SCBWI New Zealand

Each year, for National Poetry Day in August, The Poets XYZ (look them up on facebook) run a poetry competition for those who write poetry for children. A different word is used as a theme prompt each year. This year’s word was ‘Leap’. I took a while to come up with an idea with the ‘Leap’ theme. I wrote two poems, one to do with that famous quote, ‘One small leap for man . . .’, and another about the cow who jumped over the moon.  You can enter up to three poems in The Poets XYZ competition, so I wanted to come up with one more.  I love libraries and I love what librarians do in our schools and communities. When I read a book I often feel like I’ve leapt into another world. So I decided to write a poem inviting children to leap into the library to see what they could discover there. It took some effort to narrow down the stories I would highlight in the text (there were so many jostling for position!), and a few didn’t make it (I’m going to save them for another time). Crafti...

This month SCBWI interviews author Rachel Weston  I'm Rachel, and I live in the beautiful  Bay of Plenty, New Zealand , on a kiwifruit orchard with my husband Stu, our three children, two dogs and a horse. What is your writing day like? When and how do you create? Mornings are my most productive time and when I have the most energy. I find walking helps my creative process; I mull over ideas and let my mind wander where it will. Walking is also helpful for my mental, physical and emotional health, so that I can create. When I’m really into the flow of a story I’ll often end up writing in the evenings too.  Regarding creating, I choose an idea that’s been simmering away in the background and just start writing. It’s always surprising what ends up on the page! There’s a time for structure and process, but first comes imagination and creativity.    Where do your best ideas come from? How do you develop them further? Mainly from life’s experiences and noticing natur...

We pre-empted the Sketch and Scribble with a coffee catch-up of members and writer friends on Thursday 8 th August! No sketching or scribbling was done, but we shared lots of news, and had a great discussion about bookshops and book selling, from the experiences of both traditionally published and self-published writers. Sherryl recently attended a Australian webinar with two booksellers speaking about how they select what books to stock, how the ordering works, and what they base their decisions on – lots of factors including reviews, publisher support, who their customer community is, what media coverage the book has or will receive. As a guide, one of the booksellers said August is a quieter month for publishing, yet she was presented with 3000 new books coming out, and selected 700. We talked about our local bookshops (of course!), and how hard it is to get them to work with self-publishers.  Yes, it’s the paperwork, but more often it’s about getting them to pay for your books...