Head on over...

I'm not blogging here any more, as you can probably tell. But head on over to the Swashbuckler website if you want to know more about my pirate books.

What did pirates wear?

Sorry, but real pirates didn't all look like Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp - though some might have been able to carry off the odd frill.
The Bonnie Bookaneer has a great update on new research at Pirates & Privateers.
And you can read what I think about pirate fashion, over on the Swashbuckler website.

Pirates of the you-know-where

Got to see the third instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean a week or so ago. I'm just not too sure about it.
Way too long (but so was the last one) and terribly waffly in places.
Then there was the big speech by Keira/Elizabeth (the other Swann) meant to rally the troops, and I thought everyone would laugh out loud at the end of it, because I nearly did. But no, they rallied.
I have to say that she's no Aragorn.
I can still shed a tear over his rousing cry "This is not that day!" in the final Lord of the Rings.
Keira, I'm afraid, wouldn't get me heading off into battle. She might just convince me to sit down to a nice lunch with that inspiring tone, or maybe get so fired up that I stop yawning, but face violent death and an afterlife stuck with old tentacle features? I don't think so.
And as much as I love Jack Sparrow, I think he's really lost the plot. Well, Jack has, obviously, but so has his scriptwriter.
Anyway, I wonder what other people think...

Whew!

I'm back from Auckland and recovering from all that talking and reading and making stuff at Storylines.
Thanks to everyone who came to hear me read and asked a millions questions at Kohia, St Cuthbert's, Kowhai and Epsom Normal schools, and Next Page Please bookshop, and also at the Family Day.
I was asked to judge the Storylines writing competition in Auckland and it was amazing to see how many entries there were - we ran out of space on the display boards - but that made it even harder to judge.
The winners were Jamie (age group four to eight) who wrote about a dreaded pirate captain who smelled as bad as a "500 year old mustard sandwich", which is an image that's hard to beat, and Eleanor (9 -12) for her warning about the effect of floodwater on the ocean's fish. Bruce Potter judged the drawings and chose winners in each age group who happened to be sisters - although he didn't realise that at the time - so take a bow, members of the Berge family.
I wish I'd had about a dozen prizes.

Story time at Storylines

I'm heading back to Auckland next week for the fabulous Storylines festival and a few school visits.
The Storylines family day in Auckland is on Sunday 10 June at the Aotea Centre. We've got a special Swashbuckler Pirate Zone on Level 3 (sponsored by HarperCollins) and I'll be there all day. Make a hat, a flag, a parrot. Bring your writing and illustration competition entries, and I'll be judging at 2pm.
Storylines is free fun for the family all day long. Authors, illustrators, performers and storytellers celebrate the joy of books and reading - Margaret Mahy and Tessa Duder will both be there, along with international guests Shaun Tan and John Boyne, and many others.
If you're in Auckland that day, we hope to see you there.

Possessed by daemons

We've all gone a bit daemon mad, with the imminent release of the film of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (you might know it better as Northern Lights). In his imagined universes, everyone has a daemon who is their other half, like an external soul: sometimes it's their better half; sometimes a reflection of their true selves.
Here's mine.

Nice.
If only I really had one...

Mind you, before we get to see Golden Compass, there's the new Pirates of the Caribbean, and then good old Harry Potter in July (movie and final book).

The Silver Swan

The third book (you note I'm not necessarily saying "final") in the Swashbuckler series is out now.
Here's the blurb:

In her spacious new home overlooking the sea, Lily is having trouble coping with life ashore.

Parental discipline is boring after months of a carefree pirate life, and it’s not easy to adjust to being back with her family. Everyone is grumpy and on edge, nothing she does is right, and nobody seems to believe Lily's stories of her days as a pirate.

Then one night a fiery family argument is interrupted by a sinister knock on the door.

The world around them has erupted into war, and this time the Swann family goes into action together, as Lily faces her most dangerous adventure yet.

Ahoy there!

It's been quite a while since I wrote - sorry about that.
But I've been in the process of moving house, and countries, from beautiful Waiheke Island near Auckland, to equally beautiful Warrandyte in Melbourne. To everyone I've met at all the schools and libraries in Auckland over the past year, don't worry: I'll be back for the Storylines festival in June.
It's taken quite a while to get myself sorted out, but now I finally have an internet connection and a house to live in, I can blog more often.
The newsflash from here is that The Silver Swan, the third book in the Swashbuckler trilogy, is published next month - April - in New Zealand and Australia.
Not long now...

News flash

I've just finished a few last minute changes to book three in the Swashbuckler series: The Silver Swan. It'll be off to the printer soon.

I'm moving to Melbourne soon, where I'll be working at the State Library of Victoria, home also to the wonderful inside a a dog website about books for young people.

I'll write again when I get settled in.

Happy New Year

It's lovely on the island at the moment. The pohutakawas (NZ Christmas trees) are in flower and the sun is - finally - out. Yesterday I sat on the beach in the sun and ate fish and chips, which is my idea of heaven, and now I've got a bright pink strip of sunburn down each leg. I look like a licorice all-sort.

I'm flying to Melbourne tomorrow to spend Christmas with my family: maybe we'll drive down to the Mornington Peninsula, where we have a little beach shack; hang out by the river in Warrandyte; lie in the sun and read a few books. With sunblock on.
I'll be back in Auckland on New Year's Eve, just in time for the fireworks.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday season, too.

A big hello to Grade Five at Aitken College who just sent me a huge envelope filled with the most fantastic letters. Thank you so much!

Swashbuckler book three, The Silver Swan, comes out early next year, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about it. April, apparently.

Happy sailing.