3 big ideas with links to even more big ideas...

My inner geek rejoices.

Scientists have found another near earth like planet in Glisese 581. e to go with d that they discovered in 2007

That brings the total of exoplanets up to 347.

This is truly the decade of space exploration. I think the announcement of the discovery of this little planet(ok 1.9 times the size of Earth so not that little) this week is fitting as a testament to Stephen Hawking who is lying gravely ill in England. Stephen has often stated that the future of the human species lies in space.

Ta muchly to P J Hoover of The spectacle blog for alerting all her fellow geek kids writers out there.

Jumped onto Jane Friedman’s blog today. She is regularly posting the best twitter updates she see’s on her blog and today is no exception.

49 creative ways you can profit from content marketing by Sonia Simone

What a comprehensive list and the fun bit is that it that it can definitely apply to children’s bookshops (John.... Malcolm....go take a look) but also Authors and Illustrators could probably apply some of the ways directly to their own business. Actually if you know anyone operating a small business send them on over to take a look.

Twitter is good for something....Posting the title of your latest blog post...drives traffic to your website.

Penguin have just released some teachers notes to go with my book and I would like to thank the teacher who wrote them. They are very good and just what I would have done if I was still in the classroom, probably not in so much detail tho. After all this book would have been one reading group out of five and the reading ages in my middle school classrooms used to range from emergent to teen...but it’s a great resource to have.

On the conference front...(oh no I hear you sigh) things are continuing to come together slowly. However we have tied down a fantastic master class for Illustrators today...I would love to go on their mystery trip...I wonder if I can convince Fifi that I am really an up and coming Illustrator...

No probably not-she’s seen my stick figures.... (darn –that trip is soooo brilliant....sigh )

maureen

pic is an artists impression of Gliese 581 e

Numbers...Numbers...

It has been 370 days since I posted my first ever blog post. Just over a year.

Here’s a link back to the pathetic paragraph I wrote 51 posts ago. As I look back over the year there have been some highlights in the blogging life. The post where I learned to hyperlink....the post where I learned to post video...the marketing series which became my reason to blog in the first place... I really think that I need a reason to blog...my life isn’t interesting enough to just talk about it. I have discovered amazing blogs by other writers in NZ and overseas and I have made great friends around the world.

It was a year ago since that momentous committee meeting at Fleur Beale’s where I opened my mouth and said “well how hard can it be to organise a conference?”

It is 162 days until opening day of the conference Friday 18th September 2009.

The major news release has gone out to those on the mailing list with lots of information about what I have been doing with my life since September last year when we had the first formal meeting of the conference committee.

Between April and September we were asking for feedback about what people wanted at the conference. Together the programme team sifted through all the response emails and worked out the strands and how we could address them and then we started to look for speakers to fit the bill. Along the way there have been mini drama’s, wonderful luck, serendipitous happenings and we have felt all the highs and lows of putting together what we hope will be a must attend event of the Children’s lit year.

An over riding concern of mine was to keep the cost as low as I could because I wanted to be able to afford to attend my own conference. The pennies are very tightly watched in our household and with the recession biting just as we were firming up the monster programme, this became an imperative.

When I look at the full programme I feel very proud of what we have achieved.
For $300 conference delegates will get four superb speakers, a choice of four workshops out of eleven, four panel discussions and that’s not counting the other goodies that are under wraps....and they are good. Any one of the workshops on offer would cost at least half the fee to attend and some very much more.

Included in the fee is all the food from 2pm Friday until 5pm Sunday night.
Staying at the venue (the cheapest place around) includes breakfast as well. The view from Capital House is spectacular. You overlook the two harbours and out to sea. It’s blustery, bracing and beautiful.

I have been lamenting to friends the conference has taken over my life so I have no other topic of conversation but the journey so far has been interesting much like the journey through a year blogging.

162 days and counting.....

Maureen

The pic is the front door of Capital House. Opening for The Spinning Gold Conference Friday 18th September 2009
Below is some video....to show how far I've come from my first post. If you can’t see the video - go here to enjoy it.

Book by Book: the making of Monkey Man by Jarrett Krosoczka
Jarrett made this entertaining video with the help of some very very good writer/illustrators who all played themselves in it. It is long but very funny and just look at the credit list at the end. This was played at the winter SCBWI conference in New York February 2009.


BOOK BY BOOK: the making of a monkey man from Jarrett Krosoczka on Vimeo.