Na to hoa aroha

Kia ora e hoa ma. Nga mihi o te ra ki nga akonga me nga kai ako put i noa tenei whenua ataahua. ...

Greetings to all you teachers and fine students throughout Aotearoa.

It was a pleasure to meet you all so recently. I enjoyed presenting my stories and poetry to you all.

The standard of the sudents work at workshops was also of high quality.

It was great to meet so many committed and helpful teachers. Above and beyond that I was encouraged by the positive, and fine abilities of our young students who are polite helpful and full of fine positive qualities.

Should students or teachers wish to ask questions or discuss my writing I am more then happy to do so.

MAY YOUR PENS FLOW FROM YOUR HEARTS

Na to hoa Aroha
Apirana Taylor

What a great week

Dear Readers and Writers in Franklin,

What a great week I had visiting your wonderful schools, and seeing something of the beautiful countryside as I travelled from school to school. Thanks for making me feel so welcome.

I was very impressed by the variety of thoughtful questions I was asked about writing. You had all prepared really well. Let me know if there is anything else you wanted to ask, that we didn't have time for . . . except about how to do the magic tricks!! :-)

It was great to be reminded that Ed Hillary went to Tuakau Primary School and that Elsie Locke attended Waiuku School and set her book, "The end of the harbour", in the area. (It's a very good book, worth a read.)

It made me wonder what other writers and illustrators live, or lived, in the Franklin District. It might be fun and interesting to make a map and match up authors with places. This website could help: http://www.christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/ChildrensAuthors/

Those of you who started writing stories during the workshops, how did you get on? Did you get to the end of your stories?

Have any of you played any of the word games and come up with some more unique combinations of possible stoy starters?

Do let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

And remember, stories are all around you.

From,

Bill Nagelkerke

Melanie's Pukekohe visit.

Kia Ora everybody,
I have just come down to earth after my great week in and around Pukekohe. What a beautiful area, even if it did rain on you nearly every day at exactly three o'clock. It was good to meet so many people and hear what you had to say about your writing, and my books. Thank you to all the schools for making me feel welcome, and all of you tamariki for asking such thoughtful questions.
I wonder if any of you work-shoppers went home and planned a story?
Can you remember how I grow my tiny ideas into stories? Well I certainly hope those big porky pies you will be telling from now on will make your stories interesting, and not get you into too much trouble. Hmmm, and if they do- well who knows there could just be another story there!
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Arohanui
Melanie Drewery

'fish 'n' chippers' question from John Parker

Oops! Forgot to ask the question I'd like you to respond to.

Can you tell me about a writing technique/topic/tip that helped you write well?

Look forward to hearing about it.

John Parker

hi, fish 'n' chippers!

John Parker here, back from a great week in Southland, visiting schools and teachers and classes. Having lived in Riverton for a while, it was very satisfying to return to this wonderful part of the country.

That title? As I said when I was talking to you, fish 'n' chips go together very well - and so do reading 'n' writing. I've not yet met a good writer who's not also a good reader. So get stuck in and start reading! A reading habit will reward you so much in terms of teaching you about yourself and other people, about feelings and situations and cultures and just about everything on Planet Earth - and beyond. Plus, of course, you develop a sense of language: the sentence, the look and sound of a word, fullstops and commas and semi-colons and apostrophes, paragraphing, sequence, the relationship between illustrations and the text - and so on!

So how about doing your literary fish 'n' chips on a daily basis. And if you've not yet discovered an author you want to read, ask the librarians, or your friends, or just keep looking. I think everyone has an author/book dying to meet you and get acquainted.

I think it's really important, when you're writing to 'own' your topic. That means knowing about it or feeling quite strongly about it so that you can write with confidence, with plenty of things to say about the topic - and also with the confidence to write exactly about that topic with well-chosen words.

And it's very important, too, to list or note down the things you would like to write about. They'll probably be under your nose: the food you like best, the footy try you scored, the great way you beat goal defence to give your tean the victory, your cat's favourite sleeping-place. Or you might like to write to your local newspaper about something that's bothering you and that you want the council to fix. There are many ways of writing creatively.

Lastly, let your writing simmer. If you rush it your subconscious won't have a chance to bubble up with ways of improving your writing. So keep on drafting!

I look forward to hearing about your writing - and your reading.

All the best

John Parker

Southland Tour - from Claire Vial

Hello!

I am now back in Auckland after a wonderful visit to Southland. This was my first time to Southland and what a wonderful place it is. Friendly people, sunny weather, stunning scenery and delicious food!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time speaking to groups of students and teachers. It is always a delight for me to see peoples faces light up when giving my presentation; as it reminds me how fortunate I am to be able to combine and share my love of photography, knowledge and writing.

I would like to thank all the students and teachers of the schools I visited for their hospitality, great listening and superb questioning skills.

I hope from my visit you were able to take away with you some insight into the amount work and energy that goes into publishing a non-ficition book; plus some new fascinating information about African animals.

All questions or comments are welcome - I will do my best to answer them.

In the meantime, my question to you is "what two things can you do to improve your non-fiction writing"?

Hope to hear from some of you soon.

Claire

Southland Tour

Hi students and teachers,

I haven't been to Southland for many years and I'm really looking forward to visiting schools in your part of New Zealand. I live in Howick on the outskirts of Auckland, but like country areas as I grew up in a small town called Waipu in North Auckland. Quite a few of the stories I've written have an historical background. I wonder if that's partly because the early settlers to both Howick and Waipu have made them places of historical interest.
I'm looking forward to telling you about becoming a writer, the way I go about producing a story, working with an illustrator, (or doing the illustrations yourself), suggestions for your writing, etc. I also hope to see what writing projects you have done and learn about your school and and the local area.
Your questions are welcome - I'll do my best to answer them.
One question for you from me - what is one very good way to increase your chances of becoming a writer?

See you soon,

Jennifer Beck