SCBWI SA – Midyear Dinner 2021

On 23rd April SCBWI SA hosted their annual midyear dinner at The British Hotel, North Adelaide with special guests Charlotte Barkla and Mark Carthew.

Local author Charlotte shared her exciting writing journey. Originally a civil engineer and physics teacher, Charlotte’s scientific background has inspired her new career in writing. Charlotte talked about her debut picture book All Bodies are Good Bodies and the first two books in her series Edie’s Experiments all of which were released in 2020. We were sad to hear that Charlotte is leaving Adelaide to return to Queensland, but we wish her all the best in her new venture.

SCBWI SA were delighted to welcome interstate author, poet, musician and educator, Mark Carthew on the last night of his May Gibbs Trust Fellowship. Mark talked about his love of language and wordplay and shared excerpts from some of his books, including riddles, poetry, and a musical version of his latest picture book The Thing That Goes Ping

As well as listening to our inspiring speakers, the evening provided a wonderful opportunity to chat with old friends and meet new members. With its delicious food and lovely setting, The British Hotel afforded the perfect venue.

SCBWI SA would like to thank Charlotte and Mark for their interesting and insightful presentations. We look forward to seeing everyone at our Winter Gathering in July.

Beverley McWilliams

launch of voiced storybook by Kathy Smart

Congratulations to author Kathy Smart on the launch of

Frog’s Princess

A Digital App for 8-10 year olds illustrated by Christy Butt (2D characters) and Riley Hanlin (3D backgrounds) and published by Joy Everafter Stories.

Frog's Princess is a movie-length middle-grade Medieval fantasy about the Frog Prince. In this voiced storybook, with music, movement, sound effects and visual effects, you can customise your characters and design your heroes' personalities by choosing what they say.

Published without ads or in-game purchases, Frog's Princess is available on Steam, the Apple App Store, and the Google Play Store for $3 in Australia, and will be rolled out to other countries gradually.

The launch party was held on Zoom. You can watch it on YouTube. Frog's Princess was launched in North America on 4 April 2021. Other country launches will be in May, June and July.

What a novel way of presenting a novel!

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