Writing Courses from Janice Marriott
Adrienne Joyce’s first book is on the move
Jacinda and Neve enjoy the amazing true story of a large, two story house that was floated on a barge from St Heliers up to Mangawhai where it spent a night on the sand before being dragged into its new position. I’m sure Clarke enjoyed the story too being as it fits with his current TV show!
Good work, Adrienne.
In praise of poets
Congratulations to Sophia Wilson for winning the prestigious
Casselberg Trust International Poetry Prize. Sophia comes
from Otepoti/Dunedin and her poem is called ‘Sea-skins.’
More for the Poets
And for those of you who are teachers of 11 – 14 year olds there is a charming new poetry anthology just for them, and edited by Susan Paris and Kate de Goldi, published by Massey
University Press. It’s called Skinny dip.
It’s ideal for the classroom because it focusses on being at school. It is very good indeed, hugely varied voices of contemporary NZ poets.
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Comments from poetry clients this month:
“It’s funny how poems take you to places you don’t expect!”
This was after discovering, after writing a poem, that the Korimako bellbird was seen as a
messenger between heavens and earth.
Another client used the image of a whale shedding its skin as a symbol of new developments in a
life and moving forward. I queried this image. She did some research and discovered that whales
do indeed shed their skin!
“Scientists have recently realised that whales migrate to the tropics to shed their skin! I hadn’t
finished the poem when I read that, and I’m stoked because it really fitted what I was wanting to
say!”
Often we know far more than we know that we know. Writing poems, using imagery and metaphor
is a path into our unconscious, and a way of finding out what it is that we don’t know that we know.
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A poem sent in by Jane~Hadia Penton of Taupo
Back to front selkie woman
I bend over
to sweep up the silver hair
magical hair
for I am magical
a woman beyond bleeding
but still a lover –
transmuted ardour
and ordinary fleshy joinings
both
The silver hair astounds
How did those days slip
into aging years?
Visceral memories of my
younger self
carried like silken skin
to be cast off
when I return to the embracing sea
A resting place
where all wounds, all passions
will one day be staunched
and leveled
And the silver moonlit waves
shall show
no trace
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Advice requested this month from poets
A client asked: “One thing I’ve been trying to challenge myself on is actually writing titles for
my poems, it’s really tricky! Do you have any pointers?”
I replied:
Think about this AFTER you’ve written the poem. Think about what the larger meaning of the
poem is, or the strongest image in it.
Do any others of you have any suggestions that may help?
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Acclaimed children’s poet Michael Rosen has won the UK’s leading award for published poetry for
children, with a powerful collection that declares ‘home is where you find it’
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The Ngaio Marsh Awards
The winners were announced a few days ago. This year for the first time, a special award honouring outstanding YA and children’s books has been introduced. So, for all you writers for teens and
children -Remember this for next year’s competition.
The finalists this year for Best YA/Kids Book are: Katipo Joe by Brian Falkner (Scholastic NZ),
Red Edge by Des Hunt (Scholastic NZ), A Trio of Sophies by Eileen Merriman (Penguin Books NZ)
and Deadhead by Glenn Wood (OneTree House).
The winner was Brian Falkner.
From the judge’s report: “Brian Falkner scooped the first-ever Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Kids/
YA Book for Katipo Joe: Blitzkrieg, the story of an adolescent New Zealander recruited by British
Intelligence to infiltrate the Hitler Youth in 1930s Europe. “A ripping thriller for older children and
young adults that raises all sorts of questions about loyalty, nationalism, and the loss of youth in
war,” said the judges.”
The winner of the Best First Novel Award was Chris Stuart. There’s a good example of a debut author winning prize.
Something for those who write Fantasy Fiction
One GWN client is writing an original and ‘noir’ junior fiction fantasy that features anthropomorphic taxidermy. Being original, having a startling new idea, is always good.
Make your writing a priority.
From this Month’s Advice
A client’s email asks:
I was tidying up the punctuation – putting full stops inside the speech marks as you suggested. Then I noticed inconsistencies with my commas – sometimes I would put one in (in different places) and sometimes not – and I don’t know which is correct:
e.g. “Don’t worry” she says, “It was looking good. Just keep practicing.”
or
“Don’t worry” she says “It was looking good. Just keep practicing.”
or
“Don’t worry,” she says “It was looking good. Just keep practicing.”
Reply:
None of the above are correct!
Look at this one:
“Don’t worry,” she says. “It was looking good. Just keep practicing.”Here you have the comma at the end of the speech section when it doesn’t end the sentence.
The sentence here ends at the word ‘says.’
So you need a full stop there.
All the rest of that line is perfect.Then variations:
“Crikey,” thinks Tommy as he scrambles out of sight behind his gate. “I wasn’t planning on doing
this trick until tomorrow morning as the post person must have come hours ago!”
I’ve added the comma after ‘Crikey’ but it would be even better to use an exclamation mark instead.or
“Tomorrow is the big day for my most trickiest prank yet” thinks Tommy as he heads downstairs.
This should have a comma after ‘yet’.
Otherwise all good.
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Overheard
Overheard by Nicole Miller: “My 8 year old niece looked out the window and spotted a kereru.
“Look at that bird in its white apron!”
Thank you Nicole for sending this in.
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“I’m impressed with Allen & Unwin and their ‘Friday Pitch’ submission guidelines for children’s/
YA fiction and non-fiction. Their website tells us that they don’t accept picture books or short
stories. That’s great. We’re not left wondering.”
And
Remember “Walker Wednesday” submission day is June 29, 2022.
A long way ahead but it is a target to be reached.
A client who has completed a course asked me if she could do just one module from another
course. Yes, indeed, I said. She ‘schosen Module 4 of the Poetry course. “I appreciate the flexibility
you allow so that I can continue writing at my own pace!” she responded.
I’m making this offer more widely available as a ‘summer special’ if you like.
A chance to try something different, or maybe to gift this chance to a friend.
Email me for more information if you are interested or look at the module selection on the website.*
This one comes from a client, Robyn Walsh:
“ “When you are trying to find your writing voice, don’t try to emulate any writer, not even your
favourite. Sit quietly, listen, listen again, then listen some more and write out everything the
voice says with no censoring – none – not one word.”
… from How to Write Winning Short Stories. It’s from Jan Marquart, the author of The Basket
Weaver.
Thanks, Robyn.
Stretch your Vocabulary
For the Writers for Children
Some clients’ recommendations:
Picture books
Mrs McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks.
This book is cheerful and fun with a pleasing rhythm and rhyme, yet a surprise on each page as Mrs McNosh goes from hanging ordinary to extraordinary things on her line. I think this book appeals to children and adults alike due to its mischief and that appeal is important when the adults are the buyers of books.
My Busy Green Garden by Terry Pierce with illustrations by Carol Schwartz
This book is beautifully illustrated, and this really drew me in initially. Plants, flowers, and garden critters with fine detail are drawn exquisitely. I then enjoyed the way this book used prose to build phrases upon each other at each page turn – keeping the initial phrase of page one and with each page adding another as critters and birds are discovered in the garden. This building up and repetition of the phrases gave great flow to the book with a satisfying ending of a butterfly bursting from its cocoon and flying off.”
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
Recommended as a great example of a memoir. Thank you Jills for sending it to me in my bookless state at the moment. (All my books are still in boxes in a garage I can’t access, and the libraries are
closed. Bookshops are all click and collect but I prefer to browse before I buy.) It was after the cat had skated through the 500 piece jigsaw my grandson and I had been assembling over three days that I gave up trying to grandparent effectively in Lockdown, gave up stressing about the chaos of living out of boxes and not being able to find anything, gave up my anger that it takes over three weeks for a cat door installer to come and do his work – surely an essential service -, gave up trying to write with a painter on a ladder above me, gave up complaining about the persistent rain, picked up The Liars’ Club and entered the world of magnificent memoir. By Page 2 of the Introduction I was hooked. Jills, you have saved me!
Build your Vocabulary
Nyctophobia means an irrational fear the night or nighttime darkness.
It seems a suitable word for Hallowe’en.
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(It took me a while for the penny to drop but that is “moving in brain.” You will get the joke faster. )A priest, a pastor and a rabbit walked into the blood donation clinic.
The nurse asked the rabbit, “What is your blood type?”
“I am probably a type O,” said the rabbit.*In Auckland laughter will save us.
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