writing, publishing, decorating…

WTF?

Yes, dear reader, I do still blog!

In fact, I’ve missed it (and YOU) desperately. Sometimes, I think blogging is my favourite form of writing. I love the immediacy, the intimacy, the ongoing relationship.

And I LOVE all the pretties.

So, Elsie’s makeover. Of late it has ground to a halt.

Because…

WINTER.

Holy smoking fireplace it’s been a doozy. Who wants to paint in this weather? Certainly not I. Certainly not Himself.

But the hallway and entrance are finished.

We used Haymes, Greyology 2, and it’s scrump-diddly-umptious! (It’s hard to capture properly without a big girl camera. But you get the picture.)

In the second bedroom we used British Paints, Crystal Dash.

It turned out to be way more mauve than pink.

Considering mauve makes me want to puke, I’m surprised how much I love this colour.

It’s super restful and changes hue throughout the day, growing warm in the late afternoon sun—when I often stand and stare at it.

Fuck, I love colour.

When the weather warms up (not long now), we’ll paint the lounge room this colour (see below).

It’s kind of moss green.  I forget the fancy-pants paint name and it’s too cold to go out to the shed and find the tin!

I’ll post some more pics when we’re done. Consider these ‘befores’.

In other news, I had a new picture book come out! Thank you, Lisa Stewart, for your sensitive, timeless illustrations. You have made this book so joyful!

Here are some shots of it sitting artfully around the house…

Wibble Wobble has been lovingly received by adults as well as babies. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me (and my publishers at HarperCollins)!

Picture books are a frigging head wreck. They are SO HARD to nail. Easy to write. Hard to get right. That’s what they say. And it’s true. Trust me!

I dedicated this one to the bubs (the ducklings) in our Facebook group, the Duck Pond. We’ve had an impressive list of births since the group started three years ago.  I wanted to formally welcome our little ones. What better way than with a rhyming picture book?

Please note: The Duck Pond is not a cult… (Ahem)

THIS WRITING LIFE

I’m still working on Truly Tan: Shocked!. This is the eighth and final book in the series.

Mostly it’s been going well.

Although, I never feel confident until I’m writing the final scenes.

I get especially nervous at the three-quarter mark.

Will I fulfil my promise? Can I tie up the loose ends, smooth out the knots? Can I follow through on what I’ve set up?

It’s bloody scary!

Some days, like say, um, last Tuesday, my entire writing day looks like this…

On this auspicious, doodling and despairing day, I wrote, oh, about 200 decent words.

Thankfully the next day I hit about 2000.

And so it goes, yeah?

Meantime, I’ve had a BRILLIANT idea for a screenplay.

All the shiny things…

Hahahahahahahahahahhaha!

Let’s breathe, shall we?

To the garden.

Shining Happy News from Girl and Duck.com 

The Scribbles Academy opened in July!  It did, it did!

This was our first and final intake for 2019.

THIRTY gorgeous new writers and illustrators joined us! Can you believe it? I’m beyond excited for them and cannot wait to help them achieve their writing and publishing goals!

The Scribbles Academy opens again for its next intake in February 2020.

If you want updates just hop on my mailing list, honey. Too easy!

And in further news, Q and Q Friday keeps kicking goals!

The final show for winter 2019 is this coming Friday, August 16. Then we have a six week break before the spring season.

It’s not too late to subscribe to Q and Q Friday! All the shows are recorded and stored on our private website; during the break you can backtrack and BINGE, darling!

You’ll be a freaking kid lit GENIUS by the time you’re through.

It’s like Game of Thrones. Without the sex, violence, snow and zombies…

Go check out the details here; find out why everyone raves about this show!

If you want to write or illustrate for kids, you should be watching Q and Q Friday. It’s like, hello? Why wouldn’t you?

Okay, dear reader, I still have a shitload of other stuff I want to share with you. Such as, notes from the fantastic money manifestion course I’m doing online. And notes from the Witchy Cottage.

But Himself has made dinner and I must away and light the candles…

Next time!

Sending love and snowflakes

Jen xo

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