My Friend Tertius and Dad and the Mosquito

After last week’s post talking about online reviews versus hard copy reviews, Saturday I received an unexpected Google alert telling me that My Friend Tertius, along with several other lovely books, was reviewed in The Weekend Australian, 6-7 May 2017 Children’s Books – From the blues to brave bovines by Stephen Romei. It was so lovely to hold it in my hands and read it over a cup of tea. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/childrens-books-from-the-blues-to-brave-bovines/news-story/5150c816053d26d5e43b914eaeb9420c

There is also a nice review in this month’s Buzz Words by Daniela Andrews http://www.buzzwordsmagazine.com/2017/05/my-friend-tertius.html

From my latest book above, I also received advice this week about my very first book for children, Dad and the Mosquito, which was originally published by Wendy Pye in 1997. A larger format, new edition has just been published by Sunshine USA and Sunshine Books is celebrating 30 years of publication, an enormous achievement.

There could not be a bigger contrast between these two books. I was still studying Professional Writing and Editing at Box Hill TAFE when my husband was chasing a determined mosquito around the lounge room one night. My husband, who was even more determined, followed the mozzie with his black shoe. At the time I was cross, but the story came to me there and then and I sat down on the step in our lounge and began scribbling the words. While I drafted and rewrote many times, I certainly did not knock myself out with it. A friend at Box Hill TAFE suggested I send it to Wendy Pye Publishing Limited in New Zealand and Dad and the Mosquito (I think it was Daddy in the beginning) became my first publication.

And my latest book, My Friend Tertius, took ten years – the bulk of that time being research, working back from the end of the story to find the beginning. This wasn’t a story that I found, in complete form at all and so many times I almost gave up my search for people, names of ships and other small snippets of information, but I got there.