New book, new setting

I am very excited to have a new book coming out next March. It has been a lot of work and a huge learning curve for me, and I've been very grateful for all the help I've received along the way - from the publishers, New Holland, and from many other people who have generously given of their time and expertise. The editing process has been intense, fascinating, time-consuming and complicated, but it is almost over with just a few things left to do.

I'll be talking about it at the Wellington Children's Book Association's annual Christmas Book Buying Night on Tuesday night (see here for more details, and come along if you are in Wellington) and I will be putting more details up on my website closer to the time of release, but in the meantime, here is a hint as to what the first part of the book is about:

First year at art school

First year print making at Elam:





Aren't they beautiful - and not only that, but they are printed not on paper but on either side of an old school folder, flattened and with the central clip removed.

Very proud mother.

 

Summer reading

Thanks to the wonderful Children's Bookshop for this beautiful image:



 

RSNZ Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing

The shortlist for the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing has just been announced on this page and I'm very pleased to be a finalist in the non fiction category.

This year's topic was on the future of science in New Zealand and it took its inspiration from the transit of Venus: "One day in 1769 the future of Aotearoa arrived quite unexpectedly, from the East, and in a form undreamt of. Just as it had some six centuries before. What future is on the horizon now?"



This competition always comes up with some fascinating entries and I'm looking forward to reading the other shortlisted ones, both fiction and non fiction.

The curious incident of the dog in the night time at the NationalTheatre

Our favourite cinema is the wonderful Penthouse cinema in Brooklyn and lately it's been possible to see not just movies there, but filmed versions of live performances - the Met Opera in New York, and from London the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, Shakespeare at the Globe and various National Theatre performances.

The National Theatre ones and the Proms are apparently shown live at sites all around the UK. Here on the other side of the world we have to wait a bit longer, but you still get something of the sense of a live performance - you can see and hear the audience and the venue and sometimes the backdrop: the dome of St Paul's in the background and the London Eye all lit up, revolving above the Thames.

The show we've just seen was The curious incident of the dog in the night time, and it was fascinating to see how a book that is told so much from inside someone's head (and that 'someone" an autistic boy) could be translated to the stage. But it worked, and the sound and lighting and special effects all combined to give the effect of the overload on Christopher's mind when things got too much for him.

The set was also fascinating: hardly any props apart from numbered boxes and a trainset, but the floor was marked by a grid of small lights that could be turned on and off in patterns, and some of the best scenes involved intricate choreography of rest of the cast, all swirling around him at the train station or the Underground. The shots were sometimes filmed from directly above so I don't know if the audience would have got the same view, but the scenes of Christopher going down the escalator, or the train passengers looking out the window - which were both filmed with the cast lying down - were very clever.

It made me think about how acting - and playwriting - is such a collaborative process, and so different from sitting in a room on your own and writing a book. And how watching a play is equally a social event, as opposed to sitting reading a book by yourself. And how interesting it is when something like this is transformed from one medium to the other.

Remembering Margaret Mahy

Remembering Margaret Mahy was the title of a symposium held on Saturday 22 September in Wellington, bringing together a collection of people - academics, writers, readers and fans - to talk about and celebrate Margaret's stories, poems, novels and film scripts. The event was organised by the English Department at Victoria University - in particular  by Kathryn Walls, and as she pointed out in her welcome, it was being held on what was indeed -



Tessa Duder's A writer's life has just been reissued with an updated biography and list of Margaret's books. Tessa set the scene with a summary of Margaret's life and achievements, from her early years as a writer when she was trying to combine motherhood with full-time work and would often stay up writing until nearly dawn. Later in the day she was sometimes known to fall asleep over her library filing cards, and thoughtful colleagues would quietly re-check her filing in the afternoon. Tessa went on to talk about the prolific writing years that followed, and the many prizes and awards she garnered, culminating in the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award (sometimes called "the little Nobel"), presented at Macau in 2006.



Kay Hancock, former editor at Learning Media, is currently undertaking a PhD on the history of the Ready to Read series (aimed at Year 1 - 3 students)  which began in 1963, and she gave a fascinating overview of Margaret Mahy's involvement in this series, with a glimpse of just some of the many titles she wrote. Dr Vivien Van Rij from the Dept of Education at VUW followed this with a talk on Margaret's work for the School Journal. As a contributor to both series, I loved these two talks and the way they highlighted Margaret's fabulous work in this area. Her Ready to Read books such as Fantail, fantail or The bubbling crocodile must have been a delight  for any child to read, with their mix of charm, humour, clever rhythm and rhyme, rich language, appealing characters and warm family situations. I especially liked the cheerful, impulsive Crocodile who made a complete mess of the kitchen but was was enchanted by the foamy soap bubbles: "The Crocodile is a great lover of beauty,"' wrote Margaret.

During the break, we had a charming interlude in which Dr Marco Sonzogni, Current Director of the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, invited the Swiss Ambassador, Marion Weichelt Krupski, to launch a  publication from Wai-te-ata Press. The booklet is an excerpt from Margaret Mahy's The three legged cat translated into te reo and also the four languages of Switzerland: French, German, Italian and Romansh. Interestingly, there was a question at the end of the day about whether any of Margaret's works had been translated into te reo, and it's possible that this is the first.

Dave Gibson, from Gibson Group, said that working with Margaret was one of the fondest memories of his professional life. He kept us entertained, enthralled and occasionally slightly spooked with film clips from Cuckoo Land, The haunting of Barney Palmer and the rather creepy Typhon's People. Loved the singing, dancing IRD men and the wonderful Library Recovery team. Couldn't bear to watch the deletion of Phoenix in the test tube - although it turned out to be not quite what we thought. .

Harry Ricketts then introduced two writers who each gave a personal perspective on what Margaret and her work had meant to them. Eirlys Hunter spoke as a parent who had read and reread Margaret's picture books to her four children, and James Norcliffe as a near neighbour who was the grateful recipient - as many other writers were - of Margaret's legendary kindness and generosity.

After lunch, we heard from a number of other speakers,  focusing on Margaret's writing process, and often on one or more of her YA novels : Dr Claudia Marquis and Dr Rose Lovell-Smith from Auckland University, Dr Anna Smith from the University of Canterbury, Dr Babette Putz and Professor Kathryn Walls from Victoria University, and Trish Brooking from Otago University. Finally Dr Anna Jackson introduced Elizabeth Knox, who ended the day in style with a fine address on The other side of silence.



It was great to have this day set aside to talk about Margaret herself, her vast body of work and her wonderful legacy; how much we have lost with her passing, but how much of her we still have left. Everyone in the room went away not only with a renewed appreciation for Margaret's achievements, but also with a determination to go back and re-read all those wonderful stories, to enjoy them all over again and re-discover their depth and meaning.

 

Two bulls, three pianos

On display for just one month at Te Papa is Michael Parekowhai's amazing installation titled On first looking into Chapman's Homer.

It's hard to describe in a way that does it justice, but it is breath-taking. Here's an attempt: it's a genuine Steinway grand piano, astonishingly red and intricately carved all over including the lid, flanked by two bronze pianos on top of which  are two incredibly life-like and life-size bulls, one standing and pawing the ground, one sitting.



Just after I arrived, two men wandered into the gallery. I don't think they were expecting to see it, because they looked surprised, then confused, then even more surprised and more confused. One of themn sidled over to the gallery attendant and asked, "What does this piece of art mean?" She replied with great aplomb, 'What does any piece of art mean?"



I'd read Mark Amery's review in the Dominion Post which really helped me relate to this work, especailly the references to the river and the landforms as viewed from the the water.

People can book a time to come and play the grand piano. When I was there, a man arrived, sat down and started to play Tom Lehrer's song "The elements", listing all the elements of the periodic table (at least as known in 1959, up to no 102), which made it seem even more surreal.

He also played another Tom Lehrer tune: 'Poisoning pigeons in the park'!

But there are also concerts on every day at 12.30 and it's on display until the 23rd - only a few more days now!