Jacinta Lou – Writer

Tag: picture book

  • It’s Been a Minute

    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.

    • Would you like AI with that?

      Would you like AI with that?

      I feel like I can’t spend a day without some AI bot asking me if I need help. Well, I do need help! But sadly they won’t do the washing, feed the animals or change the sheets so I can just write. They would rather DO the writing! But that’s my job…isn’t it?

      It sounded like a bit of fun with new technology a few months ago, but, as they say, things are getting real. So what does that mean for aspiring creators? What does it mean for everyone?

      I’m old enough to remember when automatic teller machines were being proposed. I worked in my first job at the Reserve Bank in the clearing house, and on slow days we spent time chatting and we couldn’t imagine a world where tellers would be replaced. Just shows how limited our imaginations were.

      The clearing house was where cheques came to be sorted to be returned to their bank of origin. It was labour intensive, quite boring work, but it was how it was done. We would manually sort the cheques, then process them through a wiz bang sorting machine, make sure everything tallied. Then I would pack them in suitcases and carry them, with a guard, to the clearing house up stairs at the National Bank. Once there, we would swap our bundles and compare tallies and then take our own cheques back to our bank. That’s why it took so long for cheques to be cleared. It was manual work.

      That job no longer exists. Eight floors of the Reserve Bank in Hobart are no longer part of the bank and the clearing house? I think that disappeared in the late eighties. Technology made those jobs redundant and so those jobs went the way of other labour intensive jobs. I remember when my manager at the Commonwealth Employment Service lost his assistant. With a computer on his desk, it was more efficient for him to write his own correspondence. We did chuckle at the brevity of memos, sans capitals and punctuation, as a man who had never typed faced the reality of his new world.

      Jobs have been disappearing as technology takes over, but should it apply to human creativity? Is this a step too far?

      I read recently the creators of AI harvested the works of our most amazing creators to ‘teach’ AI how to write. Did they ask? No. Did they pay? No. Did they in any way honour the legal and moral copyright of lifetimes of incredibly hard work? No, they did not and legal action is being taken!

      It’s made me so angry that the creators of AI, who no doubt trademark and legally protect their programming, have completely ignored and disrespected the legal and moral rights of other creators!

      But where does that leave the aspiring writer, like myself? Is there any point? Well I say YES and I say it loudly. Writing comes from the soul and every writer is compelled to write. It’s part of them. Can AI do it better? Probably better than me, but should we let it?

      I can see the copyright notice in books changing to exclude being used for AI. Amazon has differentiated between AI produced and AI assisted. But do we need to do more? Or have we left it too late?

      Personally I think governments need to legislate to include humanity clauses, conferences and input before any new AI products are licensed but is that even enough? Creators are low paid, and therefore lack the power of huge tech companies. The future looks grim, but we can help.

      Buy books and art work you know was produced by people. Refuse to buy AI produced ‘fiction’ and ‘art’.

      There is a place for AI. It’s a great assistant. We have come too far to go back but we can choose how much it impacts our lives.

      AI could build me a website. I do lack in that department. But I promised myself the reward of paying a human to do it when I get my first contract and I’m sticking to that.

      So when the next bot asks me, ‘Do you want AI with that?’ My answer will be, no thanks. I’ll struggle on without it. The work, perfecting craft, learning new skills, is the soul of the journey. And creating IS a journey, not a destination.

      How will AI help or hinder your life?

      • CYA – First Assessments – Self Belief Growing!

        CYA – First Assessments – Self Belief Growing!

        Is it too early to ask for CYA gift cards for Christmas?

        I had two assessments this weekend and I’m so relieved I didn’t shred my stories and run away and hide. Turns out both editors are of the opinion I can write which filled my heart with joy!

        Both of these editors had different stories so I got feedback on four stories which will help me decide whether to keep working on them now, or in the future.

        No offers of contracts with unicorns cheering in the background but a real feeling I am heading in the right direction!

        I have more assessments to come. Hoping for more useful feedback! Wishing for unicorns 🙂

        Imposter syndrome, feeling like nothing you do is good enough etc is incredibly annoying and can be debilitating. It is for me.

        I’ve struggled with self belief for ever, so when someone thinks something I did was good, it feels like, wow – happy dance, huge smile, want to hug the world! And its a genuine surprise.

        I will take this external validation and tuck it into my growing self belief in myself as a writer. I must have a little bit of belief, right? Or why am I doing it?

        The most important message I gained from these assessments is to trust myself.

        I am a writer and I will publish books for children!

        I really want to succeed so I don’t want this pesky Negative Nellie who lives in my head to muck things up for me. Might be a story in that.

        How have you silenced your negative self talk? Perhaps you have never had any? Love to hear your stratagies!

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        © Jacinta Lou 2023

      • Imposter Syndrome and CYA

        Imposter Syndrome and CYA

        CYA is happening!

        It’s two days till I meet my first editor for a CYA assessment. I’m looking at the stories I sent her and I want to pull them back through the internet and throw them in the bin. What was I thinking?

        But – the money has been paid, the assessment booked and I’ve had my lesson on how zoom operates during assessments so there is no going back.

        It’s been months since I booked my first assessments. Yet it feels like it’s happened way too quickly!

        As my anxiety grows, I wonder what it is I’m scared of? I made such a mess of submitting my stories (I was recovering from pneumonia) but the amazing folk who run CYA untangled the mess and stories were sent to editors. Are they the best stories? No. Does it matter? Well, maybe, but no.

        These are assessments, not pitches, so the hope is the editor will give me enough guidance to improve my stories. Assessments, not pitches. I keep reminding myself.

        Of course, in the back of everybody’s mind, including mine, is the hope the editor will be so impressed they will ask to see your stories again. Wouldn’t that be amazing!

        In fantasy land, they come to the assessment with a contract ready for you to sign while unicorns cheer from the sidelines!

        But we don’t live in fantasy land…except when we are writing!

        The real fear is they will look at my stories and wonder why I bothered. A bit like I am wondering now. Am I exposing myself to these wonderful editors as someone who cannot write? Is this how others feel two nights before assessments begin?

        I’ve seen similar posts on FB and in writing groups so I know I’m not alone, but those other people can write. What if I can’t!

        Of course, none of this could be happening and we wouldn’t be having these amazing opportunities without the amazing CYA team. Particularly Tina and Shawn. They dealt with my stress and booboos when submitting like the true professional they are. I’ll be better next year – I promise! And of course if I’m making mistakes, there must be others? Tell me there were others.

        And thank you to the editors and industry reps who are spending the time assessing and talking to those of us who will be hanging off their every words, hoping they will move us forward in our quest to be published!

        Hats off to the CYA Team! And best of luck to my fellow writers and illustrators who are facing their fears and putting themselves, and their work in front of the industry we all want to be a part of.

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      • Leaving the comfort zone: Websites, Instagram, Facebook and more!

        Leaving the comfort zone: Websites, Instagram, Facebook and more!

        Deciding to become a full-time writer means I have also had to learn to use social media and more! What happened to the image of the writer tapping away day and night, producing reams of typed or handwritten pages? There may be some who can still do that, but for most of us trying to establish ourselves in the children’s book industry, we need to have a social media presence before we have a book published!

        The first course I did with the Australian Writers Centre led us through the maze, which is the industry, and gave us guidance on how to navigate it. That’s on top of writing amazing stories!

        Websites, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts. All things publishers are looking for. Can you promote your book? Have you a presence out there in the world? Have you followers?

        I knew how to use Facebook so, tick! But I had to learn Instagram and I’m still learning but I have over 400 followers, so tick.

        Websites. Well, this is it so far and I’ll admit it’s not great. I’m trying to learn more, but it has got me beat.

        Soooooo the first thing I will do when I get a book contract is pay someone to build me a super dooper website. In the meantime, please be kind to my attempts. I am way out of my comfort zone.

        Oh, and did I mention, I’m sure I did. The most important part of becoming an author is writing an amazing story!

        Is there an app for that? Stay tuned. Next time, we will talk about AI (artificial intelligence) from the perspective of someone who cannot build a website!

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      • So Much has Happened!

        So Much has Happened!

        As I sit here tonight, I’m reflecting on the last six months. Has it only been six months? So much has happened!

        I made a decision. This year is the year of assessments and honing my craft! So I began the year with two manuscript assessments with a publishing house. Several manuscripts found their way to Sally Odgers at Affordable Manuscripts and I entered a few in the CYA aspiring competition. More feedback!

        I booked assessments with several editors and publishers at CYA and they will take place in July. I’m so nervous but there is no backing out now. The manuscripts are in their hands! Well probably in their email inbox waiting till closer to the date!

        I’ve completed courses and workshops with the ASA, Jen Storer, Zanni Louise’s Sunshine house and Larrikin House. Learning about this industry gives me insight into how to navigate it as well as tools to support other creatives as we journey together.

        I’ve been active in my SCBWI critique group and two private groups of fantastic aspiring writers from around Australia.

        I became the New Books and Awards coordinator for the SCBWI Australia East blog which gives me the chance to see how many amazing books are being created and published by members, and I have been active as the social media person for SCBWI Tasmania as well as a committee member.

        We recently partnered with TasWriters to put on StoryGig in the last weekend in May. I was very fortunate to be asked to present one of my unpublished works to children in the Square. Posy the Pink Witch certainly made an impression! I also had the opportunity to read one of my works in progress to a room full of established creators at a SCBWI networking event! Yes I was terrified but what I have discovered about those who create for children, is everyone is incredibly supportive.

        Getting to know Tasmanian creatives has been a highlight of this year! Oh, did I mention, SCBWI Tasmania also held two Sketch and Scribble events so far this year? We did! Both at the beautiful Botanical gardens!

        So where I am at now is finishing off courses. Creating new work while many of my stories are waiting to be assessed and doing lots of walking on the beach to nurture my soul.

        I can’t believe half the year is almost over!

        I’ve submitted two stories to publishers. Both to more than one publisher. So far I have been met with silence except for one email letting me know it wasn’t what they were looking for at this time. I was excited someone had taken the time to read it and respond!

        I hope, after my assessments, I will have the courage to submit more!.

        This week I’ll be working on my latest manuscript and weighing up the critiques I have received from my wonderful critique partners.

        Talk again soon!

      • Last week in the hen house

        Last week in the hen house

        Last week, I watched Rex and his seven chooks meet up with a family of native hens (Turbo chooks). The hens didn’t seem to mind sharing the paddock with the turbos but Rex had other ideas and confronted them. The Turbos weren’t phased by the bossy rooster, but did slowly move back from where Rex had his hens. I couldn’t get close enough for a photo but watched as the two families sorted out the space.

        The following day, just after I opened the hen house, a cheeky currawong flew in and tried to get some vegetable scraps. I have never seen a rooster move so quickly to get back into the hen house yard and chase the cheeky currawong away, empty beaked. Feathers did fly and Rex strutted back and forth for about ten minutes, guarding the hen house. The currawong waited till Rex was at the far side of the paddock and went in, with his mate, to clean up left over scraps. They won’t cross Rex again in a hurry.

        One of the joys of living in the bush, is watching birds sort out the pecking order, so to speak.

      • Connecting with my inner child

        Reconnecting with my inner child with an old Atari and space invaders. Writing can be a solitary venture and I sometimes get stuck in my head and forget to have fun. I’m writing for children. Fun is important for me as a writer to keep myself connected with my audience and to get out of my head. Remembering to have fun gets harder as I get older. I might have to put a reminder in my calendar haha.

      • It’s been a while…

        Wow, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted. As an aspiring children’s book author, I spend a lot of time honing my craft and put updates on my facebook page. So just to catch up, since July 2021, I have completed a couple of courses with the Australian Writers’s Centre, Writing for Children and Young Adults and the Picture Book Master Class. During the first of these courses, with tutor and author Stephen Hart, I came up with an idea for a young adult novel so I spent November trying my hand, and mind, at Nanawrimo. Trying to write 50,000 words in one month! I didn’t quite get there but I have a good start on the novel so can return to that at a later date.

        I also continued my efforts with short stories through Globe Soup. My goal, as always , is to improve my writing skills and come up with great stories. So with Globe Soup’s seven day writing challenges, I have been long listed and have received two honorable mentions. But I’m trying to pull back and concentrate my efforts on Picture books. Perhaps writing short stories, flash fiction and poetry is my current form of procrastination to keep me from my goal.

        Soooo now I am halfway through a six-month course, with Zanni Louise and Anna Pignatoro, Writing and illustrating picture books. It’s a brilliant course though I have to say I will NEVER be an illustrator, but it’s fun to try.

        The path to becoming a published author can be long and the world of picture books is very competitive and difficult to get into. But what fun would it be if it was easy?

        I’m learning so much about facebook, Instagram and all other social media and in between I write, talk about writing, share stories with other aspiring authors in critique groups and try to stay focused on my goal; to publish a picture book. But I’m still going to write the odd short story or three.

      • Welcome

        I’m a picture book author on the exciting journey to publication.