Dromkeen website.

Kevin will be blogging about his adventures at Dromkeen next week!

YABBA Shortlist

Congratulations to Carole Wilkinson whose book Garden of the Purple Dragon has been shortlisted for a YABBA!

The Young Australian Best Book Awards (YABBA) are Victoria’s children’s choice book awards. Each year kids nominate an Australian children’s fiction title they have read and loved and these nominations are then used to create a shortlist of titles. Once the shortlist is up kids can go online and vote for their favourite book! The winners are announced at an award ceremony in November.

So, get online at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~yabba/ check out the voting procedure and vote for Carole!

And while you are then you can review her book in the Reviews section or add your own review for any other black dog book that you have read and loved.

Good luck, Carole!

Sydney Writers Festival

The programme is up and the tickets are on sale for the 2009 Sydney Writers Festival.

This year we have two black doggies and one Red Dog attending the festival.

Danny Katz and Mitch Vane will be talking about the fantastic Little Lunch series and encouraging the audience to use their own little lunch experiences to create their own Little Lunch characters and stories! Prepare for a very lively and interactive session.
Their sessions at the Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay on Monday 18, on Tuesday, May 19 2009 at  Riverside Theatres, Parramatta and on Wednesday, May 20 2009 at the
Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre are all sold out but you can still catch them on Sunday, May 17 2009 at 13:45 – 14:30 at the Carrington Hotel,  Katoomba.

And you can see our Red Dog author Rachel Power  author of  The Divided Heart on Tuesday, May 19 2009 at 15:00 – 16:00 at the Carrington Hotel, Katoomba. Rachel will be talking with Georgia Blain and Tegan Bennett-Daylight about the dilemma of juggling motherhood with work and creative aspirations.

Charlotte McConaghy talks about her launch!

Last Wednesday we launched my first Strangers of Paragor Book One: Arrival - just around the corner from my house is a beautiful little book shop called Journeys, which specialises in children’s fiction. I was extremely nervous leading up to it – frantically cleaning my room (for the first time in about six months) and watching many hours of ‘Friends’ on DVD did nothing to stop me dwelling on how close 7pm was looming and the fact that I still had no idea what I was going to say (if anyone in fact turned up).

But, all too soon, the launch, which I had been planning for probably a few years by then, was upon me… And it was great!

A lovely bunch of people turned up – I think there were about 50 in total, three of whom gave lovely speeches – my mum, an old friend of my family, and my best friend Charles – all of which were overwhelmingly kind and generous and thoughtful. Then it was my turn. I made a short speech about writing Arrival – starting when I was 14 because I didn’t have enough to read, and wanted to write my own perfect book. I talked about what I want in a book – big, passionate, imaginative, romantic novels with lots of heart. Finally I chose a passage to read from the book (I thought my hands and voice were shaking the whole time, but all my friends kindly said they couldn’t notice). We wrapped up the evening by giving everyone an opportunity to buy the book as I signed them a copy.

I was elated!

It had gone smoothly and without a hitch, and all my friends and family had come (some from very far away) to support me and make the whole experience a fun, inspiring one. I even got to meet a few young girls who are reading Arrival at the moment and who are aspiring writers themselves. It was lovely to talk to them about their hopes to publish and about some of the difficulties of writing a book.

If anyone else has any questions about getting published, or you’re reading Arrival and want to know anything about the book, or would like to talk to me about your own writing, you can find me on Facebook and message/email me anytime.

In any case, all in all it was a wonderful night, very thrilling to be interacting in the writing world.

Charlotte McConaghy

Time to let you know what is new in the kennel

We have some great books out that have just hit bookstores.
Magic Mummy by Caroline Stills with illustrations by Christina Miesen is the sweetest book – and Dads if you are reading this it would make a great Mother’s Day gift. It follows a little girl as she talks about all the things that make her mummy magic ¬– from her magic hands that can brush the little girls hair without hurting to her magic mummy hugs that make the little girl feel loved. Just a beautiful celebration of a daughters love for her mother and vice versa written by a mum and illustrated by a mum!

And from one extreme to the other – our other April title is The Crocodile Book: Armoured and Dangerous by Malcolm Douglas. Malcolm is the original crocodile whisperer who has filmed a number of wildlife documentaries, the most recent of which Into the Wild aired on Channel 7 earlier this year. The Crocodile Book is the latest addition to our Wild Planet series and features interesting facts and some really scary photos! Kids are gonna love it!

Both of these books should be at your favourite bookseller now!

Check out our website for more details …

We want to hear from you!

Yesterday we received an email from a very excited reader who said

“Hi,

By the second page of The Strangers of Paragor Book One: Arrival I was ensnared. I couldn’t put it down and spent all day reading it and now I want the second book. Please, please tell me that it is going to be released soon and how quickly I can buy it from my local Dymocks.

Yours Sincerely,
Avid Reader,

P.S Apologies for being so impatient. ”

We love this!
It is always wonderful to hear from people who have read our books. We here at the kennel love it and then we get to pass these kind of comments on to our fantastic authors and illustrators – which is even more exciting (for them and us!)

We publish in a vacuum in a sense – we love the books we publish and then we put them out into the world and hope that people love them too so it is great to hear when someone shares our enthusiasm!

And that is one of the great things about the internet isn’t it? It has created a whole number of avenues for us to talk about all manner of things not least of all is the books that we have just read.

So, feel free to treat this blog as another of those avenues.

If you have just read one of our books leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on it. If you are looking for recommendations, leave a comment and we will help you out.
If you want to leave a comment for an author I will make sure they see it.

Drop in, drop us a line, spread the love …

(a free book to the first person who can tell me what black dog book “spread the love” comes from!)

Mike Lefroy – our second guest blogger

I recently had the opportunity to be part of the All Saints’ College Literature Festival.

This was my second invitation and it was great to see its still attracting excellent crowds and lots of interesting writers from all around Australia. The festival started in 2002 and is modelled on the Somerset Festival, which has been running in Brisbane for the past 15 years. Although there are several Festivals on the East Coast that cater for young adult and children’s literature, we had nothing like that here in WA until All Saints came along.

The school really gets behind the event and the organization is superb. Students from All Saints played an important role in hosting writers for each session. They picked us up at the Green Room, delivered us to our venues and introduced us to the audience. I had four sessions and met kids from all over the metropolitan area and also a group from Geraldton who had travelled 450 kms to be part of the festival.

A few of the kids I’d met before at various Bookweek events and one called during a session… “You whipped me three years ago!” … which is not the sort of politically correct comment one expects in these days of Working with Children cards. Luckily he was referring to a simulated flogging with a cat of nine tails I sometimes perform as part of a story about the maritime world of the 18th century. Thankfully the teachers relaxed and didn’t move in for a citizen’s arrest, so sensing my career was still on track ‘the cat’ came out of its bag. Then followed an overwhelming response to my call for volunteer whippers and whippees. It’s comforting to see a good flogging can still restore public morale.

As well as seeing lots of kids it was great to meet other writers and have the chance to sit in on some of their sessions. There were over 30 writers at the festival and it was a good chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. I spent some time talking with Carole Wilkinson (another black doggie) at the festival and it was very interesting hearing about her current writing project – a subject that interests me greatly. There was also a chance to talk with other writers at an evening gathering hosted by the Children’s Literature Centre based in the old Fremantle Prison.

One of the other benefits of getting together with writers at Festivals such as this is sharing ideas and stories. I was talking with Vivienne Glance, another WA writer, about my new black dog book HMAS Sydney. She mentioned her father-in-law had collected signatures from the crew of Sydney while they were on shore leave not long before the battle with the German raider Kormoran. One of the signatures was particularly poignant, written exactly a month to the day before the ship and all the crew disappeared. It was signed Able Seaman Arthur Andrews with the cheery comment “Here today… gone tomorrow.” I’ve arranged to go and look at the original signatures in a couple of days … bit sad they’ve surfaced after the book has come out, as it would have been great to include them. Maybe in a second edition if the Cole enquiry finds out something dramatically new about the battle in the Commission that’s currently in session.

Mike Lefroy

Meet Charlotte McConaghy

   

Charlotte McConaghy  will be celebrating the release of her new book The Strangers of Paragor Book One: The Arrival at Journeys Bookstore on Wednesday the 8th of April at 7pm.

 Join Charlotte as she talks about the writing process, answers all of your questions and signs your copy of her debut novel!

The event is free but RSVP’s are essential.

RSVP to

Journey’s Bookstore and Cafe

 A: 127 Trafalgar Street

      Annandale

E: info@journeysbookstore.com

P: 02 9552 2540

The Strangers of Paragor Book One: The Arrival will be available for sale on the night.

Charlotte will be blogging about the event here on Friday so if you don’t get a chance to ask her a question on the night post it here or email it to me (kristen@bdb.com.au) and she will answer it for you on the blog.

Have a great night, Charlotte and all at Journeys!

Can’t wait to hear all about it.

From Carole Wilkinson – our first guest blogger!

 

Carole, Mike Lefroy and Dianne Wolfer at All Saints

I have just got back from Perth where I ws a guest and speaker at the All Saints Literature Festival. It was hosted by the All Saints College, but many other schools attended as well. There were over 30 writers who presented talks and workshops at the festival. I don’t know how many kids came along, but there were lots. I had six different sessions.

Being a writer is a strange job. Most of the time when I’m working, I’m sitting in a room by myself. Unlike people who sell things, or fix things etc for a living, I hardly ever get to meet my “customers” – the readers. It’s only at school visits and events like these that I actually get to talk to readers – some who have read my books, some who haven’t. So that’s always a great thing to do

 After the sessions, there is usually a time for signing books. I was signing alongside Andy Griffiths, that is always a daunting experience. Andy always has about two hundred kids lined up to get his autograph, more than anyone else. People have to bring him food and something to drink so he doesn’t faint from hunger or thirst. I got quite a few kids who wanted me to sign books, but not as many as Andy!

 

 The other thing that happens at festivals, is that I get to meet the other writers. Other authors are my colleagues, but I hardly ever get to meet them either. I get a chance to go to their sessions and to chat to them in between. Some authors I already know from previous events, others I’ve never met before. At this festival, I got to know quite a few writers, including WA authors Dianne Wolfer (who has just published a historical novel) and Mike Lefroy (who is another black dog author). It’s always interesting to hear what other writers are working on, how they go about doing it, and what they think about issues effecting authors.

 

 But it wasn’t all work – I was invited to a get together with WA members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). It was in the Old Fremantle Gaol, so that was exciting!

 

 If you ever happen to find yourself at the same event that I am attending come up and say ‘Hi” – it is great fun to meet with and talk to people at these events.

 

 Carole Wilkinson