Trust Me Too hits bookshops next month. Find out more here.
Happy reading!

Strangely enough that was the least fanciful part of the story, because it is very close to what is already happening. Recent studies have found agricultural chemicals are polluting our waterways and causing reptiles that breed there to mutate. Frogs have been discovered with one leg instead of four, others are born with six legs.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than anything that could be made up – it’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open for the really bizarre things that go on every day! Don’t forget to keep a diary to record anything extraordinary that you notice.

If you want to know more about amphibian anomalies – check out this site for some really freakish pictures: Webecoist.

Have fun!

Julie

Competitions provide a great incentive to polish and finish your work. Winning, of course, not only means a prize, but also recognition.

Good luck!

But as writers, we sometimes forget about our reader because we get so caught up in what amuses us. As 2012 is the National Year of Reading, maybe it’s worth spending a moment to consider our readers.

When I started writing the Hazard River series, I had two sons aged eight and ten, so my readers were never far from my mind or my computer. Their adventures on the Noosa River inspired the stories. The boys were also my chief critics. I was lucky to have in-house readers ready and willing to share their opinions. The Hazard River series was very much written for them. I wrote it to appeal to their sense of adventure and sense of humour, with action-packed chapters that I hoped would keep them turning the pages. But when I went off on tangents that I thought were jolly clever, but left them bored, my sons let me know.

Keeping the reader in mind helps to keep a story on track.

I find having one specific reader in my mind is much more helpful than a whole pile of faceless readers. You know exactly what your reader is interested in, what language is appropriate for him or her and what style will be appealing. Even if you want your story read by a million people, it’s very difficult to write with all of them in mind – will they like my characters, will they like my character’s sense of humour, do they like adventure, or do they prefer science fiction? If you try to write a story for everyone – you’ll probably end up with something that’s contrived and disjointed. If you write a story with one reader in mind, you are more likely to end up with something that is genuine and interesting. And hopefully everyone will love it as a result!

Happy writing.

Julie

The series chronicles the adventures of four children, Jack Wilde – the narrator, his brother Ben – the ‘Stink Collector’, their neighbour Lachlan Master – the ‘Master of Disaster’ and ‘Professor Bigbrains’, Mimi Fairweather, who lives on a yacht in Hazard River. The gang comes up against rogue miners, smugglers and developers while holidaying at Hazard River. In between tracking down the baddies, the kids fall into quicksand, get stranded on boats, find messages, discover super-cool secret bases and abandoned boats. They play pranks on each other, get lost, get found and get into a whole lot of trouble.

There are now six books in the series – Shark Frenzy, Snake Surprise, Bat Attack, Tiger Terror, Blood Money and Toads’ Revenge – all set on Hazard River. A map at the start of each story gives readers a clear idea of where everything is. The map is also useful for me to keep things consistent. It’s amazing how easy it is to get places and names mixed up, when you are writing, if you try to keep it all in your head.

It’s also good to know everything you can about your setting. The more you know, the more convincing your story will be. If you set your story on a river, you need to decide if it’s narrow and brown or wide and blue. Is it in Queensland or Victoria, the Amazon or the Rockies? Is the kind of place where you might see a red-belly black snake (found on the east coast of Australia) or are you more likely to see a diamondback rattlesnake (found in the desert of the USA)? Will there be crocodiles or funnel webs, tigers or lions? They all live in different parts of the world and if you are writing something that is realistic (not fantasy) you might need to do some research to find out what belongs in your setting.

Because my setting is based on a real place, I have a clear idea what everything looks like and what normally happens there. It doesn’t mean I have to stick to the truth – that wouldn’t make a very good adventure series. But it gives me a place to start and that makes my job as a writer a whole lot easier.

Try these exercises:

1. The Hazard River series was inspired by a family holiday on the Noosa River. Try writing your own story about a family holiday that went wrong.

2. Blood Money came from a story that I read in the newspaper. Two boys found a bag containing $100,000 when they were fishing in a quiet creek in New South Wales. Try writing the events of Blood Money as a news story. The most important information goes at the beginning of the story. You need to include who, what, where, when and how.

3. Toads’ Revenge (like all of the Hazards River stories) is told from Jack Wilde’s point of view. Try writing one of the chapters from Lachlan Master’s point of view.

See also http://writingclassesforkids.com/competitions-2/
You can read teachers’ notes for the books at http://www.hazardriver.com/Teachers__Notes.html

Here’s an example: It’s Halloween and you and your best friend go out trick or treating. You visit 150 houses in your neighbourhood and get so many sweets you can hardly carry them. Then your friend decides you should visit one last house – the Brunson’s house. That’s the one that no one ever goes to, because everyone knows it’s haunted. Your friend talks you in to going, even though you know it’s a bad idea. This is the moment of change. Your Halloween has been pretty much what you expected until you decide to visit the spooky house at the end of the street. This is a good place to begin the story, rather than at the beginning of the night, when nothing is going on.

Once you have worked out where to begin the story, you need to decide how to start. Do you begin with a question, a statement or dialogue? I find the best idea is to try them all out.

Here are some options for starting the Halloween story:

1. Have you ever had the feeling that something was a bad idea, even before you did it?
2.  It might not be the bravest thing to admit, but I have to say it. Halloween freaks me out.
3. ‘One last house to trick or treat,’ my best friend Bertie said, stuffing a blue giant python into his mouth. ‘We’re going to the Brunson’s place.’

I normally go back to my first line (and the first paragraph) after I have finished the whole story and spend a lot of time rewriting it to make sure it conveys something about the rest of the story and gets the reader interested right from the beginning.

Here are some first lines from my books.

I made a deal with sharks. Shark Frenzy 

It should have been the best New Year’s Eve ever. Bat Attack

It was probably my mother’s screaming that frightened the cat. Tiger Terror

Take particular notice of how your favourite stories start. What do you find out in the first line, the first paragraph and the first chapter? Try using other people’s  techniques in your work. And don’t worry if your first line is perfect the first time. Leave it and go back to it later, by then you might have worked out the perfect way to start your story.

Good luck!

I know I spent a lot of time in the Ashgrove water  as a girl – knee deep in Ithaca Creek to be precise, trying to catch guppies. I wasn’t into books much at the time, I was into wildlife and wildlife magazines – hoping to start a wildlife sanctuary of my own one day.

It didn’t ever happen. I became a news reporter and eventually ended up writing the Hazard River series for kids who like adventure and wildlife.

I wish you could just become an author by drinking the right water – but sadly it’s not the case. But there are other things that will you become an author, if that’s your dream. Start with reading (a lot) and writing (lots and lots and lots). Keep your ears and eyes open for good ideas for stories and maybe one day we’ll all be reading your books.

Good luck,

Julie

Christine Bongers, Michael Bauer, Josie Montano, Narelle Oliver, John Danalis and Julie Fison at the Mater Dei Writers’ Festival

The story inspired one of my recent stories in the Hazard River series – Blood Money. In my story the Hazard River kids find a bag of money in the mangroves. Jack and Lachlan want to keep it, Mimi wants to give it to the police and Ben thinks it’s cursed.  While the gang decides what to do with it, lots of strange things happen – as if the money is bringing the children bad luck.

I have always wondered what happened to the two boys in the real Money Bag story. What happened after they handed the money to the police? Did anyone claim it? Did they get to keep any? This week – I finally found out!

I was invited to talk about diary writing by Green Cross Australia, which organises a great initiative for kids, called the Green Lane Diary.  Students are asked to keep a diary about what they do each day to help the environment. The event was held at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival and was a great chance to talk to kids about the planet – but a bonus for me was sharing the podium with a guy who knew the kids in my journal story! And the exciting news is: the boys waited six months and no one claimed the $100,000 – so they got to keep it! They spent it on a trip to Germany to compete in the Under 19 Frisbee championships.  Now, that’s a story you couldn’t make up.

It pays to pick up rubbish in your local creek!

If you want to know more about the Green Lane Diary see  www.greenlanediary.org

See a review of Blood Money at ReadPlus 

Find out more about the Hazard River series at www.hazardriver.com

I have four main characters in the Hazard River series:

1. Jack Wilde – the narrator of the story. He thinks he is the hero and comes up with the best ideas, but he’s actually a bit nervous in dangerous situations and not as brave as he thinks.

2. Ben Wilde – Jack’s little brother. Jack calls him the Stink Collector because he collects strange things. He adds humour to the story because he does silly things.

3. Lachlan Master – Jack’s friend. He’s spent many holidays at Hazard River and is a bit of a know-it-all, but he actually gets the kids into lots of trouble. Jack calls him the Master of Disaster.

4. Mimi Fairweather – another friend. Mimi has sailed around the world and lives with her family on a yacht. She’s very clever and knows a lot about the environment, so Jack calls her Professor Bigbrains.

Each character in the story has different strengths and weaknesses, and so they have different jobs to do in the story. In an adventure story, something often goes wrong at the very beginning, then the characters face more obstacles before they finally work out how to get themselves out of trouble.

Each of your characters will react differently when faced with a problem. Write down your characters and beside each one write a list of their strengths and weaknesses. Bring these characteristics into your story. But don’t just tell the reader their characteristics – show them.

Here’s an example from Shark Frenzy:

Panic rises inside me like a battalion of hairy caterpillars marching through my chest. I close my eyes. A jumble of sharks, stingrays and giant squid swim through my mind. They try to stop me getting into the water. They fill me with fear. But I must save Ben. I fight them off. I dive into the river.

I haven’t said that Jack is nervous, but we know he is by the way he reacts to danger. Eventually he jumps in the water to save his brother, so we know he’s not a coward, he’s just scared.

Good luck with your characters and happy writing.

Julie

Jack Wilde, his brother Ben, and his friends Mimi and Lachlan find themselves in a freaky other world in Toads’ Revenge, when they accidently shoot themselves into the future. The kids face their most gruesome adversaries yet – giant mutant cane toads. How will they overcome them and more importantly, how will they get home again?

Here’s a taste of the action:

‘Eenie, meenie, minie, mo . . .’ Ben says, pointing at the buttons as he chants the rhyme.
‘This one looks good,’ he says. He makes a random selection and pulls down a lever for good measure.
The lights in the cinema go down and a nice woman, like a flight attendant, comes on the screen. She starts rattling off some safety instructions. It’s the usual stuff about seatbelts and emergencies. Just why you’d need that stuff to watch a movie is anyone’s guess.
I completely ignore the seatbelt warning. I’m hardly listening at all, until the screen goes black. I wait for the movie to start, wondering what will come up.
That’s when a countdown begins.
‘Ten…nine…eight…’ a serious voice says.
‘We have to get out!’ Mimi shouts, jumping out of her chair. She runs for the exit, banging at the control panel. The door doesn’t budge. The countdown continues.
‘Relax,’ Lachlan says.
But I’m not relaxed. I’m getting nervous. I wish I hadn’t followed the Master of Disaster on another dumb mission.
I jump out of my chair and help Mimi, mindlessly pushing buttons.
The countdown goes on. ‘ Three . . . two . . . one.’
The room starts spinning. Slowly at first, then faster. So fast that I’m hurled against a bare metal wall. Mimi is flung against the door beside me. Lachlan is ripped from his chair. I look around and find Ben. He’s spread-eagled against the television screen. His face is frozen in terror.
We’re all trapped like flies on a piece of honey toast.
‘Enjoy your flight,’ the countdown voice says.
The room is spinning so fast that I can’t
see a thing. It’s all a blur. There’s a flash of white light, a nasty pain between my eyes, then my mind goes blank. (Chapter 1 Toads’ Revenge)

In Blood Money, Jack Wilde thinks he’s made the big time when Ben discovers a bag full of money. Jack and Lachlan want to spend it, but Ben thinks it’s cursed and Mimi wants to take it to the police. The gang decides on some detective work to find out where the money has come from. But that’s when they really get into trouble!

Here’s the point where things start to wrong in Blood Money:

‘ Think, Ben,’ I say. ‘ What were you doing when you first saw the bag?’
Ben scratches his head. He doesn’t say anything. I hope that is because he’s thinking. But he might just be deciding if green thongs are better than red ones. Who knows?
‘I was hanging from the rope swing,’ he says. ‘That’s when I saw the bag.’
Hooray! He thinks!
‘The rope swing!’ I shout, hugging my brother. ‘That’s near here.’
I run through the mangroves until we reach a clearing. A big gum tree stands in the middle. A rope dangles from one of the branches. Dad tied it up there at the start of the holidays. I haven’t used it much, but Ben often comes here. It’s some kind of kangaroo graveyard. Ben likes to look for kangaroo bones. What can I say? It’s just something Stink Collectors do.
I run to the swing and grab hold. I wrap my legs around the rope and swing towards the mangroves. I see something big and black.
‘There!’ I shout. ‘The bag! It’s right behind you, Ben.’
A sports bag is hanging by one handle. It’s on a low branch of a mangrove tree. The bag is bulging. It must be packed with money. I let go of the rope and fly through the air towards the mangroves.
‘Weee!’ I shout. ‘Money does grow on trees!’ (Chapter 2 Blood Money)

Blood Money is just a made up story, but it was inspired by a true one – a few years ago two brothers were fishing in a quiet creek in NSW and they found a plastic bag full of money – $100,000 in cash! The boys thought long and hard about what to do with it, but eventually handed it in to the police.

The stories are published by Ford Street Publishing and the covers are done by Marc McBride.

Check out my website for more details or to buy a copy of the new books: www.hazardriver.com/Shop.html

Visit Speakers Ink if you would like me to visit your school or festival. And read a review at ReadPlus 

Happy reading!
Julie