Day 2 - Melbourne Writers' Fesitval Regional Tour

...of potatoes, vampires and Harry P...

A huge thank you to the Geelong Regional Library and Drysdale Potato Shed staff for a full, but fantastic day of sessions. Drysdale is a favourite haunt of mine where school visits are always fabulous, and today was no exception. We covered ends and beginnings (even though I couldn't spell beginnings this morning - who knows what was going on there!), inspiration and planning and even touched on gastro (they asked for it!).

Thank you to all the students for laughing at the right times, listening, sympathising about Dale Thomas' 2 week ban and asking great questions.

Kirsty and Chris's discussion about the merits of Harry Potter and Twilight was a highlight. Special hi to the Warrnambool crew from Emmanuel!

Photos to come - thanks Heath! Struggling with internet connection at our motel. I'm currently ensconsed in the library.

Tomorrow we travel to Wangaratta for an adult session and more talks.

Day One - Melbourne Writer's Festival Regional Tour

Today was the first day of the Melbourne Writer's Festival Regional Tour, with the fantastic Patrick Cronin, who is keeping us in line.

Our first visit was to Kyneton where Kirsty Murray, Chris Morphew, Heath McKenzie and I ran workshops and talks in the Town Hall. What a sensational building and what amazing supportive staff - thank you!
Students from Candlebark and Kyneton Secondary College attended and were full of great ideas and enthusiasm. My group created characters - some deranged, others lonely and a few homicidal - the characters, not the students!

Tomorrow it's on to Drysdale, a truly lovely part of the state. Naturally I've told the others how wonderful the place and the students are. Wish we had time for a visit to Loam. Now that is a restaurant to visit!

St Brendan's Dunnstown and term three.

Friday I travelled to St Brendan's Dunnstown, about ten west of Ballarat, and spent the day working with students from Dunnstown, Gordon, Springbank and Clarke's Hill. Even though the weather was bleak, the kids more than made up for it.
I had a sensational day - caught up with old friends from teachers' college, met Ally the friendly kelpie and worked with fun and switched on people. Plus - lunch! Yum.

Three of the girls, Jade, Tara and Gabby, presented me with a lovely card they'd made. The pictures are of the front and inside. Thanks girls, it's going on my office wall.

Term Three is always a big one, and this year is no different.
August 11 - Reading session, Ballarat
Book Week - St Roberts, Newtown, Westbourne Grammar, Armadale Primary, Montmorency Secondary College and Mater Christi College.
August 29 - Sept 3 - Melbourne Writer's Festival, Writers on the Road (Wangaratta, Kyneton, Geelong and Frankston)
September 8 - Timboon P -12
Sept 13 - Mercy Regional College, Camperdown
Sept 20 -21 - Christian College, Geelong.
Plus...the Online Literature Festival.
That should keep me out of mischief for a while!
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A Break From Editing

I took a break from editing today and visited Inverleigh Primary School. What a gorgeous group of kids. Bright, enthusiastic, funny and a complete delight to work with. We worked on ideas, how to develop an idea into a story and how to make the starts sparkle. Thank you to the staff and students for the opportunity.
As always, there were lots of laughs. I showed the younger students an overseas edition of My Gran's Different and asked them to guess where it was published. One child suggested the country could be South Snot. Close - but no cigar...the answer I was looking for was South Korea.  Made us all laugh though!
Now it's back to editing - we're still playing around with titles. Stayed tuned!

School Visits...

The last few days have been hectic, but rewarding with school visits and the Reading Matters conference. To celebrate the fantastic new library at Toorak College, Mt Eliza, I worked with the gorgeous Year 8 girls. We talked about Finding Darcy, which the girls study next term and did writing exercises. What a talented group of writers!
Thank you to the girls and to the wonderful library staff, especially a childhood friend, Sue, who I reconnected with, for your support and for spoiling me.
Today I've been to a much smaller , but just as enjoyable, school - Koroit and District PS where we talked about ideas and how to turn them into stories.
Now I need to finish my last assignment for this semester - more about Reading Matters later.

Librarians Rule!

This week I had a quick visit to Star of the Sea in Gardenvale for the school's Library Week. What a terrific school! Gorgeous, warm, friendly staff and students and such a wonderful library. A huge thank you to Sabina, Julie and the gang in the library who spoilt me rotten - brownies and scones!

At Star of the Sea, I once again saw the importance of school libraries and librarians first hand. I am in awe of the staff's knowledge, dedication and passion to not only books, but to matching the right books with the right readers.

And yet sadly, more and more schools are phasing out librarians and library classes, leaving a room of books lacking the warmth, knowledge and passion needed to encourage students to not only read, but to LOVE reading.

In my youth I marched to Save The Whales, protest about uranium mining and nuclear weapons, stop the Franklin River from being dammed (and damned) and many other causes. Please tell me I don't need to dust off my overalls (it was the 80s), pin on Save School Librarian badges and march again!

As an aside, an unexpected bonus of my visit was renewing contact two old and dear friends, and then this morning an email from another, as a result of Tuesday. All people who are important to me, but I'd lost contact with. So Tuesday, was a busy day, but a ripper!