Children's author, New Zealand
My first hard copy of Grandpa versus Swing arrived yesterday, with a lovely note from the very supportive publishing team at Scholastic NZ. I am so excited to be holding a real book in my hands! Lael Chisholm's artwork is absolutely gorgeous on the printed page. Grandpa versus Swing is already available for pre-order, and … Continue reading Our beautiful book is here
I accepted a lovely new deadline yesterday. In fact, the deadline is of my own making: what I accepted was a lovely invitation, out of the blue. It is to an upcoming, all-comers gathering of local writers. I have only attended once before. It was brilliant, but my social adventures are limited by the restrictions … Continue reading Lovely deadlines
When I was very young, we had exercise books that were partly ruled and partly blank. They were my favourite books of all to write in, because they held so much possibility. Pictures and words! That's a storybook. That's a non-fiction book. That's a book. It can be tempting for a writer to paint the … Continue reading Leaving room for pictures
Patience is not one of my strong points. I figured this out only a few years ago, in a moment of deep personal insight. "I think I'm not actually a very patient person," I said to my husband, to inform him of both my enormous capacity for meaningful introspection, and the startling fact that I … Continue reading Something resembling patience
It took just a little daring for me to send an anonymous manuscript to be considered for an award, but to be bold enough to join a workshop or to take a creative writing course? Not likely, not me. Most of what I have learnt about writing so far has come from reading fiction, author … Continue reading Community and encouragement
My poor garden, I simply can't give it the attention it needs right now. It gets on in the way most wildlife does in the absence of human intervention: it grows and grows, and whatever started out tallest and strongest and most favourably positioned grows best. I try to keep it low maintenance, because gardening … Continue reading Growing all the time
Words, words, words: to drown out all the clamour. Words: to distance me from the day just done. Words: to hold what I struggle to grasp. Words: to contain the deluge. When I write, I bring threads of experience together. I weave them as I want to. I weave and unravel and weave them again. … Continue reading Writing is a tonic
Moonlight paints the room in bright, solid rectangles. The hum of crickets comes at me like a stage whisper: quiet but obvious, insistent. These intrusions into an otherwise dark and silent space emphasise my solitude, and the peace I have in this moment. On another day I find another gentle stretch of time. Trees sway … Continue reading Windows of time
Story ideas come to me all the time, but they are fleeting. They don't wait for me to happen across a pen and paper, or a spare few minutes, or all of those things at once. They need noting down immediately by any means possible, or they're gone for good. Reciting new lines under my … Continue reading Notes on notes
Getting words onto a blank screen or page is like tying shoelaces. It's a beginning. The real exercise is what follows. The toughest times I ever have writing are when I'm trying to perfect the words in my head before bringing them out into the world. I find myself locked in my head with my … Continue reading Write something
Tania Sickling 