R.I.P. Ivan Southall

Sad news: Ivan Southall died on November 15, aged 87. Many of his books are true Australian classics, in particular Ash Road, Hills End and To the Wild Sky.

But my favourite of his books is Josh, which is the only book by an Australian to ever win the Carnegie Medal, which it did in 1971. In fact, not only is Josh one of my favourite Southall books, but it's my favourite book full-stop. I think that even though it looks like prose on the page, Josh is as much a verse novel as many others which make that claim. Written in present tense, it truly is poetic, with short, incomplete sentences. In fact, I remember reading one particular line as a boy -- Josh drowning. -- and being struck with an epiphany: that all the grammatical rules I'd spent so much time learning in primary school could in fact be broken, and usefully so.

One of the proudest moments of my writing career came a year or two back when UQP re-released Josh in its Children's Classics series. There I was, quoted on the back cover of my favourite book, below the blurb. It was taken from something I'd written some time before:

This is the story of a boy who isn't sure who he is or who he's meant to be. It's about the lost child in all of us. And that's why we hold our breath when we read.

Mr President

I'm not American, and yet I'm very happy this afternoon.

I'm frequently reminded of what a great country America is. Lately, I've been reminded mostly by Americans. I'm sure they're right, but what's undeniable is that their present president, one George Walker Bush, has overseen a dramatic devaluation of the USA's global reputation. Electoral corruption, corporate nepotism, rampant greed, political incompetence, an unpopular, immoral and possibly criminal war, and well publicised stupidity have all left America's once strong reputation in tatters.

Now, I'm not alone in seeing the possibility that the US's reputation can begin to be restored. This would be great for Americans, but the world needs a strong US as well. So today brought good news. If Obama's leadership ability is reflected in the campaign he ran, the strength of his rhetoric and his powers as an orator, America has just taken its first step towards some kind of redemption.

The cynic in me wants to say: 'We'll wait and see.' But the optimist in me is cheering long and loud.

Shiny new website

Yes, that's right. After a long-overdue overhaul, the new website has gone live. I used iWeb, which is pretty easy to use. In fact, it might even be too easy, since it allows you to do all sorts of visually gorgeous stuff that actually makes your site really slow to load. So I've had to trim it like crazy, but in reality, the only solution might be to start again, with less pretty.

I might wait and see if there are complaints.

The website can be found HERE.

Confessions of a slack blogger

I've been slack. Sorry. Will remedy.

Soon.

Away for a while

For the next few weeks I'll be the writer-in-residence at the Insideadog blog of the Centre for Youth Literature, based in the State Library of Victoria. And since I'll be blogging my little bottom off over there, I'll be leaving this site more or less alone for a while.

In the meantime, you can find me at Insideadog.

Tootles!

"Then" by Morris Gleitzman

You know that feeling you get when you've just finished reading a book by someone else, and you've just finished correcting the proofs of your own book, and you feel so impressed by the book you've just read that you wish you didn't have to return your proofs to the publisher, but could instead take the time to rewrite your own book, and to do it properly?

Well that's how I'm feeling right now, because I've just finished reading Then by Morris Gleitzman (Viking).

All right, without giving away the plot, I just want to mention a couple of things that impress me about this book.

1. It's so simple in style, but packs a huge wallop, which is all any of us as kids' writers can hope to do. And there is plenty of horror in this book, both of a physical and emotional nature, but it remains, for the mid-grade reader, such an accessible read. (Accessible - a word that gets used far too often in our industry, but in this case, it's so true.)

2. The way Morris uses the direct voice to the reader so cleverly. For example, on the first page is this masterpiece of writing for children:

You know how when you and two friends jump off a train that's going to a Nazi death camp and you nearly knock yourself unconscious but you manage not to and your glasses don't even get broken but your friend Chaya isn't so lucky and she gets killed so you bury her under some ferns and wild flowers which takes a lot of strength and you haven't got much energy left for running and climbing?

That's how it is now for me and Zelda.

That's why I haven't put my page-proofs in the mail yet.

The new cover

Courtesy of Stella Danalis, here is the front cover for Hunting Elephants, my new one from Woolshed Press, for release in October.