[Tina Shaw]

I was at the Storylines Margaret Mahy Awards Day yesterday where I was given the Tessa Duder Award for an unpublished YA manuscript!

One thing that really struck me yesterday was the sheer amount of female talent in the place – I was blown away by all that womanly writing and publishing. The line-ups on the stage for the Notable Book Awards: nearly all women. The Storylines organisation is run by strong and talented women … and look at One Tree House (my publisher): Christine and Jenny are dynamos, and have just picked up a major publishing award at the Bologna childrens book festival. I was very impressed by the sheer energy in the place yesterday. So fitting that we had the strong and positive Jacinda Ardern to speak to us and give the Margaret Mahy medal – to tutor Janice Marriott!

[Contact NZIBS]

Congratulations Tina. No doubt well deserved.

[Dr Liza Pujji]

Congratulations Tina 🙂

[Kathy Swailes]

Congratulations to both Janice and Tina. Well done both of you.

[Tina Shaw]

Thanks, Kathy and Liza!

[Robyn Welsh]

Congratulations to you both!  Janice, I met you briefly at the writers’ event in Whangarei.  Tina, so great to hear that you’ve won this award.  I need to be checking into the forum much more often, I think.  I’m clearly very slow to hear of this fantastic news.

[Tina Shaw]

Thanks, Robyn! And how is your writing going?

[Robyn Welsh]

Hello Tina.  Good to hear from you.  It’s all going well at my end after lots of stop/starts, short story reading, observational note-taking and thinking and planning etc.  That is all still “working” but I lost my discipline when it came to blocking out writing time for my creative work, once I’d dealt with journalism deadlines etc.

I’ve got my mojo back and, with my course reference notes as a motivator, my characters across several stories are feeling as if they are really coming to life . I’m getting it all together and looking forward to having some long overdue work to send through to you.

This has been an unsettling learning curve. Writing time doesn’t just happen; it has to be booked in amid the busyness of family life.  Even 500 words from a snatched 20 minutes is enough to settle me down.  It feels very good.

[Tina Shaw]

Hi Robyn

It’s so easy to put all the other stuff in one’s life (including making a living LOL) before one’s creative writing. I realised this morning that I’m doing the same thing! Despite what I tell my students, I usually tackle all sorts of things before my own writing. But this morning I jumped right into my current project and it felt great to make that the day’s priority.

And you’re so right: ‘writing time’ has to be scheduled in, like everything else!