We are National Winners!

We won!!! 

We are the Eastern States Winner, open section!
and....
WE ARE THE NATIONAL WINNER, open section!!!

My writers group, Prana Writers have been awarded ‘National Winner’ and 'Eastern States Winner' for our book, The Coral Sea Monster, in the open section of the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day 2011 challenge!!!

Woo Hoo, Yee Haa!
In a single day, between 8am and 8pm, our Prana Writers team planned, plotted, wrote, illustrated, printed and bound a 16,500 word children’s book - The Coral Sea Monster.

and... raised $940 in sponsorship for the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

And we did all of this without a single meltdown!

The team that worked on the Coral Sea Monster were: Tom Betts, Rob Brown (my husband), Margaret Choinski, Rebecca Fraser, Janis Hanley, Kerry McGuicken, Helen Stubbs, Angela Sunde and Amanda Worlley  (We also acknowledge the assistance of my daughter, Daniela Sunde-Brown).

The Coral Sea Monster was illustrated by Angela Sunde (me)!

And here are the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day judge's comments:

“The Winner of the Open Section this year is the most beautifully illustrated as well as the best written story of the bunch: ‘The Coral Sea Monster’ by Prana Writers. 

"The team was given the challenge to include a podiatrist, a sheep shearer and a sea animal in their work, as well as to employ the setting of a motorway and the theme of love.
“The result is an amusing and engaging story of a 13 year-old sheep-whisperer, Jack, whose hopes of competing in the shearing event at the Ekka showgrounds are shot through when a truck overturns on the motorway into Brisbane, blocking the traffic in both directions. The truck in question is carrying a sea monster, of course, and Jack and his new found friend, a teen podiatrist (yes, there is such a girl!), set out on a fun-packed adventure to save the sea monster from the clutches of Lionel Measly, the greedy Ocean-World curator who hopes to make a million out of the endangered species.

“A competition like Book-in-a -Day challenges all of its competitors to take an imaginative leap, to work together against the ticking clock, to produce something extraordinary and new. ‘The Coral Sea Monster’ is a delightful example of the best kind of new work this competition is capable of producing." Judge (Open Section) - Julienne van Loon, (Vogel Award Winner 2004), Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA.

In the words of Prana Writer, Janis Hanley (more photos of the day are on her blog): “Words that come to mind are cohesive, talented, creative, in tune – but that really doesn’t come near to describing it. Being there was like arriving and plugging into some sort of communal brain. We didn’t just network our laptops - we somehow networked our minds.” 
See more photos of our day here

So... just who are Prana Writers you're wondering...

Prana Writers are dedicated to the craft of writing. By supporting each other and sharing our knowledge with others we hope to develop, learn, and celebrate together, whilst also contributing to the community. Our work spans a range of genres including speculative fiction, children’s, young adult, chic lit, contemporary drama, literary fiction, short stories and more. We meet five times a year for a full day of workshops, free writing and critiquing and in between for coffee, drinks or special events.

Originally brought together through the Gold Coast City Council’s Creative Juices program, Prana Writers hope that winning the WaBiaD National Award will help to promote the Gold Coast as a centre for creativity and culture. 
Prana Writers are: Tom Betts, Margaret Choinski, Rebecca Fraser, Bridget Gray, Janis Hanley, Kerry McGuicken, Helen Stubbs, David Stringer, Angela Sunde, Nicola Tierney and Amanda Worlley. 

Find us on Facebook here.
And our blog.

Acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank Louise Cusack, who is not only our mentor, but also a close friend and lifetime member of Prana Writers. Louise worked with the Prana Writers group from 2009-2010 through the Gold Coast Council's Creative Juices development program in 2009 and the support of a RADF grant in 2010.

I'd also like to thank the Gold Coast City Council for bringing Prana Writers together through the Creative Juices Write That Book program in 2009. Three years on and we are great friends and writing buddies. We appreciate your support!

Thank you to the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre and the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day team for the opportunity to raise funds ($940) for the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane. With a twelve hour time limit it was tough going at times, but we knew it was even tougher for the kids in the hospital, and that drove us on.

Thank you to my husband, Rob, for all the muffins on the day, for taking photos and blogging throughout the challenge, for cooking sausages at lunch, for his cool calm serenity under stress as he and Amanda loaded all the chapters, placed the illustrations, formatted the book and emailed it off. Whew! I'm glad it wasn't me.

Thank you to my Prana Writers buddies. This last year has been so enriching and so much fun. I'm very glad to be on this journey together with you.

And finally, congratulations to all the teams who entered Write-a-Book-in-a-Day. The real winners are the many children we have helped through raising funds for children's hospitals around Australia.

Shortlisted for the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day Awards

In August this year I posted about the Write-a-Book-in-a-Day challenge. Our children's book, The Coral Sea Monster, is a shortlisted entry in the open section, and my writers group, Prana Writers have been waiting eagerly for the official announcement. We won't have to wait much longer... the announcement is tonight.

The Write-a-Book-in-a-Day challenge is a wonderful, fun, team building and writing experience, open to people of all ages and offered by the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre, WA.

Teams register 5-10 people in the Open, Secondary or Primary category and get sponsors to donate to their local state's hospital for children. Each book is also donated to their chosen hospital.

On the day of our challenge, our team was emailed a random setting, two human characters, a non-human character, an issue and five random words at 8.00am local time. Then we had twelve hours to write a book and email it to KSPWC by 8.00pm the same day.

Unfortunately we won't be able to attend the awards ceremony at the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth, West Australia, but I am expecting an email as soon as it is announced.

So fingers crossed everyone! We worked very hard for this.

Roses and Tea

I'm taking some time out, time to cut some heritage roses from my garden, pop them in a milk jug and pour myself a cup of tea. It's been a tough year.

After a summer season of disasters it was a slow start for me creatively. But recently I attained the goals I set for myself. A new manuscript is sitting with my publisher and a new picture book has just been mailed off to my mentor at Create a Kids' Book.

Not only that, but the book I illustrated and co-wrote with my writers' group, Prana Writers, has been shortlisted for the Write a Book in a Day Awards. We're in with a good chance.

The original manuscript, The Coral Sea Monster, was written within the twelve hour deadline, but now prior to publishing it, we're giving it a serious edit this weekend.

The tea has brewed. Won't you join me?

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.