Signing off for 2023

Swapna HaddowHalfway Round the World with the Haddows, Pawsome News, Roarsome News, Roosting With Dave, Scrapbook, The Bad Panda Club

Phew! That was a BIG year! You’ve all made so many of my dreams come true, starting with a phenomenal World Book Day release for Dave Pigeon. I was chuffed to bits to see so many schools join in with mine and Sheena’s big virtual event. HUGE thank you to everyone who shared their work with us. Dave was back …

My top tips for chairing a festival event 

Swapna HaddowHalfway Round the World with the Haddows, Scrapbook

This weekend was the Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival. The theme of the festival was ‘a moment that marks the beginning of a journey, to the place where the river meets the sea – Te Pūao’ and the incredible star-studded line up of writers, illustrators and creatives included Witi Ihimaera, Fiona Farrell, Jacinta Ruru, Stacey Morrison, Ruth Paul, Susan Wardell, Michaela Keeble and Tokerau …

Writing Young Fiction with SCBWI NZ

Swapna HaddowHalfway Round the World with the Haddows, Scrapbook

Thank you so much to Team SCBWI NZ for inviting me to talk about creating young fiction. I loved hearing everyone’s under-pressure pitches and hope you are all off to work on your young fiction series right away. I thought I would just highlight my key points about young fiction here: •Remember to invest in your characters and create characters …

Ignition Children’s Literature Festival: Day 1

Swapna HaddowHalfway Round the World with the Haddows

Thank you to everyone who came along to join Barbara Else, Kitty Brown and I for our ‘Pathways to Publication’ panel today. It was a hugely enlightening conversation about our publication journeys which were very different but started in the same vein of trying to fill a gap in the market. Kitty’s journey began with creating Te Reo Māori board …