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 Master class, here I come

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McManly

McManly


Number of posts : 16
Registration date : 2012-05-08
Age : 79
Location : Sydney, Australia

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyMon May 14, 2012 3:33 am

I'm basically a non-fiction writer, and I'm good at it, but let's face it, unless you write fiction, there are people who will sniff and say you aren't a real author.

Basically, I'm commercial, but not for the money. I know that the more books I get into people's hands (or libraries), the more I can transmit what I regard as core values to the next generation.

Hey, guess what: I'm a retired teacher, but when people asked me what I taught, my answer was always an urbane "Children!", followed by a grin that challenged them to ask for more if they dared. I was never so much a teacher as an educator.

Anyhow, having written about the reality of Australian exploration (for adults first and later for children), having written histories of rockets, poisons and natural history (for children first, and later, for adults), and being currently engaged in writing about gold in Australia, I wanted to write some YA historical fiction that used all of these areas of expertise to give young people a sense of what Australian life was in the 1850s and 1860s.

Anybody who has read any Jean Auel will know the risk, the temptation, of cramming all of the research in. I won't be doing that. Instead, I need to learn to use a light touch, so that the reality slips in, and never barges in.

Next Saturday, towards the end of the Sydney Writers' Festival, I am off to a workshop with Mal Peet, an award-winning and highly-rated YA author. I hope I will emerge a better person.
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http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/writing/
Abe F. March
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Abe F. March


Number of posts : 10768
Registration date : 2008-01-26
Age : 85
Location : Germany

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Re: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyMon May 14, 2012 7:15 am

Sounds like you have added much excitement to you life.
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dkchristi
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dkchristi


Number of posts : 8594
Registration date : 2008-12-29
Location : Florida

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Re: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyMon May 14, 2012 9:09 am

I spent a little time (16 days) in Australia in the late 1970's. It was a grand experience. The history is amazing and complex. I remember Australian friends saying that tracing back to their ancestors was risky --- so they lived for the future, not the past.
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alj
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alj


Number of posts : 9633
Registration date : 2008-12-05
Age : 80
Location : San Antonio

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Re: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyMon May 14, 2012 9:15 am

I envy you - that class sounds inspiring.

Ann
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McManly

McManly


Number of posts : 16
Registration date : 2012-05-08
Age : 79
Location : Sydney, Australia

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Re: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyMon May 14, 2012 4:37 pm

Yes, dkchristi, but Australia has moved on a bit. These days, Australians who don't know their history are delighted to claim convict ancestors, because they cling to the view that all convicts were transported "for stealing a loaf of bread to feed their families". There were many who were victims of society, but there were others who were double-dyed villains of the worst sort. It is often unclear which were which and who had a bit of each in their make-up.

No matter. Convict ancestors are romantic. My wife has some convicts in her lineage, my side were either middle-class Scots on the make, or left Cornwall or Wales of their own free will in sour economic times.

At the moment, I am working in parallel on a short non-fiction history work for Year 4 (Grade 4) about some of the more unusual First Fleeters and what they got up to. I need to get most of this (12 vignettes, ~18,000 words) before I write a talk I have to give in July, so I am pushing it along.

Among the convicts, I have one real villain who faked a find of gold and was hanged for other crimes before the first year was out. My aim is to offer reality and context in easy bites, but with a low romance quotient. I tell a lot of the stories in "Imagined Conversations", where some of the speakers' words are taken from their letters, diaries or journals.

My ethos comes from Jerome S. Bruner: even complex issues can be dealt with in an intellectually honest fashion at any stage of development.
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Shelagh
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Shelagh


Number of posts : 12662
Registration date : 2008-01-11
Location : UK

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Re: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyTue May 15, 2012 3:43 am

Hi Peter,

I write books that attempt to educate as well as entertain children. In a recent blog interview with Sean Taylor, I said:

"My latest work, Mr. Planemaker’s Diving Machine, is the second book in the Planemaker series. This is a book for very bright kids, and adults who enjoy reading books written for very bright kids. It demands a certain amount of concentration not required of books aimed at a similar target audience. Despite the levels of concentration expected of the reader, the book is easy to read; it is the concepts that are challenging. For anyone with a thirst for knowledge and a love of learning, this book is for you. For readers looking for less challenging forms of entertainment, there are passages in the book that can be skimmed over. These short explanations are necessary to show the reader that certain actions have been taken, but only those with a desire to know how things work will want the complete low down. In other words, if readers are happy to know that an apple falls perpendicularly from a tree because of gravity without an explanation of Newton’s Theory of Gravitation, then skipping the explanations will not detract from the story."
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http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk
McManly

McManly


Number of posts : 16
Registration date : 2012-05-08
Age : 79
Location : Sydney, Australia

Master class, here I come Empty
PostSubject: Re: Master class, here I come   Master class, here I come EmptyTue May 15, 2012 5:24 am

I'm in the honeymoon phase when there is a new review most days, the pay-off for a couple of years of hard work, setting down a lifetime's experience of messing with life in all its glory.

I liked a recent review that said in part "Photos of deceased animals and close ups of fly eyes and maggots, as well as the array of fun facts will keep children turning the pages."

Yep, that's me, being entertaining :-)
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