More Congratulations...

Congratulations to Di Menefy and Adele Broadbent...also successful Pitch Slammers.

Well Done and may there be many more....

Thrilled Spinning Gold Team.

News and writerly things to mull over.

CONGRATULATIONS to Sandy Nelson who pitched a book in the Pitch Slam to Harper Collins and found out yesterday it will be published!

The first of many success stories we hope....

(the Spinning Gold team are very excited for Sandy....)

Kate De Goldi asked us to pass on her thanks to everyone for the kind words about her keynote. She wants to hang on to her speech for a while....However in the spirit of Kate-isms

Here is her report for the 2009 BNZ Katherine Mansfield Novice Writer Category which she has recently judged.

Kate De Goldi’s short fiction craft checklist.

*technical accuracy in both subject and form (I like to think grammatical inaccuracy is not a fatal flaw, but the horrible fact is that it often does diminish a story’s effectiveness, it prevents it communicating)

*story architecture – a shapeliness to the story’s development

* an avoidance of cliché, in either language or ideas

* imaginative use of language – fresh, startling imagery, muscular nouns and verbs; ways of describing and characterising that make me pause and re-appreciate, think anew

* believable characterisation

* credible dialogue

* a variation in sentence length and rhythm – sentence-making that has music

* writing that shows rather than tells

* a sense of place

* a narrative ‘voice’ that commands attention, that persuades, that makes me want to read on and on, no matter what is – or isn’t – happening…

All these words from Kate just goes to remind us about the most talked about quote from her keynote speech....knowing your own bone and chewing over it....

Spinning Gold Team

The debates continue

Melinda Szymanik's blog is well worth a read as she grapples with some of the issues the conference raised for many of us. (To promote or not to promote? To write for a market or write from the heart?)

Meawhile both Maureen and Fifi have managed to recover sufficiently to blog their impressions of and reactions to the Spinning Gold experience.

Virtually Visiting - for authors and illustrators

A message from Spinning Gold committee member Adele Jackson:

Those of us who attended the Educational Publishers Panel discussion at Spinning Gold heard from Derek Wenmoth that there are schools out there who would love to Skype an author or an illustrator.

There's a brilliant website set up in the US that does just this. Have a good look at it here: http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/

If you would like to talk to schools in classrooms and libraries virtually on the Skype network (free from your own computer and in the comfort of your own studio or study) why don't you add your name here and we can begin a list of authors and illustrators who can virtually visit.

We could look at a similar fee structure as they have. (Meet the author 10 -15 mins free, or in-depth visits for a time and fee determined by each author.)

Derek has offered to work with us and look at how we can create a point of contact for schools and link them with the authors/illustrators they want to talk with.

So what do you think - shall we increase our reach ? Who's keen?

Add your name in the comments below if you're interested, or email adele at adelejackson dot com ...

A few pictures

We are keen to get pictures up for you to see, so please send us your photos when you can. In the meantime, see if you can spot yourself in the ones on Fifi's facebook page.

A fantastic weekend!

Wow - we're completely thrilled with how it all went, and we hope you are too. Now bring on the debriefing process ...!

Committee member Adele Jackson somehow managed to muster up some final reserves of energy last night to blog her thoughts on the conference.

Conference attendee Melinda Szymanik did likewise.

And we love this thought-provoking post about the conference from Derek Wenmoth, who was on Saturday's 'Educate the Future' panel.

More soon ...

Two more websites

Coming to the conference also are Victoria Azaro and Christine Hurst.