It’s Been a Minute

It’s been quite a while since I have posted. I have written a few entries but I didn’t post them. So here is a short recap of the last few months.

There have been a couple of huge highlights. The first was matching with Scholastic in my ASA Literary Speed Dating round. It meant I was invited to send the manuscript I pitched to them. It was so exciting and I can tell you; I had everything crossed.

The second big thing was being awarded an Australian Society of Authors/Copyright Agency mentorship for 2024. This is a very big deal, and I have been dancing ever since.

Both things involved the same manuscript. Scholastic decided not to offer me a contract but now I have twenty hours of mentoring to get it to a standard. Someone will say ‘yes’ to publishing it one day. That’s the dream.

In the meantime, I’ve booked assessments at CYA with this and other manuscripts so still moving forward.

Now for the low points. The lowest point was finding Rex, our rooster, quite lame. Everyone was away, and I had no idea how to help him. He is huge and has massive spurs. I rounded him up into a small enclosure so he couldn’t move around and set him up with his favourite seeds and some water.

Neighbours suggested I have him prepared for the pot, but I could never do that to a pet, so I googled his likelihood of recovery and decided my course of action was the best way forward. It lasted a day or so until Rex was so stressed worrying about his hens, he broke out and dragged himself to where he could see them. So we had to lock them all up to stop him from moving.

You don’t realise how noisy roosters are until they stop chatting and crowing. And I didn’t realise how attached I was to this gorgeous bird until I contemplated life without him.

And that brings me to the other low point. What is happening in Palestine. My author Instagram was the first to alert me to what was happening to the children of Gaza and I agreed with the thoughts of other kidlit creators; If you write for kids, fight for kids. And I have put most of my energy into keeping informed, researching the history, writing to politicians and advocating for the children caught up in this horrendous situation. I have also written stories inspired by my thoughts and one will be published in a fundraising anthology later this year.

It is all-consuming, but unlike the people in Palestine, we can take a break. We can look at the beauty in our world with new gratitude and use that energy to fight harder.

I have thought a lot about why some of us are born to relative freedom and others to ongoing hardship. It isn’t fair. But what I have noticed is the resilience and resourcefulness of the Palestinians. If bombs were dropping on me, I’d be hiding in a corner quivering. But the people of Gaza get on with life as best they can. They value life and each other. Perhaps knowing it might be a short life does that?

And back to Rex. Every afternoon I walk up to his enclosure and when he sees me, he gathers his chickens and they run up to meet me, knowing they are going to get some supper while I secure their gate.

I don’t know if you have seen a rooster run, or had a chat while you get his food, but it is impossible to be sad when you see a rooster run.

So Rex became my way to keep balance; to keep grounded; to keep sane. So the thought of losing him was almost more than I could cope with.

The tears I cried for almost a day were not about him. They were the locked up emotions I hadn’t allowed myself to express. But they needed to be expressed.

Advocating for children has inspired me to keep writing. My stories have always centred on breaking down barriers. The story I will be working on in my mentorship is about starting conversations about othering. Breaking down barriers before they occur. Questioning the status quo. The importance of finding things in common.

I hope one of my stories gets noticed soon. I have promised myself I will pay to have my website upgraded from my feeble attempts. But in the meantime. Here is my blog 🙂

Oh, and great news. Rex started to walk again and is crowing and chatting and he has even started running. And he is a dad to two enormous chickens.