I’ve just had the best sort of weekend for me – a booky weekend. The Wild Imaginings Children’s Writers and Illustrators Hui took place in my new hometown of Dunedin last weekend, with the WILD in Wild Imaginings standing for Writers and Illustrators Love Dunedin and it turns out we certainly do.
Team Wild Imaginings put on a fabulous weekend of workshops, panels and talks for children’s writers of New Zealand, hosted at the Dunedin Public Library, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Athenaeum Library. It was a chance to meet lots of the New Zealand talent I had heard about and for us all to share our experiences of the publication journey.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, book folk are the best folk. I was made to feel so welcome at the hui and made lots of new friends.
We heard from the super talented illustrator David Elliot, the super inspirational Maria Gill and the superwoman Dame Wendy Pye amongst many, many others.
I loved hearing from Ella West on turning a novel into a film script. We learnt all about loglines, film script etiquette and that dastardly copyright contract small print.
On Sunday, I ran a workshop on writing a young fiction series. We spoke about the market, bestselling young fiction, writing a proposal and how this is the best age group to write for because they don’t eat the gluesticks during your event.
Thank you to everyone who came along to the event. I can’t wait to read all your young fiction books soon. And thank you VERY much to the organisers for such a wonderful and unforgettable weekend.
