SCBWI SA’s Professional Day is always a highlight for the local creative community, and once again we gathered at the wonderful CDW studios in the city, where members were treated to a jam-packed program.
Our first speaker was author, illustrator and lecturer, Tony Flowers, who presented via zoom from Hobart, Tasmania. Tony has been working as an illustrator for 20 years, producing over 50 publications, but he is currently working on his first graphic novel – a Tintin inspired story called Divi and Frey, The Archaeologian Detective. Tony talked in depth about this new project which included a Paris residency at Cite International des Arts to research the story.
Tony spoke about his love for sketching and coffee, which he combines for an hour or two every day in his favourite café (whether he’s in Paris or Hobart). Drawing from life is a big part of Tony’s practice and this is evident in the many illustration samples that he shared with us, including some fascinating 3D optical illusions which will populate his new graphic novel.
Tony finished with his number one piece of advice, ‘get your ideas down on paper as soon as they come to you’. We very much look forward to reading Tony’s graphic novel when it’s released.
Our next speaker was Tania Ingram. Tania shared with us her writing journey from working as a child psychologist to becoming an internationally published author of picture books and novels. Her books include the Jinny and Cooper series, the Aggie Flea series and the recently released picture book, The Bug Book, illustrated by Lucinda Gifford.
Ideas for books often come from our immediate environment and Tania’s first picture book, Dog on a Log, was inspired by a game that she played with her daughter when she was younger, to introduce her to rhyme and phonetics. It was published in 2013 through Omnibus, and was the start of a writing career that would see her publish a further 11 books for children and teens.
Tania also shared with us some of the ups and downs of her writing journey, including the story of how she got an agent (for the price of a coffee), as well as some of the frustrating delays that are at times part of the publishing process, but unfortunately meant that the publication of some of her books was delayed by 3 or 4 years.
Tania also spoke about the importance of social media, and her determination to teach herself some of these new skills, including numerous Instagram hacks. Fittingly, Tania’s advice to us was, ‘invest in yourself’.
Next, we heard from Chanelle Gosper. As a new author, Chanelle spoke to us about her road to publication. Her talk started off with a game of Two Truths and a Lie, or in this case, Four Truths and a Lie, from which we learnt that Chanelle is a dab hand at singing while roller skating!
Chanelle’s taste for adventure has seen her live in three different countries and take on a number of careers, including furniture polishing, primary school teaching, healthcare support and marketing.
Chanelle has always had a love of history and from a young age wanted to be an archaeologist. Writing has also been a big part of her life, but it was always a very personal pursuit and not seen as a career path. Chanelle’s journey to becoming an author was given a lift when her short story, Unsettled, was highly commended and published in the Stringybark Stories anthology in 2021. Then in 2023 Chanelle’s first picture book was published with Hachette. Little Treasure, is about the special moments shared by a mother and daughter and was a CBCA Notable in 2024.
As a writer, Chanelle has learnt to be true to herself. Her advice is, ‘to write for yourself and not what you think others want’.
After lunch, we heard from author, Danielle Clode. Danielle spoke to us via zoom from Venus Bay in South Australia. Danielle has been a non-fiction writer for 25 years. Her award winning writing is expansive and includes natural history, essays, science-writing, historical fiction, documentaries and children’s books.
Danielle has a wealth of grant writing experience, having worked as a professional grant writer, grant editor and grant assessor. She has also been the recipient of numerous grants over the course of her career. So, we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from Danielle as she shed light on the topic of grants, the grant writing process and what assessors are looking for in an application.
Grants come in a number of forms and give writers and illustrators time to pursue their craft. Danielle spoke about the many different types of grants, such as fellowships, residencies, travel grants, project grants, as well as marketing and development grants. She also spoke about the main differences between state and federal grants.
Danielle’s talk was very insightful and had us all thinking about the next grant that we might apply for.
Next, we had our panel discussion for the day. This was a fascinating talk about the American market and was given by the talented trio of author Adam Cece, author and illustrator Mandy Foot, and author Kelly Hibbert. All three creators have been exploring avenues for representation in North America.
Mandy began the panel discussion by talking about her experience with Picture Book Party, an annual contest to help connect unagented writers and author/illustrators with agents and editors in North America. Mandy walked us through the detailed application process which ultimately saw her signed to US agent, Lynnette Novak from Seymour Agency. The good news continued as we learned that Adam was also successfully signed to the same agent. Both Mandy and Adam are currently collaborating on a story and now hope to find a US publisher with the help of their new agent.
Kelly rounded off the discussion by talking to us about Querytracker, a large online database that can be used to help find an agent. Querytracker is an online platform that gives you access to information on agents worldwide (though with a focus on North America), including – agent list, the types of queries/pitches they are accepting or rejecting, preferred genres, response times and so much more. This is certainly a topic that we could devote an entire day to.
Rounding out our Professional Day we had the pleasure of hearing from visiting Sydney author, Fiona Llyod, who spoke to us about her author journey. Fiona began her talk by sharing with us some of her background, growing up in the North-East of England, and her time spent travelling and working around Europe, which included a couple of years living in Greece. Her travels eventually lead her to settling in Australia where she spent a number of years working as a television colourist on Home and Away. Fiona had always dreamt of becoming an author and like many creatives her journey to publication was gradual but determined, with a number of stories initially published in anthologies. In 2020, Fiona became a founding member of the Words on Waves Writers Festival on the Central Coast of NSW. Her debut middle grade novel, Being Jimmy Baxter was published in 2023, and in 2024 was shortlisted for the CBCA Awards and the SA Literary Awards, and went on to win the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards in the 8 to 10 year category.
Fiona’s talk about her journey to becoming a published author was very honest and heartfelt, and her openness was very much appreciated by everyone.
Written by Danny Snell
