Hey cHEwY gum gums

I’ve had an awesome weekend at the Sydney Writers Festival, doing things for the Family Fun Day. The Big Backyard is getting bigger every year, and there was plenty to see and do with crafts, storytelling and Minecraft…yep I never thought I would see Xbox One at a writer’s festival but there you go 🙂

Last week, I went to Crown Street’s Lights off, Torches On event. It was part of their readathon, where kids were invited to come in their PJs to read books in the library, with the lights turned off. It reminded me of when I needed a torch to read books, after my parents told me to sleep. I sneaked a torch to bed and read some books (and yes I also used it to play my Gameboy too since they weren’t backlit back then haha). Now we can read our e-readers and tablets in complete darkness, though I doubt they would be too good for our eyes hehe.

So now I’m writing this blog on the way back home to Sydney, after a visit to Dandenong High. It’s been my fifth year in a row at DHS and I’m blessed to be back there, speaking to the Year 7 kids. True, my talk remains largely the same but they still give me a few surprises. The librarians there continue to make their displays bigger and better than ever too. I love how diverse the kids are there, it gives me more hints of what my latest story will be like…yes Nothing’s Prefect continues to evolve. I’ve decided to rewrite the beginning now. I’ve spent a few weeks on the first third of the manuscript but hopefully it’ll pay off when I get rolling with it.

O.W