Children's Book Week, for me, is always frantic and usually stretches to about six weeks but it's great to get out from behind the computer and talk to real kids. And it's a good way to try out my stories and poems. It's one thing to guess what kids might like and another thing to see what does or doesn't work. In an ideal world I'd read every story I write to kids before I send it to my publisher. But the world is never ideal and there's never time to do so.
One of the many lasting images of this year's Book Week was when I managed to coax three good sports from a school I visited into posing wearing beards and holding copies of my poetry book, My Sister Has a Big Black Beard. Thanks, girls!
The Maine coastline is dotted with fishing villages and holiday cottages. City people escaping the summer heat have been coming here for a hundred and fifty years to cool off.
Before moving to Australia many years ago my family were "summer people" here, so for me it holds a lot of wonderful childhood memories. There are no beaches, no surf and the water's too cold to swim in but it's very beautiful and I love it - probably because I spent my summers here as a child. Whenever I come here we eat lobsters, as that's what the local fishermen catch.
