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

We - that’s us, the organisers - are very excited about having a blog on the Festival site, because it means you can publish your opinions, thoughts and ideas, and your friends can comment on them.

It’s like a conversation between lots of people, with opportunities to show off your writing skills!

We’ve asked the presenters to publish blog posts as well - so you can comment on those too. A couple of them have already promised to, so keep an eye out for those.

And get your mum, dad, gran, brother, sister, dog to send in posts as well. This site is all about the Rosalie writing community so everyone is welcome.

To get your blog post published, type it into an email and send the email to jane@rosaliewriters.com.

To comment on someone else’s blog post, just click on the comments link below it and type straight into the space that appears on the website. When you submit your comment, wait a while and you’ll see it appear below the blog post when you ‘click to view’.

Blog posts and comments may take up to a day to appear - depending on how quick we are at publishing them.

If you’ve got any questions, just use the contact form on this website.