Perth's northern suburbs suffer disastrous book drought

I am very frustrated at the moment. Things have gone from bad to worse in this neck of the woods. I live just a little south of Geraldton (okay, I'm exaggerating - it's a little south of Yanchep). We are a new growth area on the northern fringe of Perth. Many, many new families live out this way.

The Ocean Keys shopping complex came to our neighbourhood several years ago. Suddenly we had several retailers including a bookshop. It wasn't fancy, but still ... it did sell books. Now it has closed (another one bites the dust!)

So, we must make-do with such exquisite book retailers as 'Coles', 'Woolworths' and 'The Salvation Army'.

UH-OH.

So, in a flash of panic I contacted a children's book retailer recommended to me by some very knowledgable children's book enthusiasts. I will be taking approximately 100 QUALITY children's books (including many by local authors and illustrators) to the six playgroup sessions at my local community centre in a couple of weeks.

THERE.

That's all I can do for now, but I figure it's worth something. I'm not profiting from it, but the playgroup will, because the very kind retailer offers 10% of the sales towards new books for the organisation. This wonderful retailer does not have a website that I can link to, but I do think you should call Child Education Services on 9225 6516 if you feel the urge to do something similar. What a great fundraiser for your school, playgroup or other organisation.

Cheers,
Caz

XMediaLab Perth and more...

Gosh, it was a heck of a conference this 'ex-media-lab' (shock, horror I was calling it the wrong name in my head - thank goodness I heard someone say 'cross-media-lab' before I made a fool of myself!) The theme of the conference was 'Storytelling in a Digital Age'. The State Theatre of WA is a great venue, and it was a really well catered event. Quite the 'day off' - I really felt like a grown-up! Check out the XML website here.

Photo courtesy of XMediaLab

I was all ablaze with new ideas after listening to some really interesting speakers and some creative conference-goers. Loved hearing about what is possible with today's technology. I was particularly inspired by the raw media being produced by 'average' people and, in particular, marginalised groups. Apparently you don't need a lot of money or resources to share a message with the world these days. It was so refreshing to hear people talk about projects for the 'greater good' and I met quite a few community-focused people with interesting projects to talk about.

There are some crazy youtube videos I need to check out - I was really blown away by what was presented. I had not considered that creativity could be expressed in so many ways. I feel kind of overwhelmed! Now it seems there's no end to the possibilities. It's really great.

I was really pleased to meet Perth illustrator, Chris Nixon after the event. I recognised him after seeing him at The Children's Book Council of Australia WA Branch's A Night With Our Stars last month. He illustrates the 'Jake' series by Ken Spillman and has a real knack with a pencil and paper (okay I don't know if that's his preferred medium, but that's as far as my art training goes!) Check out his website here.

In super-exciting news, I am booked for the 40th SCBWI LA Summer Conference. Hooray! I am very much looking forward to being there again. It is such a brilliant event. I have a round-table critique booked as well as a picture book intensive. After hearing about some very technological ways of interacting with others, I feel comforted in the knowledge that I am simply a writer of picture books! Just dealing with pieces of paper bound together that you can read and enjoy - even when the power is out or the Internet is down :)

Oh, and did I mention that I'm also visiting Rottnest Island in June for the annual SCBWI WA writing retreat? I'm booked for a critique and cannot wait for some Rocky Horror Picture Show and karaoke action. Yes, life is like that when you're a 'pre-published' author.

Caz

Loving my local library

I sometimes feel a bit sad that we live in the outskirts of Perth when there seems to be so much going on closer to the city. It's true that there are advantages to living outside the hustle and bustle, but you know how that grass can look look when it's way over yonder.

With that said, we were lucky enough to have a couple of author talks recently at our local library in Clarkson. In late January children's book author Ken Spillman spoke about his 'Jake' series of books. My very-nearly-four-year-old got a kick out of his signed copy of Jake's Gigantic List, the story of Jake's quest for the perfect birthday present.

I was multi-tasking as always, listening for writing tips, birthday gift hints and corralling the littlest mister. Afterwards whilst getting our books signed I learned that the proceeds of 'Jake's Gigantic List' go to the Children's Book Council of Australia. What a great show of support for a very hard-working organisation.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a flyer advertising a talk by local author Sara Foster. Her latest book 'Beneath the Shadows' was released last month.

So off I went again, this time without children, to attend a very civilised event which even included refreshments! Of course, the crowd were all there to listen. Many had questions - including myself, but I was not quick enough to get them in! Anyway, Sara was very easy to talk to afterwards during the book signing. As fate would have it I bumped into her at the local market the following night. So who knows, maybe next time she'll be ahead of me in the grocery queue and I can ask her how the heck you're supposed to write novels with young children in the house!? As for the book itself, I'm very much engrossed and cannot wait to stop writing this so I can get back to it.

So, I'm very much looking forward to finding out what talent will be heading our way next. We really do appreciate them thinking of us out here in 'upper-whoop-whoop' :)