A Waddling Visit

Revisions on Duck for a Day are finished. The book is done. Now is the time to sit back, put my hands behind my head and forget about ducks for a while.

That's what I think.

Then I open my door in the morning, and find this:

A duck. A completely random duck. On my doorstep.

Is it a sign?

And if so, what does it mean?

The Duck Has Demands

In my 'Writing' folder there is a 'Junior Fiction' folder. In my 'Junior Fiction' folder there is a 'Duck for a Day' folder.


This is all well and good. This is the sign of an organised mind, an organised computer, a manageable filing system.


But what is inside the 'Duck for a Day' folder?


Eighteen documents, my friends:

Ducknotes
Duckplan
Duckpending
Duckrejects
Duckcurrent

Ducknewdraft

Duckasracingread
Duckasracingread2
Duckasracingreadfinal
DuckJuly
DuckJulyrev
DuckJulyrevSue
Duckfinal
Duckabsolutelyfinal
Duckevenmorefinal
Ducksubfinal
Ducksubnew
DuckOMG


This utter chaos, this mess of revisions and re-starts and absolutelydefinitelynodoubtaboutit final drafts, is the measure of how a book has toyed with me, of the many paths and laneways it has led me down, only to turn around and shake its head and blithely say, "Actually, no, I think we'd better go back the way we came."

When I wrote the lines, "The duck is difficult. The duck has demands", I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.

People think these little books are simple, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that writing simple is a very complex thing.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Book Week is over for another year, which is probably just as well, as I may need the next eleven months to recover! I had another jam-packed week of storytelling, talks and workshops, this year at libraries and schools in the Cities of Stirling, South Perth, Joondalup and Swan. It was fun using this year's theme of Book Safari to talk about tracking ideas: how do you recognise them as they flash past in the jungle? what do their footprints look like? what happens if you think you're tracking a deer and when you finally get a good look at it, it turns out to be an elephant? These are the questions that keep me up at night!


If you came along to hear me talk, thanks! And I hope you got something out of it beyond an hour off school. Remember you can always email me through my website if you want to get in touch. And a big thank you too to all of you who helped me brainstorm ideas for my next Nathan, Ronnie and Weasel Lightning Strikes adventure. Wait until you see what they get up to next; at this point, this may or may not involve:


dancing Santas
garden gnomes
the Google Earth satellite


I can't make any promises until I throw a few things into the mix and give it a good stir.