June 11 Kat Apel
Kathryn Apel, Aussie children’s author
June 12 Chris Bell
The Littlest Bushranger
I’m thrilled to share that the fabulous Heath McKenzie and my latest book, The Littlest Bushranger, is being released on June 1!
Later in June, there will be a blog tour with prizes. Excellent prizes. I’m still working out the exact dates, but look for it mid June. And look for the book in your bookshop! In the meantime, here’s the cover and the blurb.
When Jack’s big sister Lil starts school, he is left with only his faithful dog Hector for company and Lil’s favourite toy to protect.But an ordinary day transforms into an extraordinary one when Jack’s called upon to do battle with a fiendish villain…
The Littlest Bushranger, The Five Mile Press, June 2013
Quick update!
I hope everybody had a wonderful time over the holiday break. I’ve been busy and there are quite a few exciting things happening this year.
There will be a Marmalade 2! And a soft, cuddly Marmalade toy around the middle of the year. I’m excited! Cannot wait until I get one of my own.
Another picture book, illustrated yet again by the fabulous Heath McKenzie is due out midyear. Will post the cover when I’m allowed. Need to ask the scarey editors first. No cats in this book (Marmalade would have been jealous) but a very special dog called Hector.
And there are another couple of projects coming out too. I’ll give details soon.
Wishing everybody a wonderful 2013.
Talk soon!
The Dimity Powell Christmas questions!
A mega tinsly welcome to the very talented, super fun Dimity Powell. (more…)
Gold Coast Writers Festival 2012
I’m back from a wonderful time at the Gold Coast Writers Festival. Thank you Julie Boyd, Kathy Stewart and all the other volunteers for making it such a relaxed, inspiring event.
I visited the fabulous Surfers Paradise School, which is actually a bit inland and sited on the exotically named Isle of Capri. Principal Gary Ivory and his staff made us all very welcome. The children were very smart and interested. I learned not to ask who had a pet rabbit, because they are banned in Qld. I also learned that it’s harder to run a quiz when one bright student has not only read the Ranger in Danger books, but remembers them.
The panel on Writing for Children with Angela Sunde, Michelle Worthington and Pamela Rushby was a lot of fun. We all sat down at a long table and realized that there was only one mike on a cord that couldn’t stretch down to all of us. So we move our chairs closer and squeeze together. That’s when the tech support rushes on and tells us what looks like pencil cases actually are portable mike cases. Whoops. I thought the organizers had supplied us with pencils in case our pens ran out.
There were more inspirational sessions including one by Tim Ferguson about comedy. While I’m sure that you prob. can analyse every piece of comedy into categories, I’m not convinced that people can be taught to write funny. I think you need a bit of innate spark.
The lunch on the Sunday was super fun. (You are probably getting the gist that a fun time was had by all.) I was at a great table and a special thank you to Vacen Taylor and William for telling me ghost stories that I remembered that night when I was trying to go to sleep. Jill Murray the guest speaker was fascinating. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but she’s got me going out there to get her biography. There’s much more to her than merely being a political spouse.
Thank you again Gold Coast Writers Festival!
Gold Coast Writers Festival
I’m looking forward to appearing at the Gold Coast Writers’ Festival.
Friday, 26 October – I’ll be part of the School Program at Surfers Paradise School.
Saturday, 27 October – I’ll be appearing in a panel at 9.00 am on Writing for Children with Angela Sunde, Pamela Ashby and Michelle Worthington.
I would love to see some of you there, as it sounds like a great weekend.
Booktopia interview – 10 terrifying questions
Find out what Booktopia asked that terrified me so much. Click on
Winner!!!!!!! A Year with Marmalade blog tour
Congratulations to the winners of the A Year with Marmalade competition!
First place: Ginger. The judges liked how it looked similar to the cover of A Year with Marmalade.Runner Up: Panzy
Thank you for all the wonderful entries! It was an extremely close competition.
First place: Ginger. The judges liked how it looked similar to the cover of A Year with Marmalade.Runner Up: Panzy
Thank you for all the wonderful entries! It was an extremely close competition.
The Judges at The Five Mile Press and Alison and Heath are just happy that they didn’t have to choose as they loved them all!
Let’s celebrate with a blog tour and competition
Join us for the blog tour.
7th August Dee White
http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/
9th August Karen Tyrrell
http://www.karentyrrell.com/tag/karens-blog/
11th August Tania McCartney
http://www.kids-bookreview.com/
13th August Pass It On
http://jackiehoskingpio.wordpress.com/school-magazine/
14th August Kathryn Apel
http://katswhiskers.wordpress.com/blog/
17th August Dale Harcombe
http://orangedale.livejournal.com/
20th August Peter Taylor
http://writing-for-children.blogspot.com.au/
22nd August Susan Stephenson
23rd August Robyn Opie Parnell
http://robynopie.blogspot.com.au/
27th August Sally Odgers
http://spinningpearls.blogspot.com.au/
29th August Angela Sunde
http://angelasunde.blogspot.com.au/
31st August Chris Bell
http://christinemareebell.wordpress.com/
And then here’s a competition to enter
If you have a ginger cat or a cat with a jaunty attitude, send along a photo and you could win a signed copy of A Year with Marmalade and a copy of the picture book Lighty Faust the Lion, a book about a much bigger cat.
Upload your favourite cat photo to https://www.facebook.com/alison.reynolds.524 or email it as a low res jpeg file at alrey@msn.com.au and I’ll upload it on www.alisonreynolds.com.au
Can’t wait to see your purrfect photos!
Entries close on the 1st of September