I am enraged about supposed plus-sized models in Sports Illustrated. Here is my rant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OgmlnZl1MM
Cxx
Here’s another vlog blog!
Video Blog!
I have started a video blog in the hope that it will be less time-consuming than writing one. If you follow this handy link, you can watch it.
Book Trailer Bonanza!
A couple of months ago I had the privilege of visiting Mount St Benedict College in Sydney to talk all things books and writing with some of the students there. It was pretty great because, not only were the girls delightful, but they also gave me cake.
As part of the activities leading up to the visit, the girls were invited to make book trailers for The Sky So Heavy, with the prize for the top three being lunch and cake-eating with me. I was also asked to pick a winner, which was tricky as they are all fabulous. Eventually I went with the entry by Grace Nicholson. I promised I would put links to the trailers up on my (much neglected) blog. So here they are. The first one is by Emily James. The second by Sarah Assaf. And finally, the winning entry by Grace Nicholson.
Enjoy!
Children’s Book Council Honour and Inky Award Shortlist…. Hurrah!
Hello dear readers,
It has been more than a little while since last we met in Blogsville and I was feeling bad about this until I realised that while I may not have published a blog in the last two months, I have published another novel, which I dare say is more impressive. Yes, The Protected was released into the world on July 23. (You should go and buy a copy from a good book store, an actual real-life book store because they are an endangered habitat and the government has just approved the dumping of 30000 square squilometres worth of sludge on them. Or maybe that’s the Barrier Reef. Never mind.)
Meanwhile, The Sky So Heavy was awarded an Honour at the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards on August 15. This is more than a thrill. I’m not to sure what the correct term for something that is more than a thrill is, if you find out please apply it here. (My dad said it was a ‘real groove’ but that doesn’t feel quite right.)
AND THEN* just yesterday the 2014 Gold Inky Award shortlist was announced. The Inkys are the only award for Young Adult fiction judged by actual young adults. This makes them pretty fopping significant in my book** (pun intended). It’s really great when adults give prizes, but my books are for teenagers, the stories belong to them, so to be recognised by teenagers is JUST THE BEST THING EVER. (Yes I am shouting.)
The winner of the Gold Inky is decided by Gold Member, that rollerskating Dutch chappy from Austin Powers. NOT. No, the winner is decided by vote, so if you are a whipper snapper under the age of 18, it’s time to surf the internet wave over to http://www.insideadog.com.au/page/inky-awards and vote. Even better, vote for The Sky So Heavy.
Okey dokey, I’m done with my campaigning for the moment. Now I’m going to hop on a plane to the Melbourne Writers Festival right after I go and pick up a ton of Lego off my living room floor and scrape up the squashed sultanas that my toddler mashed into said floor, because that’s the kind of glamourous writerly-life I lead, motherfathers.
*I know you’re not supposed to start a paragraph with ‘And then’, okay? Give me a break, I just published a novel and the words ‘And then’ appear in it hardly ever.
**I have always used the phrase ‘in my book’. Now that I have written actual books this has lead to a punny minefield that is both dorky and ADORABLE.
Interview link
Radio National review The Sky So Heavy
I’m quite the ABC Radio National fangirl, so to hear The Sky So Heavy reviewed on Books and Arts Daily (along with some other book called The Fault in Our Stars) was more than a bit spesh. 
Follow the trusty link to have a listen…
