The Coral Sea Monster begins life on its own

Janis and Kerry bind our team book for mailing to Write a Book in a Day.

I run between the printer and the binder bringing the pages.

We only have to reprint one page which was accidentally crushed.

We are on a roll!

Rob and Amanda prepare our book, The Coral Sea Monster

for emailing to the Write a Book in a Day panel.

And here it is, our baby.

Introducing to the world...

The Coral Sea Monster

by

Prana Writers

illustrated by Angela Sunde

(An excerpt will follow soon)

The Prana Writers team looking justifiably proud!

We have delivered a 16,500 word children's book with illustrations within 12 hours

 and keeping within the parameters given to us by the judges.

We have raised over $650 dollars (and still coming in) for The Royal Children's Hospital Qld

and we have been able to donate our well crafted, fast paced 'fish out of water' story to the patients

 of  the Royal Children's Hospital and their siblings. 

A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SPONSORS!!

To sponsor us in this challenge please visit Write a Book in a Day ,

choose The Royal Children's Hospital Qld

and our team Prana Writers.

Sponsorship is open until the 31st August.

Coral the sea monster lives

The illustrations for the chapter headings are scanned into the main computer ready for formatting by Rob and Amanda.

Don't be fooled by her cute guise. This is no guppy. Coral is the size of an adult sheep and that could be useful for the sheepshearer, Jack.

Oh, yes. Looking coy, Coral.

Edit nearly complete

Pairs are working furiously to refine the work. Then we swop and re-edit another pair's.

Checking with the dictionary.

Even with a broken foot, Amanda soldiers on through the strain barrier.

And me the illustrator... I'm still working on the cover image! Aaah!
The deadline is looming and you can see it's dark outside. Thank goodness for my hairdryer; it dries watercolour so quickly.

First read through completed

OMG (LOL) we have smashed the 8,000 word minimum and now have over 16,000!

Now to the pairs edit stage.

Cover artwork well underway:

Lunch

12,000 words and still counting. Soon the first reading and the all important edit!

But lunch on the veranda is the priority now, while Tom reads aloud the manuscript to check for consistencies and voice.

We're laughing so hard at the podiatrist references throughout. What seemed like the impossible character has turned out to be the best.

We're all confident the afternoon will go smoothly.

Here's how the chapters were designated and it's now 2pm.

Time to edit in pairs.

Don't forget the illustrator

I quickly make sketches of how I see the three main characters. Luckily a wheelbarrow features prominently and I run with that (as do the characters!)

The new born baby whale who washed up on Surfers Paradise beach last week influences my sea monster.

Writers busy at work

Everyone found themselves a cosy place to work. The Gold Coast morning sun streamed in on the veranda where five Prana Writers merged their muses.

Others were lost in a cloud of cushions, couch comfort and character conundrums.

And here are our character profiles and chapter outlines for consistency across the whole book.

MMMMMuffins

Rob kept the troops sustained with various muffin flavours: cheese and herb, choc cinnamon, raspberry and white choc, lemon and coconut.

And we're off!

Well it was a hectic start to the Write a Book in a Day marathon with the starting e-mail going into my junk section. We were underway at 8:07.

Early morning breakfast and briefing.

The parameters we have been given are quite clear: Our characters are a podiatrist, a sheep shearer and a sea creature, set on a motorway with the issue: LOVE! Lots to work with and a very robust discussion for the character mapping.

Kids Book Review Interview

I have been interviewed on Kids Book Review by the lovely Tania MacCartney about the Write a Book in a Day challenge!

My writers' group, Prana Writers, is raising funds for the Royal Children's Hospital Qld by writing a children's book in one day. See more details here. You can sponsor us on the Write a Book in a Day site here .

Only one day to go!!

A Writing Marathon

I have never been in a marathon. The thought of pushing myself to reach a nigh impossible goal scares me silly. So why is it then that next Sunday, 14th August I am racing against the clock and against all odds?

I'm a Prana Writer, a Gold Coast group of eleven writers, who first came together three years ago through the Gold Coast Council's Creative Juices 'Write That Book' mentorship, and we have entered a team in the ‘Write a Book in a Day” challenge to raise funds for the Royal Children's Hospital Qld..
http://writeabookinaday.com/index.html

It’s a writing marathon to write a children's book in 12 hours. Between 8am and 8pm next Sunday our team will plan, plot, write, illustrate, edit, print and bind an 8000 word book.

Why, you may ask...

Yes, we're crazy! But we love to write and we want to support the Queensland children who inspire us.

The aim of the Write a Book in a Day challenge is to raise funds for children's hospitals in each Australian state. We will be supporting the Queensland Royal Children’s Hospital. Currently we are the only group registered in Queensland in the open category!

At 8am on 14 August our team will be emailed a random setting, two human characters, a non-human character, an issue and five random words. Our 8000 word story must be written around these and delivered or emailed to the judges by 8pm the same day. There are even awards for the best book.

Can we do it?

There will be a lot of coffee, a lot of stress (did I say a lot of stress?) before the deadline, but just think of the team building!

The funds we raise and a copy of our completed book will be donated to the Royal Children's Hospital Qld.

To sponsor us in this worthy cause, donations may be made online by credit card here – and it’s tax deductable! Just select our hospital - Royal Children's Hospital Qld and our group - Prana Writers.

Thank you sincerely for your support.