Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

Interview by Nicole Melanson ~

Jacquelyn Mitchard is the author of 21 books, including 15 novels for adults and teens. Her first book, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the first selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, with more than 4 million copies in print in 27 languages worldwide. Her second novel was nominated for the Orange Prize, and two of her books have been made into films. A member of the 2003 Fiction Jury for the National Book Award, Mitchard is the editor of Merit Press Books, a Young Adult imprint under the aegis of F & W Media, and was the 2013 recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for a ghost story in a collection honoring her mentor, Ray Bradbury, a story also a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. Her novels have enjoyed wide popular appeal as well as critical acclaim…

Cordelia Jensen

This month, What Was on… celebrates the release of Skyscraping with author Cordelia Jensen!

Skyscraping has been hailed as ‘exquisite free verse poems.’ ‘Illuminating and deeply felt.’ (Booklist’s Starred Review). And Pop Crush has named it one of the 10 Best New YA Books that Explore Sexuality.

Mira is just beginning her senior year of high school when she discovers her father with his male lover. Her world–and everything she thought she knew about her family–is shattered instantly. Unable to comprehend the lies, betrayal, and secrets that–unbeknownst to Mira–have come to define and keep intact her family’s existence, Mira distances herself from her sister and closest friends as a means of coping. But her father’s sexual orientation isn’t all he’s kept hidden. A shocking health scare brings to light his battle with HIV. As Mira struggles to make sense of the many fractures in her family’s…

Mount Congreve Garden, Co. Waterford

drawn to the canvas

thoughts of Monet and Van Gogh

then  fallen soldiers

A moment of togetherness this morning at Boatstrand Harbour as a fixated seagull and I watched The Maid Maggie on the silvery sea.

The Maid Maggie

After an eventful week at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, I had the pleasure of attending the AFCC Closing Night dinner at AFCC Chairperson Claire Chiang’s home last Saturday. Ms Claire Chiang and her husband Mr Ho Kwon Ping were most hospitable and their children very kindly chipped in to serve the guests too!

With Ms Claire Chiang, Mr Ramachandran, Book Council Exco members and other guests (Photo credit: David Seow)

I was also delighted to meet Singapore’s favourite Giant Pandas Kai Kai and Jia Jia in the living room and could not resist taking a close-up shot with them. It was a close encounter of the panda kind since I write the Kai Kai & Jia Jia picture book series for Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

I am generally not a photo-person but since author David Seow had his camera on hand and we were chatting with AFCC Keynote Speaker…

 It’s time to kick off summer with a Fight for Rhinos t-shirt campaign. What would you like to see on the shirts?

                             Get your designs and suggestions to us. DEADLINE has been extended to JUNE 30TH.

Send us YOUR designs. We’ll post the entries and leave it up to all of you to decide. The design with the most votes will be used on our summer  t-shirts and the winner will receive one of the shirts. Contest open to all ages.

Keep in mind it should be eye-catching and not overly detailed.

Please send your original design to fightforrhinos@gmail.com. Deadline is June 30 . We’re excited to see what you come up with!

Skips seem to be punctuating the landscape in Ireland these days and the mere sight of them sets my mind racing.

For a couple of weeks, every single skip I looked into had at least two old-fashioned suitcases in them ~ you know the ones without wheels?

I longed to know where they had travelled and, of course, with whom.

I’ve only ever had one major dealing with a skip and that was when we were clearing out our late parent’s house. Practically everything that went into it carried memories of some description and it was only then that I truly realised how what can appear to be total rubbish can have very significant meaning for somebody somewhere.

Skips also make me think of an exercise I had to do as part of a course on writing poetry. The opening line was: If I had a skip I would throw away…