Movieguide Best Family Film Award

What a thrill to hear that Nim's Island has been nominated for the "Best Movie for Family Audiences" at the upcoming MOVIEGUIDE Awards on February 11th.

It's going to be a gala, red carpet event and I'd certainly be going if I were a bit closer to LA. It's always wonderful to be recognised, and of course I'm especially pleased when it's to do with the story, which has come so straight from my book.
Years ago the book received a Family Media award in the US, and was listed as recommended for single parent families; it especially pleased me when I remembered that one publisher rejected the book because he felt that Jack was not a good father.

I've always thought that Jack was a good father who made a mistake in leaving his child alone, and who had bad luck that nearly turned that mistake into a disaster. I've never thought that children would be harmed by knowing that a loving father could make a mistake or have bad luck, especially when it turns out all right in the end!

It's nice to know that so many people agree.... cross your fingers for us!

Essay - See the Web Site, Buy the Book - NYTimes.com

It's an interesting question for writers - how much do we concentrate on publicity and promotion, and how much does that take away from the calm centre most of us need for creativity? As this article says, no one knows what effect a wonderful website has on the bottom line of selling books. (Because the cold hard bottom line is that unless authors follow -was it Oscar Wilde's advice? - of marrying money, we have to either sell books or have some paid employment that takes away the time to write.)

Dilemmas, dilemmas... I think I'll give up trying to solve it and go back to my chapter revision...


Essay - See the Web Site, Buy the Book - NYTimes.com

Memories and broken china

As I tidied up after breakfast this morning, I went to put my little teabag dish in the dishwasher, but somehow it slipped over the top rack and smashed on the floor.

I was instantly transported back to my fourth birthday, because this little dish, which happened to be the exact right size for resting a tea strainer on, or holding a used teabag, had started life as a serving dish in the set of doll's china that was my fourth birthday present. I remember opening the package in bed and setting it out on the tray, balanced on my knees. I remember my absolute delight in the perfection and completeness of the tiny cups and saucers, soup bowls and plates.

And I remember my absolute horror and desolation when I moved my knees and tipped the whole tray off the side of the bed and onto the cast iron radiator.

A very few random pieces survived, but this was the only one that survived till the end of childhood and was incorporated by my daughter into her own tea services. It survived the smashing of much of her china by a visiting child, and when the time came to pack up my daughter's childhood things, I decided to give this little dish a new lease of life and use it again.

I'd rather not have broken it, but I don't regret using it; partly because I enjoyed it, partly because accessing memories like this not only gives a greater meaning to life, it's how I write. The smashing of a tea strainer dish is unlikely to appear in my fiction, but the four year-old's complicated mix of shock, disbelief, grief and guilt is the type of emotion that fiction draws on.

Childhood, Imagination and Writing

Virginia Lowe, of Create a Kids' Book, recently asked for thoughts on how real imagination is in childhood, which brought up some interesting musing.

I had proof for believing in fairies when six, as I sometimes found tiny, fairy letters covered in microscopic script (which only my father could read); I also had dreams of Fairyland, which I felt were much too real to be normal dreams. My sister once dreamed of Fairyland the same night I did, but in big sister fashion,I decided that hers was just a dream, or that she wasn't describing it properly, because it wasn't the same as mine.

I kept the ability to totally believe in my imaginary games for many years - I must have been nine when I cut a window in a tent - this was about the time I was writing the story that years later, evolved into Nim's Island. I can still feel the horror of coming out of the game, finding myself in the basement, not a forest - and seeing the hole I'd cut in a new blanket.

I was interested in a quote from Pamela Travers (author of Mary Poppins) on accessing the child that one was when writing, which is certainly what I do. It's only recently struck me that not everyone writes that way.

However I'm guessing that what most of us do, when we're really into a story, is to get into a split reality, of being very clear about the true reality around us, and knowing that we're deliberately creating this story, and yet reaching a level of almost believing the life of the story as an independent entity which we're exploring (at that point I occasionally dream my characters' dreams, which is creepy but useful.)

Farewell, old friend

I started this blog intending it to be strictly about writing, but sometimes life interferes - actually, it interferes a lot: being a full time writer, it's all pretty interwoven. And so this week,nothing in my writing life could possibly be as important as personal side, with the death of Bear, our (mostly) border collie.

He was 16 and a half, which is certainly a good age for any dog - especially one who started life as a working dog. He'd nearly died at about six, when he was run over by a tractor, and left with damage to his back and hips.

It didn't slow him down. Right up to the day he died, he had two walks a day, usually just a kilometre each time, though he'd still occasionally request a longer loop of two km (about a mile). He was well known in the district, and when we walked past a cafe after school, little girls would run out to walk him up and down the street.

Of course, part of the reason that he was well known was that until very recently he was an escape artist, and having decided that if he'd moved off the farm, he might as well enjoy the benefits of suburban life, he took himself off to the cafes at any opportunity - and if they didn't come out immediately to offer him treats, he'd stand at their door and bark until they did.

Reflecting on his life, I realise that I'd nearly forgotten what a naughty, destructive dog he was when young. He loved teasing our other pets, and would take the dachshund's bone and jump over the fence with it; if anyone other than my husband was milking the cows, Bear would drive them to the dairy at a gallop, because it was so much more fun than the sedate pace that left with milk in their udders. Someone looking after the farm for us once told us that Bear had "told him" that he always sat on the tractor driver's lap. (Bear lied.) He panicked easily, and completely destroyed the inside of my husband's ute when left in it once; later he destroyed all the doors in our new house. And yet when the friend walking him was attacked by a pit bull, Bear rushed in front of her and took the attack, his life being saved only by the metal clip and ring on his collar.

So, like many humans, he was complex mix of contradictions, and he was lucky enough to mature and age gradually and gracefully. His legs were becoming more stiff, he was nearly completely deaf and had begun to hate any variation in his routine (barking if his dinner was 5 minutes late, or if I was still in my office after dark.) But he was still active, alert and enjoying life. Death is the logical, natural, and only conclusion to life, and I know that he probably would have preferred to have gone suddenly, as he did, instead of becoming increasingly frail. But just as one feels with an elderly relative in the same situation - I wish we'd had a few more months.

Nim's Island - what happens next?

I get a lot of emails asking if the Nim's Island sequel, Nim at Sea, is also going to be turned into a film. Well, no decision yet, but I thought I'd update to say that I've still got my fingers crossed, so if you're one of the people who wrote some time ago - don't despair...

Facebook | Your Photos - Nim at Sea covers

Facebook | Your Photos - Nim at Sea covers

The first Nim at Sea editions: from Australia, USA, UK, Poland, and the Catalan edition from Spain.

Facebook | Your Photos - Nim's Island Covers

Facebook | Your Photos - Nim's Island Covers

I was talking about translations the other day - here's a display of all the different editions of Nim's Island (at least, all that I've received up to now. I think several other editions should have been come out by now but I haven't received my copy yet.)