When Life Gives You Lemons....

Have you heard of that saying?

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade..

What does it mean to you?

I interpret it as, when circumstances change or don’t work out as planned, look for the positive things in life that happen instead.

This is one of those times. This post isn’t quite the one I had planned. I had so much happening this month that I was looking forward to sharing with you, but then life sent a curve ball or is that a bunch of lemons fallen from the tree, and plunged us back into lockdown. All my exciting upcoming events were suddenly cancelled. I am keeping my fingers crossed that when we reach the other side of this, everything will be rescheduled, but it’s not looking good for school visits.

So what are the positives that have arisen this month?

I did manage one school visit before lockdown. It was a fabulous day, full of exuberance and enthusiasm from year 6 students first thing in the morning right down to Kinders at the end of the day and all year levels in between. The school had asked me to run writing workshops instead of an author talk and book reading. At first I was unsure how I would tackle this, given each group numbered 80 plus students sitting on the floor in the school hall. So I mixed things up with a bit of inspiration, a dash of motivation and a sprinkling of humour. I had kids moving and laughing with a fun activity and they all left with fabulous ideas, plans and strategies to start writing great stories. I even received this roarsome testimonial from one of the teachers.

We had great pleasure having Sandra Bennett in our classrooms. The students thoroughly enjoyed meeting a local award-winning author and her authentic approach led students to ask all sorts of questions about the writing process and her experience as a writer. We have school visits from sporting heroes so why not writing heroes? Sandra Bennett gave our students a dinosaur writing challenge in which they eagerly participated. It was affirming for us as teachers of writing to have an author validate our practices and who knows, she may have even inspired a future great author in our very own classrooms.

Libby Emerson – Chapman Primary School

Author visit and writing workshop.

Fun learning activities that engaged and inspired.

So what lemonade have I made during lockdown?

It gave me time to make my video of reading my story ‘Jack and the Seven Giants,’ for the launch of this year’s Anthology Angel’s Once Upon A Whoops! Fractured Fairy Tales and Ridiculous Rhymes. The anthology is released on 1st September. You can watch all the fabulous authors reading parts of their stories on Anthology Angels Youtube Story Time The link for mine is below. I find making a video terribly time consuming. I am way too self-conscious and make so many stuff-ups! I needed a good cup of tea to relax before I was finished. The anthology is now available through Amazon and all proceeds from the sale of the book go towards the incredible Life’s Little Treasures Foundation who support families in their time of need when their babies are born too early. Update: Thanks to the incredible support of so many wonderful people, the book has already become a number 1 Amazon Best Seller on it’s first day of release.

This month I was also accepted to have the honour of becoming an Ambassador for Australia Reads. Promoting a love of reading in children has always been a passion of mine, so to be able to be included as an ambassador is unbelievably special to me. We were asked to give a quote about reading which you can see below, and yes, make another dreaded video. This one was a little easier as it only lasted 60 seconds, still took me over an hour to get it right. Just as well I have plenty of time on my hands. You will be able to see the video on my author Facebook page once Australia Reads have posted it later in September.

By now you know the lemon that life gave me when my publisher of the Adamson Adventures closed before book 3 Fossil Frenzy could be published. You also know I stepped up and made my own lemonade by successfully publishing the book myself and it has seen the best results yet. What you probably don’t know, is that I had trouble finding a national distributor. Lockdown gave me the proverbial kick I needed to pursue this. I finally contacted the distributor who had the contract for the first two books. My emails had not been getting through but disappearing into the ether somewhere. A phone call made all the difference. They were most apologetic and have agreed to promote and distribute Fossil Frenzy. I am so grateful that this dino-mite adventure will now be able to reach so many more readers around Australia.

Fossil Frenzy the Adamson Adventures 3

The Adamson Adventures, books 1, 2 & 3.

I have so much more exciting things in the works, but for now, they will stay my little secret as I hope they still come to fruition. In the meantime, I am still writing and submitting, who knows, maybe one day I will have another elusive contract. The Adamson Adventures book 4 is in the works too. Life’s lemons dumped a full bag on me here. I spent a whole day looking for my notes I had made for this book, but came up empty handed. The lemonade - I started researching, plotting and planning all over again, maybe I will solve all the plot holes and come up with an even better story.

So what about you? Are you back in lockdown too?

What lemonade have you been making? Please let me know in the comments below.

The Fun of Book Launches and School Visits.

One of the best things about being a children’s author, is being able to take kids along on an adventure with you through story time fun. Over the past month I have launched the second book in my Adamson Adventures, A Lighthouse in Time. This has given me the opportunity to do just that.

During the official book launch at Paperchain bookstore in Manuka and throughout the many school visits I did, kids were enthralled with my story telling as I took them on a journey from my inspiration behind writing the book to decisions I made by asking those constant what if questions. Every time I began my cutting out story, you could hear a proverbial pin drop in the room as every pair of eyes gazed in wonder and amazement at what I was saying and doing. Their faces lit up with awe when the final shape was revealed. I had them not only intrigued with the story but hooked on reading.

Kids ask the best questions and I always answer them as best I can. Here are a few samples along with my answers.

1. Who is your favourite character? My characters are like my children, I love them all equally and individually for their own unique personalities.

2. How do you make your books so realistic and interesting? I like to set my stories in real places. That means I can do lots of research about the area, explore and take plenty of photos and add little bits of information into the story to make it more real. Kind of like adding non-fiction to a fiction story but then expanding on it and having a bit of fun with it. Naturally the caves at Caves beach don’t go back as near as far as I take them in the book, but it adds to the mystery and intrigue by creating a sense of drama and wonder. By the time we finish talking about the Jervis Bay area, Cape St George Lighthouse, Caves Beach, and Wreck Bay, they all want to go down the coast for a visit.

3. When did you start writing the book? When I explain to the kids just how long a book can take from the initial idea, to writing the first draft, then re-writing and editing many, many times before I am happy with a final draft, they are amazed. I have been showing them the original handwritten manuscript where they can see all the scribbles and changes. This brings more astonishment as they realise even authors make a mess when they are starting out planning their story. Kids learn from this that it is ok to make a mess. Ideas and creativity flows better when you are not concentrating on grammar, spelling and neatness. That can all come later.

Sometimes great questions come from parents, teachers and other authors too. During my story time session at the Canberra Writers Festival and my South Coast book launch with the Shellharbour Writer’s & Illustrators group I had to stop and think quickly when asked these two.

1. Are you concerned with the lack of girls as main characters in children’s books? And do you feel you have a responsibility towards including them? My initial manuscript for Secrets Hidden Below contained three brothers as the characters. It wasn’t until my publisher pointed this out that I had to rethink it. As my characters were based on my own three sons, it seemed natural and fine to me. However, my publisher pointed out, and rightly so, that the books would appeal to a wider audience if one of my characters was a girl. I had to agree. That being said, I feel there are plenty of books coming out these days with great strong female lead characters, let’s not forget our boys still need to want to read too. It’s a fine balance to get right.

2. What is your favourite scene in your newest book, A Lighthouse in Time? I had to think long and hard about this one. Then I remembered the feeling I had when I re-read the manuscript after leaving it to rest for a few months. When I reached a certain part in the story I had tingles. I sat and thought, ‘wow, did I really write that?’ I’m not going to give the scene away, you’ll have to read the book and decide for yourself which scene you think I might be talking about.

I loved being swamped by kids asking for my autograph. I felt special and was honoured by how excited they all were to meet me. I was even stopped on the stairs outside the National Library of Australia as I left after my session at the Canberra Writer’s Festival. A young fan who had just bought A Lighthouse in Time raced over to greet me, show me she had the book and eagerly pulled a pen from her bag for me to sign her copy. It made my day.

Do you attend book launches and events? What are some of your most memorable experiences? Let’s chat in the comment section below.

A Lighthouse in Time is now available here on my website along with Secrets Hidden Below. https://sandrabennettauthor.com/books#the-adamson-adventures

Or through Elephant Tree Publishing.

https://elephanttreepublishing.com.au/current-titles/

Both books are also available through your local bookstore. If they don’t have either of them, simply ask them to order through Peribo Distributors.