Teaching Guide for Destroying Avalon

On my website there has always been teaching notes for Destroying Avalon. These were devised when Destroying Avalon was selected by Australian Standing Order, as a book to be sent to public libraries.Today, after mucking around for hours with the upload button I’ve managed to put an entire teaching guide on this blog. It contains some of the original information but I think it has a lot more content. Especially teacher reference notes and activities presented as student briefs.

You’ll find it under Teaching Notes and Guides on the home page. Click on through to the guide. It’s yours to download and reproduce!

As an English teacher I know how much effort you have to put into devising a new package for a new novel. I hope this takes the pain out of it! Any comments or suggestions welcome!

The Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Presentation Night

It’s true, I have the inside information, I know who the winners are! They were announced last night at a dinner held amongst ‘the stacks’ in the State Library. And so…

FICTION

The Travel Writer   Simone Lazaroo

POETRY

All the Time in the World  Dennis Haskell

WRITING for YOUNG ADULTS

Destroying Avalon  Kate McCaffrey

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The Arrival  Shaun Tan

SCRIPT

Sardines  Hellie Turner

NON-FICTION

Rob Riley  Quentin Beresford

Arthur Tang  Peter Edwards

WEST AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

The Workshops   Bobbie Oliver & Patrick Bertola

PREMIER’S PRIZE WINNER

The Arrival  Shaun Tan

I don’t think it came as a great surprise to anyone that Shaun’s book would win the Premier’s Prize- and deservedly so. It is an outstanding success. Shaun was unable to make the presentation but his very proud parents accepted the award- which I imagine must have been a huge thrill!

I honestly had not prepared a speech- as anyone at the presentation will attest to! I hadn’t even mentally prepared one- so I gave a rather perfunctory and generalised thank you. After the shock wore off I realised I’d failed to acknowledge the other short listed authors; Julia Lawrinson, Katy Watson-Kell and Diana Chase- the only remedy was to personally acknowledge them, after the presentation ended! I didn’t really thank the judges at all- and so I’d now like to take this opportunity to send a big thank you to them- Ms Chloe Mauger, Professor Andrew Taylor, Professor Ed Jagger and Ms Lucille Fisher. As Simone Lazaroo said everyone else was mentioned in the book’s acknowledge pages- and in Destroying Avalon there is a page and a half of acknowledgements (you all know who you are)!!

It was a fantastic honour and I am thrilled to have my book acknowledged in such a way! The lesson of the night was, of course,what happens when you spend all your time thinking about clothes and none of it on what you should say if you should win!!!

A New Publication Date

I had a quick chat with my publisher about the ’second manuscript’- at the moment titled ‘In Ecstasy’. Originally its release was scheduled for around about September next year, but I was hoping we might be able to move it up the school calendar to say, I don’t know, about July? Seemed to be a good time to release a book about the dissolution of friendship and drugs.

Before I could make my suggestion she told me they had scheduled ‘In Ecstasy’ for- wait for it- an April release! Woo hoo! Even better, thought I, much earlier in the school year, settled in after the start of Term 1, looking for a new and interesting and dynamic book and then along comes ‘In Ecstasy’. Brilliant, I looked at the pile of teetering manuscript that is the second book. And then I realised I’d need to start WORKING on it!! Ahh yes, that’s how it’s done. It comes home from the editor (covered in both red pen and lead pencil) and then the re-writing occurs!

So that’s where it’s at now. I’ve almost finished the structural edit- almost, and then back to Janet for further tweaking (or replace that word with slashing)!

Yeeah haaaa!