Success Story - Benjamin Johnston

I really enjoyed the process of working on Ling Li's Lantern with Steve Heron and Anna Solding from MidnightSun Publishing.  I was captivated by Steve's story right from the start.  There is something special and fable-like about it - something that echoed from my own childhood.  

For me at least, Ling Li's Lantern really is all thanks to SCBWI.  Ever since joining SCBWI right at the beginning, the conferences that have been my highlight.  They bring the creative book community together and you get to share your interests, support one another and get to know people better and better....especially when we might normally be separated all across Australia. 

It was in 2012, one of the first conferences I attended, that I first chatted to Steve, and then in the 2014 conference I met him again and showed him the portfolio I had submitted.  In it was an illustration I had done for a story I had written called Night Town). 

Night Town

Steve remembered that one illustration and in 2018 when his manuscript for Ling Li's Lantern was accepted by MidnightSun he asked if they could track me down.  By the 2019 conference I had completed the storyboard and we were able to meet once again and work through it.  I'm really glad he has such a good memory and Steve distinctly remembers saying back in 2014 that he hoped we would have the opportunity to work together.  And so in 2020, almost a decade since we first met, that hope has come true in Ling Li's Lantern... to be released on 1st September.  So thank you SCBWI conferences for bringing us all together....

It was an interesting premise - writing and illustrating a story outside your own culture - but I believe it has been achieved with respect and resonance.  In undertaking the illustration of this story I researched carefully the fashion, architecture and the landscape paintings of the Qing period of China and took those as inspiration.

I also used photos from my own travels and drew upon the brains-trust of some of my Chinese-born friends to help check the details of what I was working on.  I wanted to ensure I created as authentic a setting as possible. Steve and I are very pleased with the result.

Watch the trailer here.

Benjamin Johnston

Success Story - Claire Saxby

It was somewhere in the middle of 2006, that I first met with Corinne King (Fenton) to talk about Vic SCBWI. We were taking over the Vic reins from Jen McVeity. We tossed around ideas about how and what and why and where. Corinne was to be the ARA, I was to be backroom support.

We wanted to talk books. We wanted to talk writing and illustrating. We wanted to talk about publishing and contracts and marketing and … well you get the picture. Our plan was to have each Sat afternoon session be divided into three sections. The first was to provide the opportunity for members to present, a way of getting some practice in in preparation for public speaking in schools, libraries and festivals. The second was to invite an industry professional to talk about some aspect of our industry. The third was to encourage people to mingle - learn from and share knowledge with others doing the same thing. We convened one meeting each year in a regional community, in areas where rural members had easier access. We learned to approach publishers and other industry professionals. Somehow it was much easier to ask them to present at our meetings than it was to ask the same people to look at our work! We learned the importance of the after-meeting drinks.

As SCBWI expanded in Australia, the first national conferences were convened. They were different to the CBCA conferences which were often pitched more for teachers and librarians than for creators (though they were still fabulous). SCBWI conferences (held then at the Hughenden in Sydney) were intimate events of creators and industry professionals. The programs were great, but the social gatherings were wonderful. There was sharing, singing, dancing, singing and dancing. It was an opportunity to mix with people doing the same thing, to talk shop. The value of the conferences wasn’t so much about the pitching opportunities for me, although if asked, or if I booked, I did that too. I discovered that, for me, the best conferences were those I went to with no expectations. At all. And somehow being having no expectations, wonderful things always happened (even contracts!) The programs were always interesting, a mix of new information, new ways to work and refining of existing knowledge.  I loved the chance to get to know people, to spend time with them. It was like the walls came down between the ‘us’ and ‘them’ (insert whichever ‘us’ and ‘them’ that seemed currently relevant) and we were all on the same page (see what I did there?) sharing meals, sharing story. We were all just people doing work we love. It was also a chance to hone my craft, learn things I didn’t realise I needed to know, soak up knowledge. One afternoon tea, I swapped my name badge with that of an editor and immediately she started trying to intensely ‘pitch’ a story to me. It was hilarious, but also a very instructive moment, a reminder that behind that desk, that email, sits a person doing their best in a really busy job. Each conference, each meeting buoyed and supported me and gave me the courage to keep going when it seemed impossible to do so. The US SCBWI site offered publishing guides, a magazine and online resources. The local sites kept me up to date with who was doing what and what else might be fun to explore (courses, events, resources). ‘There Was an Old Sailor’ won the first ever Crystal Kite Award – although Glenda Millard won the first peer-voted Australian SCBWI Award.  

Cork Writing Workshop

I think I’ve missed only one SCBWI conference since the first I’ve attended. I’ve made lifelong friends, improved my craft (ongoing), survived disappointments, learned so much. I think what I love most is the feeling of belonging. I’ve joined interstate gatherings, travelled to Ireland and met with SCBWI Ireland members, attended workshops in Bologna. Every SCBWI chapter welcomed me, no secret handshake required.  SCBWI has been part of everything I’ve done.  

Dublin SCBWI coffee

This year has been a year like no other, for many reasons. We visited our son who is working in London. I did a school visit to a tiny school in remote Cornwall. My first novel, ‘Haywire’ was published (six years in the making). ‘Kookaburra’ is out (four years) and ‘Aussie Stem Stars: Georgia Ward-Fear’ is only seconds away from joining them.

Jackie Hosking's new picture book

Congrats to hardworking Pass It On editor Jackie Hosking on the publication of

Temper Tabitha

illustrated by Leah Russack

Published by Larrikin House, in paperback

For ages 3+.

Tabitha is a feisty little girl with questionable manners. So what happens when she comes across a little boy as feisty as she is? Temper Tabitha takes an amusing look at what happens when you lose your cool.

Love it - congrats again Jackie!