SA Christmas Dinner

Full of the festive feeling last Friday, SA SCBWI members gathered in the courtyard at the British Hotel.

Along with a enough longstanding members to fill a ship captain's table, new members, David and Carolyn, joined in the merriment. Carolyn felt compelled to join SCBWI after attending the October Professional Day while David joined earlier this year.

We're thrilled they did and look forward to seeing them at future events. Welcome, David and Carolyn!

Many donned spectacular paper crowns in the true spirit of Christmas. Between feasting on an array of dishes, everyone grabbed the opportunity to mingle and mix - industry news, as always, was a hot topic along with announcements regarding future releases. Whispers of huge plans for 2018 events in SA were met with wide eyes and gleeful grins.

And we're simply itching to share the details. But after the last glass of bubbles was drained, we made a promise to keep our lips zipped. Can't wait to share the details with you right here in the new year.

Merry Christmas from SA.

Kelly Hibbert

SCBWI ACT Have Been Busy

ACT SCBWI news

December finished with lots of celebrations. 

It was a packed crowd at the ACT Writers Centre Book of the Year Awards for 2015 and an exciting time with two of our members- Pauline Deeves winning the 2015 ACT  Publishing and Writing Award- Children’s Fiction Category for her book Midnight Burial, and Tania McCartney awarded Highly Commended for her picture book Tottie and Dot. 

Congratulations ladies.

Our SCBWI Christmas gathering rocked. We had a terrific turn up for drinks at The Mint Bar, Arts Gorman House. Loads of chatting, drinking, eating, laughing and some discussion for ideas and new adventures for 2016.

Popular ideas suggested: In the beautiful months of Autumn, head out of town on a rural writing/illustrating escapade. Literary lunches on a Sunday that may include a winery, and ‘Show and Tell’ events with new and visiting guest speakers. Plenty more to come in general meetings. This year is the year of conferences so we shall work around dates for those.

Our first meeting for the year is scheduled for late February/early March and plans and dates to be confirmed for our year ahead. 

The ACT membership is growing and we had the privilege to meet some new members at xmas drinks.

SCBWI ACT was included in a blog on Capital Letters by Shu-Ling Chua, current blogger in residence at the ACT Writers Centre. Canberra’s Literary scene is exploding with creativity! To read more http://actwritersblog.com/2016/01/12/a-literary-guide-to-canberra/

2016 also brings a new and exciting interaction for three SCBWI members, Tania McCartney, Irma Gold and Tracey Hawkins who have been invited to be Ambassador’s for the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge. More details to come later.

It looks to be a very active, fun year ahead for SCWBI ACT.