Elephants and pianos keep appearing in my work. 

There are pianos and elephants at The Grandest Hotel on Earth. And the new book I’m writing has them too!

Elephants are the most majestic creatures. They fill me with awe and wonder. When I came across Paul Barton and his piano playing for elephants, I was captivated. I have watched his clips on YouTube many times over.

I particularly love this one.

Peter the elephant’s love of music is undeniable. The music delights him. He has to move his body and he has to woop and holler. (His mate seems to be having a pretty good time too!) I think Peter feels exactly the same things I feel when I listen to music that I like. 

Take a look and see if you can relate to how Peter the Elephant feels when he listens to music. 

You know it’s been too long between posts when you can’t remember how to log in to your own website. Which could be good for security. Say if someone dangled me by my feet over a cliff and yelled “tell me the password to your website or it’s all over baby!” I could honestly reply “Well I’d genuinely love to help you but I can’t remember.” Might get me out of that sticky situation.

I’m beyond excited about my new book Vincent and The Grandest Hotel on Earth coming out on 2 July! You won’t believe this place. It really is wilder than the African savanna, more fantastical that Disneyland and more magical than Shangri-La. Can I just say pocket dogs and sloths…and wait till you hear about the rooms….

Stop the presses! (Do we still have presses these days?)

Today I witnessed an event that will surely go down in history.

Today I spotted the first ever book week Dr Boogaloo!

I had restrain myself from popping balloons and throwing children up into the air and screaming ‘Yippee! A book week Boogaloo! It’s a book week Dr Boogaloo!!!!’

The book week Dr Boogaloo -otherwise known as Beau! – had on a shiny silver suit and round glasses (which unfortunately don’t appear in the picture so you’ll just have to take my word for that). He looked  like a brand new pencil. Just like Dr Boogaloo!

Here’s Beau and me…

..and here’s another friend I made at lunch.

Beau you made me one very happy author today!!

And can I say your classmates were awesome too.(I’d mention them all by name but I forgot to get their parent’s permission. You know who you are guys!!) We even invented a new drink – SPROKE! (Sorry kids! I’ve already trademarked it. First in best dressed, you know how these things go. Got to be quick!  Insert winking emoji because I can’t work out how to yet…)

What a great day! Thanks to CBCA Lunch with the Stars. The roast chicken was tops!

It’s very exciting news!

Dr Boogaloo and The Girl Who Lost Her Laughter is being adapted for the stage as a musical by the frighteningly talented Yve Blake and Alice Chance.

Yve Blake

gotta love a girl who can pull off a koala-do

I’m trying not to get too excited because these things take time. And you should never count your musicals before the curtains part on opening night. But it’s hard not to get excited when you’ve heard the songs Yve and Alice have written. They’re beautiful and funny and moving too…

As a writer, hearing your characters turned into songs is completely magical.

And wait till you hear their ideas for Leonard! I have a feeling Leonard is going to love the limelight. He loves an audience, as you know!

Boy oh boy. It’s been a while. Forgive me for not posting but I’ve been out and about with Dr Boogaloo and The Girl Who Lost Her Laughter. And so much has happened, I’m not sure where to start!

Perhaps we’ll go back to Russ The Story Bus. Now THAT was fun. Russ the Story Bus is part of the SWF Festival of Moving Stories. It’s a big bus that travels round the countryside visiting schools and giving out brand new free books. I got to go cherry picking in Young – where I also ate too many prunes! Very NOT wise when you have long bus trips ahead. Sorry Mr Cheeseman. Mr Cheeseman was my driver! Luckily for me, Mr Cheeseman did not mind a prune himself so we made good company.

Mr Cheeseman likes BIG things.

He’s a very happy fellow and taking his picture with REALLY BIG things  makes him even happier. Note to self – only ever go on long road trips with very jolly people. So much fun!

Here’s Mr Cheeseman with a GIGANTIC tennis racquet in Barellan. Barellan is a tiny town where Aussie champion tennis player Evonne Goolagong grew up. (We made a special detour just to visit the gigantic racquet and we were very nearly late to school!)

And here’s a gigantic dog we saw in Yass! That’s a normal size dog next to him. You can just see the top of his head. I think Mr Cheeseman was too scared to stand next to this dog. Which was very sensible!

We also visited a gigantic guitar which made Mr Cheeseman as happy as a banjo player.

I love road trips. There’s something relaxing about being in transit. Going somewhere feels good.

And as well as seeking out GIGANTIC things, we did squeeze in a few school visits. The kids were so smart. It always blows me away how creative and clever kids are. We listened to different pieces of music and came up with ideas for stories and characters. Music is great for getting your magical thinking all fired up. Lots of writers use music to kickstart their imagination. If you get stuck with your creative writing you should try it.

Shoutout to Hay Public School, St Mary’s Primary School,  Cootamundra Public School, Young Public School, Young North Public School and Yass Public School. Thanks for having us! We had the best time!

Next week I’m hitting the road on Russ the Story Bus!

From Monday 23 October – Friday 27 October I’ll be at Library’s in Western Sydney doing author talks and workshops. You can find out exactly where I’ll be on my Events Page.

Then the week beginning 6 November we’re taking a long road trip out to Hay, Cootamundra, Young and Yass.

You can find out more about the SWF Children’s Festival of Moving Stories here.

Or here!

Apparently I’ll be getting my own headset microphone. I’m guessing that means I need to brush up on my dance moves?

I’m wishing I had the moves like these kids! There’s nothing quite like dancing in the dust….

If you’d like me to visit your school or festival, head on over to my contact page and drop me a line! 

It’s getting exciting folks!

It’s almost 2 October, the day Dr Boogaloo and The Girl Who Lost Her Laughter hits the shelves.

But what has got me almost more excited, chuffed even (I have always wanted to use the word chuffed) is something they call in the publishing world, a SHELF WOBBLER.

Now when I received the email from my publisher about said SHELF WOBBLER, I had no idea what a SHELF WOBBLER was!

At first I thought it must be some device that caused the shelf to wobble, which in turn caused my book to fall off the shelf whenever someone walked past. The person walking past would then pick up my book believing they had in fact caused it to fall off the shelf. ‘Ingenious! That should help sell a few more books,’ I thought to myself.

But it turns out I was wrong. That’s not what a SHELF WOBBLER is. Then I thought perhaps a SHELF WOBBLER is some sort of weird insect thingy found in book shops that lived on shelves and had a wobbly kind of walk.

Wrong again.

When I googled ‘insects + habitat = book shop’ it came up blank.

So then, despite the risk of looking like a total potato head, I just had to phone the publisher because I’d wasted a whole morning trying to figure out WHAT exactly a SHELF WOBBLER was!

Well, would you believe it, a SHELF WOBBLER, doesn’t wobble shelves at all. A SHELF WOBBLER, hangs off a shelf and wobbles. Its job is to attract your attention. It’s supposed to sort of say, “Hey, look over here, this book is a ripper!’

Here’s my SHELF WOBBLER. Unfortunately it’s a real world SHELF WOBBLER and not an online SHELF WOBBLER so it doesn’t wobble at all online. If you’re on an Ipad just jiggle it around and it should do a pretty good impersonation of a real life SHELF WOBBLER.

Well you’re going to have to read the book to find that out of course!!!!!

Dr Boogaloo and The Girl Who Lost Her Laughter

But because you seem like a decent person, I’ll show you a picture…..

And then you can get to thinking about what, when, why and how does THAT work!

Illustration by Daniel Gray-Barnett

What would happen if you lost you laughter?

Where would you look for it?

How would you get it back?

Can you live without laughter?

Would you even want to?

Well, this happened. To a girl called Blue. And unless you’re familiar with musical iBikes and banjos that make you weep, you’ll never believe what took place next! Come on a strange and fantastical adventure to The Boogaloo Family Clinic of Musical Cures and discover a world you’ve never heard of, before but deep down in your soul, always knew existed.

Here it is folks! The hardback edition!

Here’s what it says on the back cover

Enchanting, timeless and surprising – this extraordinary novel will touch the hearts (and ears) of children and adults alike.

Dr Boogaloo was no ordinary doctor. Not at all like the one you might visit if you had a sore tummy. No, Dr Boogaloo was a very different type of doctor. He treated folks who suffered from rather unusual complaints. And how did he treat them? Why, with the most powerful medicine known to mankind . . . Music!

Blue was no ordinary girl. For starters, her name was Blue. But what was truly extraordinary about Blue was the fact that she hadn’t laughed for 712 days. Not a hee hee, a ho ho or even a tiny tee hee.

According to Dr Boogaloo, music can cure anything. (Of course, you need the right dose of the right music. No point listening to a jive if you’re in need of some boogie-woogie, and you can’t just substitute a toot for a blow!) But no laughter was definitely a case for alarm.

Can Dr Boogaloo compose a cure before Blue loses her laughter forever?

A big thank you to Daniel Gray-Barnett for the illustrations. An iBike is no easy draw!

IN STORES OCTOBER 2

“A hilariously sad tale of laughter, friendship and the magic of music.”