It's been rather busy at my desk lately, with lots going on, so I thought I'd pop in here and write some of it down!

The 1st of July was the official release date for my first young adult novel, Out of the Cages. It was rather surreal to hold that book in my hands after the long journey it took to reach publication.
We held the official launch on the 7th July, at 7pm (Yep - 7 o'clock and the 7th of the 7th. I didn't mean to have such a 7ish event, but I did like that coincidence.)

The launch was attended by about 80 people and I was able to share some of the story of how I researched this novel and what I learned along the way. 
You can see some photos from the launch over at my Penny Jaye website. 

Camp Max has been on tour and that's been great fun! I always love taking my books to schools and sharing my enthusiasm about stories with children. It's even better when I get to focus on just the one book for the whole session, it gives me (an the kids) a real opportunity to think about the issues and characters. And Camp Max is a great book for that. 

Camp Max also received some exciting news last week: it's been shortlisted for the Published Children's Book category of this year's CALEB Prize! I'm just thrilled as this makes it the third Tania Abbey book to be shortlisted for this book (Water or Goo and More than a Mouse were also shortlisted in 2010 and 2013 respectively).  It's also lovely because I'm sharing the shortlist with Katrina Roe's Gemma gets the Jitters and NZ author Jen Gibbs' The Whimsy Primsy Collection!

Each book has a name
a title, a cover
a story on pages tucked in between.
Sometimes that story
draws on the past
or whispers of day dreams
as fact skips with wonder.
But there comes a day
as the ideas grow,
that I type at the front
of the book I am writing
a single word:
'dedication'
and then I pause.
For each book has a reason
a someone without whom
the heart of this story
would cease to exist.

There was once, 
I could say,
two little girls.
One threw a paperweight 
at the other one's head. 
(I'll let you guess 
which one was which)
But the force of that moment
it's forgiveness and friendship 
and the years since melded by,
stained itself to the threads
of a story wrote later. 
And before that book had a name
a title, or cover,
I typed 'dedication'
and I knew straight away which two little words would come next. 

I'm often asked how I started writing for children, or what the process is to get a children's book in print. It's a great adventure really! Heaps of fun and a lot of hard work. But practically speaking some people are really interested in the how and what. So I'm running a workshop on it. 

When? It'll be on Saturday 19th May, 1pm to 4pm. 
Where? At the Koorong Penrith Training Room. 
What? We'll cover (almost) everything I know about writing for children. From 'what it takes to write a picture book (do I need to illustrate it myself?)' to 'how can I know my manuscript is ready to submit to a publisher?' and much more. 
Cost? $40 per person, this includes afternoon tea. 

Bookings can be made via Trybooking. Places are limited to 20 participants (simply because of the space available!)

If you have any queries about the workshop, just send me a message.  
​

Last Friday, at Penrith City Library, we officially launched Camp Max! 

It was a great event (if I might say so myself) and we had a stack of fun. 

The launch began with Larinda from the Library team introducing me and my new book. Apparently Penrith Library is celebrating 70 years, so it was awesome to hold my launch there. The team were SUPER helpful and I was really grateful of their support and enthusiasm. (If you weren't able to come to the launch but would love to read Camp Max, there are several copies in circulation in the library now, so read away!) 

I think my favourite thing about this launch, which is also my favourite thing about my writing in general, was being able to share the book with children. It was wonderful to be able to chat with the kids about how it felt to be desperately looking forward to something (as Tania does in Camp Max) and then not be sure if it would actually happen. I was also able to share some of my photos from living overseas with the kids and help them imagine what it might be like to live in a one room house, or not have running water. 
We then opened a huge box of books and had a drum roll before pulling out Camp Max for everyone to see. I read the first chapter - though I think the kids would have let me keep reading - and then moved onto some Camp Max activities: a photo booth, colouring in, a hat toss, lolly competition, caricature drawing and visitor's book. The kids were kept busy for the whole time and I even had the opportunity to sign some books. 

Book launches like this can't happen without a team of helpers! Author friend, Debra Tidball generously gave her time to man the bookstall. My mum helped supervise the very popular lolly competition. My three kids helped out too, as did some of their friends (thanks SO much Tori and Brittany!). 

From here the Camp Max Book Launch Tour begins in earnest! We're headed to Thomas Hassall Anglican School next, and then Cedars Christian College and Illawarra Christian School. There are still a few dates available for the Tour, so if your school or group would like to join in the fun, please get in touch! 

Camp Max can be purchased here (if you'd like a signed copy), or here (Wombat Books do great postage deals) or here (you can get Camp Max for Kindle at Amazon). 

This past weekend I was excited to run my very first Children's Writing Workshop! It wasn't the first writing workshop I've ever run, as I'm often invited to do workshops with students as part of school visits. But it was my first writing workshop that I'd organised outside of a school setting. 
It was held at the Koorong Penrith store, in their training room, and the team at Koorong were wonderfully supportive and helpful! As was my big son, who was my trusty white board scribe and general helper throughout the whole day. 

The workshop went wonderfully! (So wonderful we entirely forgot to take photos! That's me living the moment for you...)

We had 11 budding writers aged 7 through to 12 and discussed all manner of things writing, from where to find ideas to how to build a strong story.  I loved hearing the kids' original ideas and encouraging them to push their writing just that little bit further. We had some laughs too - especially when trying to describe the smells in the 'smelly boxes' or when I scared myself with the timer on my phone! 

It was also super encouraging to get some feedback from several of the parents after the event. I received a couple of messages just to let me know how much their kids enjoyed the workshop. One mum even sent me this photo - it's Annie's very first story. Apparently she was so inspired by the workshop that she went home and just started writing.

​What do you think? Isn't it brilliant?! 

(My next workshop - this time for adults who are keen to write books for children - will be on Saturday 19th May. I'll post more details soon. )