Reflections on 2014, the year my book got published and other random stuff happened.

2014 has been one of the most exciting, wonderful, stressful and ridiculous years EVER, for me and my family!

Perhaps the quickest way to explain is via a timeline.

Here goes...

January; 

Jeff is made redundant and his mum is several months into chemotherapy.  We take the opportunity to holiday with her in New Zealand, and take a much needed mental health break.

The holiday is fabulous and we return to Singapore energised and ready to face the year ahead.


February; 

I receive an advanced copy of Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs and a lifelong dream comes true.

I create darcymoonbooks.com and blog wildly and excitedly about frogs, slime, potato chips and endangered turtles.

Despite my bookish joy, I spend several days in the fetal position worrying about my family's future.

March;

We give notice to the school, to our landlord and to our friends and families that we will be moving to Perth at the end of the school term.

Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs is released in Australia and serialised in the ED! section of the Western Australian.

Closetful of Books sign a distribution deal with Fremantle Press and Darcy Moon arrives in Singapore.

I give school talks to over 700 grade 3,4 and 5 kids at the Australian International School and hold a lunchtime launch with Freddo Frogs and cake to celebrate.


April;

We organise packers, movers, flights etc.

Fremantle Press sell the US rights to Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs to the New York Publishing House, Starbright books.

We celebrate and throw a book launch party at the Singapore Arts House.  My daughter sings and my son makes an impromptu speech. There is a queue of people wanting a signed copy of Darcy Moon. It's dreamlike and wonderful and the culmination of years of hard work.

But it is also farewell. After 3 and a half fantastic years in Singapore, it's time say goodbye to some of my dearest friends.

The next day we fly to Perth.

May;

We buy a car, go house hunting and reconnect with family and friends.

Jeff and I take long walks by the ocean. We are together, riding the storm. Our children are happy and Jeff's mum has responded well to chemo. These things make us happy.

Jeff lands a fantastic job... in SINGAPORE !

We tell our friends and family we are leaving. There are tears, hysterical laughter, and much wine.

June;

Jeff starts travelling with work while I organise packers, movers, flights, short term accommodation etc.

I do radio interviews, phone interviews and write promotional articles for Darcy Moon and attend the SCBWI WA Rottnest Retreat.

Fremantle Press sell publish rights to the Turkish publishing house to Aylak Adam Publishing. My first translation deal !


July;

We fly back to Singapore, go house hunting, negotiate tenancy agreements, open bank accounts, source a new car, adopt a bunny and reclaim our two turtles which we had to leave behind.

Jeff travels to the jungles of Papua New Guinea.

August:

I fly back to Perth for my first ever Book Week as a published author. I have a whirlwind week of library and school visits and am honoured to present the West Australian Young Writer's Awards, where I am humbled by some seriously talented and inspiring young writers.

I return to Singapore to a problem.

We can't move into our new home as planned, because our unorthodox comings and goings have confused the moving company and a 40 foot container of our stuff is still in Perth.

After yet another night in the fetal position, I rise to organise rental furniture and self medicate with a heavy dose of household-goods-retail-therapy.

We move in to our new house three days later and use picnic cutlery for the next month.

September;

I make my first ever book store appearance at Kinokuniya and
receive my first ever royalties payment. Wow!

Our furniture arrives and we sleep in our own beds for the first time in 5 months.

The kids have 2 weeks school holidays, Jeff takes a week off and we enjoy some down time with our first visitors, Uncle Paul and Finn.

October;

The kids start the final school term of the year.

Thomas's team comes second in the SCC Rugby Tournament and Sian gets picked to dance a special extra part in her ballet Christmas concert.

We buy a BBQ and start to entertain in our wonderful new garden.

I download scrivener and reconnect with my work in progress (which I haven't looked at since 2013). I reconnect with my characters and it's like a reunion with long lost friends.

November;

I reflect on the craziness of the year gone by, and can not believe Christmas is nearly here.

In summary;

To my writerly friends, I am sure you will understand the excitement and challenges my book journey has brought me this year. It's been a huge learning curve with plenty of firsts for me. I'm now looking forward to settling into the silent days of creativity yet again. My next blog I am sure, will be full of artistic angst.

As a dear friend of mine once said, 'Why doesn't life ever go in a straight line?' To my expat friends as you deal with your own dramatic twists and turns, think of this story and have a laugh. After all, you can only stay in the fetal position so long.

And finally, there were times I didn't think I would survive, but now we are on solid ground again, I will remember 2014 as one of the craziest roller coaster rides of my life.

Thank you for being a part of it.

Merry Christmas!

Author Blog Hop-Hoppity-Hop

Emily on the cover of her inspiring autobiography
'Finding My Voice'

I've been tagged on a blog-hop by my good friend and fellow children's author, Emily Lim. 

Emily is the author of many picture books including Prince Bear & Pauper Bear, A New Home for Kai Kai and Jia Jia, and her most recent creation Tibby the Tiger Bunny. She has also won many awards including the MDA first time writers award in 2007, Mediacorp Woman Award Honoree in 2013, and 3 IBBY awards in between.

Emily and I first met at the 2013 Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore. Emily had been selected as the first Singapore Representative to attend SCBWI WA's Rottnest Retreat, in a new exchange program with the Singapore Book Council. I had been attending the Rottnest retreat since 2010 and as I would also be there in 2013 I introduced myself and gave Emily some tips as to what to pack for the chilly wintry weather (a beanie, warm PJs etc).

While we were at Rottnest our friendship consolidated on the dance floor and strengthened further when, on our return to Singapore we formed a critique group and met for regular writerly discussions over lunch.

Read Emily's blog, Mum Mum's the Word, HERE.

Thank you for tagging me Emily.

Now it's time for me to answer the blog-hop questions.

Q1; What am I working on?

Well, my current work in progress has been put aside temporarily while I promote my new book Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs.

Who knew there would be so much to do! 

The book was released by Fremantle Press just a few weeks ago and I've been on a major learning curve on (apart from writing) what an author does. I've already done a heap of interviews via phone, email and skype and I'm now preparing for my first ever radio appearance next week - yikes!

I've also been doing school visits at the Australian International School (750 kids over 15 sessions in 5 days) and am planning a book launch at the Arts House in April. It's a free event and there will be cake, so if you live in Singapore, please do come and help me celebrate.

I've also been having fun blogging on my brand new website darcymoonbooks.com.  Please do check it out.  It is a great place for kids to research their science homework.  And it has fun stuff too, like crazy drawings and swamp animal cartoons by Michael Scott Parkinson, so kids can research interesting facts and have a laugh at the same time.

Q2; How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs is fast-paced action-packed fantasy/adventure story with more than its fair share of slimy frog jokes. Its crazy characters and over the top lot plot will appeal to readers aged 7 to 12, but what makes this story different is that it also deals with some serious themes such as the impact of humans on the environment, endangered species and sustainability - albeit in a fun and friendly way.

Q3; Why do I write what I write?

As a child, the adventure, friendship and laughter I found inside the pages of a book added magic to my life. These days I write to entertain, excite and inspire children like the child reader I used to be.
And I’ve also always been drawn to nature, especially the slimy bits. When I was small, I used to love snails and earthworms. I also remember collecting dead flies from windowsills and peering at them through the school microscope. I was fascinated by their alien eyes and strange, hairy legs. I drew them in a sketchbook and labelled all their body parts.

So I suppose I was always going to write an environmental book. Darcy Moon is a culmination of my two loves. Stories ... and mud!

Q4; How does my writing process work?

I don't plan my work. It evolves. I write every day and I scribble in notebooks and I spend a good deal of my time talking to my imaginary characters. I put them in different scenarios to see what they will do, so I suppose my plot is very much driven by the characters I create.

I certainly had no idea when I started Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs how the plot would play out. I knew my main character would be an adventurous tom-boy with an affinity for nature, and I had a vague idea that the problem would be environmental. But the rest just evolved as new ideas came to me.

My writing process can be summed up by two simple quotes from E.L. Doctorow;

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing.” 

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” 

So now it’s my turn to tag 3 other authors (who will answer the same questions) as they hop on;

Dianne Touchell

I first came across Dianne when I fell in love with her hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel Creepy and Maud. I immediately looked her up and asked to be her facebook friend. She accepted and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading her entertaining posts and insightful blogs ever since. 

Read Dianne's blog, Swallows in the Eaves, HERE.

Gavin Latz

Gavin isn't exactly an author (as yet), but he is certainly a writer to watch. His blog, The World According to Garv (read it HERE), is not what you would expect from a Financial Planner. His posts cover topics from fatherhood to mortality and are insightful, laugh-out-loud funny and quite often heart-wrenching. So much so that one of his followers (who just happened to be the boss of 'Financial Writer's Australia') approached him to write for her magazine and add more 'humanness' to the industry. Fantastic!

Myra Garces-Bacsall

Myra is one of the most inspiring, intelligent and well-read women I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Myra is a clinical psychologist and coordinates the Masters and Bachelor's Program in High Ability Studies and Gifted Education at the National Institute of Education, NTU is Singapore (among other things) and her blog, Gathering Books, is dedicated to YA and children's literature.

From author/illustrator interviews, to book reviews and more, read all about it on Myra's blog HERE.

Proud Mum Moment #3 How to Clean Up Your Room

How To Clean Up Your Room

By Sian Carvell

(although I think there may have been a brainstorm among friends to get all these gems)

If you want to clean up your room you have to be a very brave person or else you will not get it done but I know the trick.

There are actually a few ways and here they are.

Stuff everything in your closet!

Hide it under your bed. Shhhhh!

Put your stuff in your brother/sisters room! Don't tell anyone

Blame it on your dad for playing rugby in your room.

Ask your helper to do it.

Lock the door if necessary.

If your mum is uptight do it anyway ... or do you?

Proud Mum Moment #2 cobra golden eyeball finger rotten wizardry hair nose

Another one of Sian's astonishing snippets of writing came home, scrumpled in the bottom of her bag.

She says she just wrote it just for fun.

I had to share!

How to Make a Witches' Potion.

this is how you make a witches potion:

******

* take a teaspoon of cobra wine and pour it into a big cauldron with a golden outside

* then plop three mens fingers in and if they don't turn into eyeballs put in a bit of rotten bread

*add a pinch full of wizardry essence and then a bowl full of singed chest hair

* get a fat pig nose and a wooden spoon. Stir the pig nose until it is at the bottom.

* all this will result to a delishus stew. It is called cobra golden eyeball finger rotten wizardry hair nose.


YUM SCRUM in my TUM !!!

Proud Mum Moment #1 Rapunzel Not

This story came home from school and I am so proud of Sian's hilarious and well written tale that I had to share. What a proud writerly Mum I am! Love the title, well developed characters and the clever plot twist at the end. Still smiling :-)

Rupunzel Not

By Sian Carvell (aged 8)

Once upon a time but not very long ago there lived a beautiful princess called Rupunzel. She lived in a castle behind a hill with her maid. Way out in the city lived a prince. He was ordinary but lonely.


One day the prince was out riding a troll and he found Rupunzel's tower. The prince did not know that Rupunzel was deaf. So the prince said, "Let down your hair.' So Rupunzel let down a chair. 


"No," said the prince, "Let down a rope." So Rupunzel let down a billy goat. "No," said the prince. 

"Oh it's pointless. Ah I know ..."

"Rupunzel PLEASE let down your braid."  So Rupunzel let down her maid.

The prince fell in love with the maid. And they all lived happily ever after.