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When I’m visiting schools and I’m asked which of my books is my favourite I always say it’s a bit like asking parents which is their favourite child. I give the same answer, ‘I love them all equally but differently’. Of course that applies to my ‘birth’ children – the books I created from start from my own imagination. However I’ve recently ‘fostered’ two children.
ABC TV in Australia currently has a teen TV series called Dance Academy. In February I was asked if I’d like to write one of the books to accompany the TV, based on one of the central characters. It had to be 18,000 – 20,000 words, cover the character’s story across the first season and I only had 3 weeks to foster the child into his novel form. Unable to resist a (paid) challenge I naturally agreed.
It proved a really interesting exercise. Take someone else’s characters and stories written for a different medium and embellish them into a novel. First there was the episodic nature of a TV series which doesn’t immediately translate into a book. I had to unearth a complete story arc and decide which plot elements to jettison. I also had to give my character thoughts as the book had to be in the first person.
As much as I thought it was just a writing job which I referred to having to go en pointe, I did grow to love my and gain a parental sense of ownership over him. The character I had was Sammy – a young Jewish boy rebelling against his father’s wish for him to be a doctor. For a couple of weeks, Sammy was one of my own and I still feel a sense of pride when I see him on the TV. It helps that the actor playing him is terrific and one of the best cast members.
My guardianship of Sammy proved so successful that I was asked to take in another waif from the Dance Academy – Kat, the rebellious daughter of a prima ballerina. Kat had an even tighter time frame. She was with me for just two weeks, but lucky Kat managed to accompany me on my overseas trip. She sat with me as I went en pointe in a cold kitchen in Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, warmed only by the coke fired water heater.
The two foster children will be hitting the stores in July and I will be as clucky about seeing them on the shelves as my other children. You can also see Sammy and Kat on ABC TV at 5.40 Monday to Friday.
What do you call writer’s block in the blogosphere? Bloggerblock? Cyberstumm? Encopensis? It’s hard not to come up with something that doesn’t sound like l’ve been sitting on the toilet squeezing hard for the last six months. I haven’t. I’ve been writing away furiously but somehow just didn’t feel I had anything worth sharing on the blog.
Was it was the mind-numbing boredom of writing brochure’s on Insurance Software (not just insurance, not just software, but the two combined!)? No that had me desperate to do something fun.
Was it the Guide to Poo? An A2 planner with everything you needed to know about kiddie constipation and encopresis (hence my medically erudite pun at the top). No that was truly fun. I even managed to incorporate a “Get the Poo to the Loo” maze game.
Was it the TWO (yes TWO) books I wrote in March and April. Surely writing two books for certain publication would unblock my blog faster than caustic soda?
Or was it going to the Somerset Children’s Festival in March where I was surrounded by people who made a real living from their books and made me feel completely inadequate. Even the school students at Somerset College were so prodigiously talented they made Glee seemed almost realistic. That would explain the last few months but not the months leading up to March.
At the end of the day, when all’s said and done, it is what it is and there’s no use crying over spilled cliches. I simply didn’t feel like sharing. Whether that’s selfish or a blessed relief is not up to me.
Now I feel like real author again! I've been invited to participate in the Somerset Celebration of Literature Festival in March next year. It's one the leading festivals for Children's writing held at Somerset College on the Gold Coast. I was invited there 10 years ago when Beauty of Truth first came out as a 'young author'. Being under 35 was apparently the criteria for being counted as "young". The young authors panel consisted of me, Markus Zusak and Matthew Reilly. It was slightly awkward becase the panel was chaired by the literary editor of the Brisbane Courier Mail. They had just run a review of Beauty of Truth which to this day remains the most horrible personally abusive book review I've ever read. The reviewer clearly hated me not just the book. She had interviewed on the phone and been very nice, even wished me all the best with the book and then unleashed the vitriol. It was astounding. The editor was lovely. She wasn't able to apologise for the review, but she did say that perhaps she had chosen the wrong person to write it.
10 years later and I'm the only member of that panel not to be an international publishing sensation. Was it something I said? Markus Zusak will also be at Somerset again next year but as the guest of honour at the big dinner!
Perhaps second time round might prove luckier for me.
Literary Festivals, whether you're an international sensation or not, are be great - you get to talk about yourself and be paid to do it. Bonus!
Catching up with the past
Despite the lack of blog entries, I'm not dead, simply mired in the past trying to get some material out on the next adult book based on aspects of my own childhood. I have to say it's not easy- sifting through your memories for literary relevant events. It's not that there aren't enough, but there are too many. It reminds me of my Uncle Edward who declared with confidence that America was all desert. He took a bus ride across the country and all he saw was desert. He could have easily taken another bus and seen forests, wheat fields, cities and pastures. In writing about your own life you are taking people on a specific bus tour. You can't include your whole life, you have to be selective and give people the desert or the forest tour. Unfortunately that bus tour will then define your life for some people. They'll say "your life was very..." because that's all they've seen but they only see a fraction.
And the past catching up with me
As if that wasn't past focussed enough I got an email from the boy at my school whose name I borrowed for the hero in The Trouble with Sauce, Jonty Townsend. I've had no contact with him since school but someone from my school who keeps tabs on what I do dobbed me in. Fortunately he seems quite amused and has been bragging about it to his sons. I've now got to send a copy of it to him. All I need now is an email from Mr Croxall, the draconian teacher in the book and from my primary school.
Can anyone get away with anything any more?
Everyone in publishing in Australia knows how hard it is to garner any sort of review or publicity for children's fiction - especially if doesn't involve wizards or emo vampires. So you can only imagine how surprised and thrilled I was to get a phone call on Saturday morning to say there was a great review in the Daily Telegraph. It made my weekend.
When the call came on Sunday from another friend I simply thought that they too had seen the Saturday Telegraph, but no - there was another review in the Sun Herald. You could not ask for a better Sydney spread than to be in these two papers over one week.
A huge thank you must go to Emmeline, the publicist at Harper Collins who has somehow pulled off this impressive coup.
All I need now is to be banned from a primary school library and I'm set!
After the great news that The Trouble with Sauce was having a full reprint, I got another email on Monday saying Lab Rats in Space is getting a digital reprint. Another of the benefits of being part of the Harper Collins stable is that they are set up for digital reprints. They're only doing 300 copies, but that's the beauty of digital, they don't need to commit to a big print run and it means as long as people order my books they will be available. Apparently the colours on the cover can sometimes appear a bit different but apart from that it's indistinguishable from the regular print run.
It's great news that they've sold all the original print run in two years. For a children's book aimed at 8-12 year old boys that's not bad. I'm hoping this means they will let me revisit the second book in the series. I know the editor who read the first draft didn't like it it, but I suspect space comedies really aren't his thing anyway. There is lots to improve in the text and a few big things to change, but that's all part of the excitement for me as a writer and I would LOVE to see the full series of 3 Lab Rats books that I planned out there.
It would also mean I could have give a definite answer to all the readers who keep asking me for the second one. Belinda, the publisher said we should wait until there are some more sales figures for my first ABC/Harper Collins book before putting it forward, which makes sense. Still the word REPRINT can only help make the case. I suspect the downside to being part of the Harper Collins stable (and to be honest this will be the first one I've come across) will be they'll want to sure of higher sales before they put something out there.
The merry-go-round comes round again
And so with Trouble with Sauce out in stores, the merry-go-round comes round again and I'm back wondering how to best to make the case for my next book. Hopefully I won't get thrown off the HC merry-go-round which I suspect spins faster than the ABC. Reprint, reprint, reprint, Bruno, just keep at the mantra.
I was at a book launch last night (the first in long long time). It was for Don't Picture Me Naked by Michelle Bowden. Michelle is an expert in and course facilitator on public speaking and presenting and her book is great manual on those topics. The friend I was meeting there was running late to I was left to work the room on my own. It turned out that the room worked me instead. Full of Michelle's colleagues and friends I don't think I've ever been in such a dynamic crowd of people making excellent introductions and strong first impressions. Men boomed "Hi" in confident voices with warm smiles. Women listening intently with head bent to the side and wondered who else in the room I'd find 'useful'.
Despite years of stand up comedy, MCing vast crowds, presenting work to clients, talking to school children and generally loving public speaking I suddenly felt ill-prepared and sheepish on my opening spiel. What should be my 'impact line'? Should I talk about my fiction writing or my commercial work first? Talking about non revenue generating activities was not an option - although in hindsight if I had mentioned I'd noticed the shop on the street below was a wool shop and that I used to knit, perhaps that would have made a more lasting first impression.
My name tag simply had my name on it. Everyone else had a motion-orientated, active verb, leadership-suggesting business under their name. At the very least I should have had, as a few others did, Bruno Bouchet, Bruno Bouchet Consulting. Still my name tag was pre-printed and spelled correctly which is usually my minimum standard for comfort. I think it was everyone else that was thrown by the lack of organisation name. I was introduced to one person who immediately asked the introducer, 'Are you not going to context him?' My introducer announced that I was very capable of "contexting" myself. I panicked wondering what that might mean and then just said who I was and what I did. It must have worked, as a business card was asked for and offered. Success! I think.
The MC for the event was a man named Rowdy - although perhaps he should have been 'Rowdiest' because the only adjectives he ever used were superlatives - I wondered whether he'd set himself a personal parlour game, get through an entire speech without a comparative or simple adjective. Having said that he did the best possible job in revving the crowd for the author, who proved she could practice what she preached and gave a warm, personal, friendly and funny speech.
It was not your typical book launch doling out warm wine at the back of a bookshop. The people might have been highly energised, but the wine, supplied by Michelle's family's winery in Mudgee, was perfectly chilled and excellent.
A week ago or so I was wondering if anyone had actually read The Trouble with Sauce. Obviously someone has as I've just heard from the publishers that they are doing a reprint - already. Officially it was only launched last week, although it was in the shops before that. Kids books do have much smaller print runs that adult books but this is great news and very unexpected. Good grief, this one might actually earn out its advance!
A big thank you to all the Harper Collins reps who clearly did a great job selling it into the book shops!
A friend tipped me off that The Trouble with Sauce was featured in a window display in Better Read than Dead, the excellent independent bookshop in Newtown. I trundled down on the weekend and was delighted to see the book was front and centre of a display protesting Parallel Importing, quoting the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd’s ocker line, Fair Shake of the Sauce Bottle asking him to give Australian authors a fair go. For once it seems timing is on my side to release a ‘sauce-themed’ book! It’s relief to see your book on the shelves in a bookshop - it’s a delight to see it in a window - especially when your publisher didn’t pay for it and every other book in the window is certified best-seller. I’ve never been in such great company. So when I said in an early post everyone should run to the shops for the book, I now amend that to run to Better Read than Dead in Newtown!
The first time you read a new work out to an audience is always nerve-wracking. Reading work out is nearest a writer gets to immediate feedback. Faces are less able to come up with something polite to express. It's even more of a worry when you are reading to children as there is no artifice and no attempts to spare your feelings - just raw reaction. So it was with some trepidation that I read out the first chapter of The Trouble with Sauce to Years 5 and 6 of St Charles Primary school in Ryde yesterday.
It was a wet day, which, as any teacher will tell you, spells trouble in school. Prior to the reading the kids had been noisy. It wasn't that they were bored, but whenever I asked a question they answered it to each other rather than to me. To make it worse the teacher librarian kept jumping in to take control and make suggestions. I was seized with panic. Lab Rats is much more obvious in its appeal for reading, there's farting and wild adventure. Suddenly Trouble felt like it was a serious work with no fun. What had I done? Where were the laughs? I began to read and they began to listen. Past the first page and they were still listening. There's always a couple of fidgeters but by and large, the library full of about 100 kids were listening. There were titters and then gasps as the teacher walks into the trap in the classroon and ends up covered in food scraps. It worked. By lunchtime after I'd talked to Years 2,3 and 4, word came down to the library that there were 'loads' of students wanting to buy The Trouble with Sauce. Hurrah! Nobody had brought their money in so I am going back with the stock tomorrow for a sales and signing session. The pic is me with Year 2 who were very well behaved.
