Creating stories with animals as your characters is great fun. By using imaginative words, you can paint a picture of each animal in your reader’s mind, and all without a paint brush.

Let’s see how you can do this. Meet Ziggy, a Pekinese. (That’s a dog, for those of you who don’t know!)

Ziggy was no bigger than a guinea pig and had a face like a squashed monkey’s. No-one actually could be sure that he was a dog. When he breathed, he made snorting noises like a piglet.

Now you’ve started building a picture of Ziggy. But what else can you do? How do we get a feel for his personality?

‘Back off,’ Ziggy snapped, his tiny razor-sharp teeth showing between black lips. He eyed the huge bone in front of him. It was nearly twice his size. But Ziggy showed no speck of fear. He stood his ground, not a quiver in his body, as Bob the basset looked on.

Okay, now we get an idea of who Ziggy is and how he appears to others. But what about how Ziggy feels inside?

Ziggy’s heart thundered in his chest. That basset was way bigger than him. He’d gobble him up in one quick bite. Please, he thought to himself, please let me look scary.

Now you’re getting an idea of how dialogue and action around dialogue can paint a picture of your character.

In my workshop, ‘Doggy Dialogue’, you’ll get the chance to bring to life the doggy characters in my book ‘Seeing Dogs’. And of course, Lucy, my guide dog, will be there to lend a paw.

See you there!
Janet

Hi! My name’s Lucy and I’m a guide dog.

My Mum must be a bit forgetful, cos she calls me other names. Sometimes I’m Loopy, or Fruit Loop, or even Goosey.

But I reckon everyone should just call me Top Dog. Why, you ask? Because I can do things other dogs can’t.

Think I’m joking? Okay, tell me when you’ve ever seen a dog admiring itself in a mirror at a clothes shop. And how many pooches hang out at the movies? (It’s the popcorn I go for, not the film.)

I’ll be dropping in on you during the Writers Festival, so start making some lip-smacking Top Dog biscuits.

Hi all, and I’m really looking forward to the festival.

I’m happy to talk about the life of a famous writer (although first I’ll need to find one so I can ask them what it’s like …), how to write a bestselling book (this topic might be cut, as JK Rowling hasn’t replied to my emails, faxes, SMSs, phone calls and letters yet), and what a million dollars in cash looks like (might also be cut, as the bank hasn’t got back to me either – I only need it for a day, but they’re being really difficult).

Failing that I’ll chat about the things I DO know: writing, web pages, robots, publishing and maybe a bit about growing up in Spain. If there’s any time left, I might even read a bit of Hal Spacejock – particularly his attempts to land his ship and refund some mouldy chocolate. Oh, and remind me about the signed bookmarks…

Cheers
Simon Haynes

Hello everyone,

I am nervous because I normally edit my writing many times before I put it into the public space. I have done so much editing of my writing that I even enjoy it now!

What kind of weird person enjoys editing their work? Am I the only one, or do others like editing too? I usually do more than 20 complete edits of my books before they are published.

(The best part of writing is the creative 1%)
Dave Caddy

p.s. This is my first blog entry…..ever. Thanks Rosalie.

Joy and I are looking forward to telling you about The Catalpa Escape – the story about the great escape of the Fenians from Fremantle Prison on Easter Monday, 17 April 1876.

Here are a 3 questions for you to research:

1. Who were the Fenians?
2. Easter Monday this year was March 24th, nearly a month earlier than it was in 1876. Why isn’t Easter at the same time each year?
3. The story of this great escape involved a whaling ship called Catalpa, bought specifically to sail out to WA from America to rescue the Fenian prisoners. Why do you think they chose a whaling ship and not a war ship?

The first to answer all 3 questions correctly gets a special news flash on this website!

Just type your answers as a comment below.

Not a lot happens on a sugar cane farm. That didn’t stop my mother writing to all her children once a week.

At boarding school I remember receiving a letter in which she described the antics of a skink who lived under the fridge. He would retrieve sultanas she threw to him and hoard them in a little pile.

Mum wrote the details of her daily life. I recall many descriptions of baking days, frightening snake stories, bush fires and people she’d met on her weekly trip to town.

It was not until my father died that my own writing habit began in earnest. I challenged myself to post a letter to my mother every Monday.

This initial challenge was made more daunting when my brother told me: “Jules I hope you realise Mum reads your letter to everybody who visits her, including the cleaner.”

That is really how I learnt to keep it short, keep it conversational and interesting and post it every Monday.

Several years later my husband introduced me to the new term “blogger”.

This new style of writing felt like a home-coming – back to my writing roots and the mother who taught me about writing in first person.

Now in her late eighties my mother recently visited my website, read my blog and posted a comment. My post about her and her response are here on this link to Sewing Circle.

I wonder what your mother taught you?

I’ve put one of my favourite bits of writing into a page on the site. It’s from Chapter 1 of The Little Prince.

If you haven’t read The Little Prince, you really must. It’s a wonderful little book – written a long time ago and now people describe it as a ‘classic’. This just means it’s one of the all time best books ever written.

To read my extract, go to this link. I wish I could include the drawings as well, but there’s this thing called copyright, which means you can’t publish certain things without permission from the person who owns them – usually the publisher. I haven’t done that.

All the more reason to get the book and see for yourself! I think it might inspire you to write and draw something of your own that’s ‘out of this world’.

What’s your favourite bit of writing?

Oh, and if you’re wondering who on earth I am, I’m one of the Festival organisers and also Hallam Foster’s mum – he’s in Mr Yates’ class.

Hi Everyone,

I am very excited about being part of the Rosalie Writers Festival this year. I have two new books coming out, but I will only be able to show you one of them at the Festival – Miss Llewellyn-Jones – because my other one, Black Jack Anderson, won’t be finished until the beginning of June. Never mind. Next time, maybe?

There is another reason why I love coming to Rosalie Primary School.

Both my mother Emily (Bonnie) Ives and my father, Russell Chandler, went to school there in the 1920s when the school was still quite new.

There was no grass and the pavilion classroom had blinds, but no windows – it was just like a big, enclosed veranda.

Some of my aunts, uncles and cousins went to Rosalie, too. There are at least three paving bricks in the rose garden with the names of my Chandler, Logan and Kelly relatives on.

Let me know if you can find them.

Bye for now.
Elaine Forrestal

I’m looking forward to coming to this year’s Rosalie Writers Festival to talk about my new book, Simpson and his Donkey.

It traces the boyhood friendship of John Simpson Kirkpatrick and Billy Lowes – from their home in England, where they walked donkeys for a penny a ride during summer holidays – to the battlefield of Gallipoli, where the ‘Anzac tradition’ was born.

Simpson’s story is one of courage, and mateship – those wonderful ideals that distinguish and unite all Australians. With Anzac Day coming up soon I hope lots of the students and parents and teachers will take the opportunity to attend a dawn service.

See you soon.
Mark Greenwood