Finding my writer’s voice

I have lost my voice. Yep, quite literally. I woke up this morning to discover I can’t talk in anything above a whisper. (My three little kids think it’s fantastic! It’s very easy to ignore Mum when she can’t be heard.) It has got me thinking about my writer’s voice, however, and what it is about my writing that makes it quintessentially ‘me’.

Help! I can’t find the ‘off’ switch…

I have once again discovered a downside to living the creative life. It happens periodically for me, particularly when I’m dedicating a lot of time to generating ideas and living in that wonderful creative space that I love. In my ‘other life’, I am a full-time stay-at-home mum to three gorgeous boys whom I call Possum, JJ and Moo. Possum is about to turn 4 and JJ and Moo are identical twins who have just turned 1. Needless to say, my days are rather busy. From 7am to 7pm I am Mum. I cook, I clean, I play. And just occasionally, I might squeeze in some time to write while the babies are sleeping, but I often try and use that small window for some special one-on-one time with my beautiful, patient Possum. Come 7pm, however, and I am transformed. Like a regular Clarke Kent, I put the kids to bed and in a single twirl of my office chair, I am Karen Collum, writer. I write most nights (or do writerly things like read other people’s blogs), anywhere from 3-5 hours. This is wonderful. It’s fantastic. It’s thoroughly enjoyable…until it’s time to go to bed. As I crawl into bed, utterly exhausted both physically and mentally, I encounter a big problem. Help! I can’t find the ‘off’ switch to my brain.

A Penguin fetish

I have discovered something deliciously exciting this week. Penguin Group (Australia) has reopened their Books for Children & Young Adults department to unsolicited manuscripts. (You can check it out here for yourself if you don’t believe me.) I’ve been looking at publishers’ websites for over 12 months now and I have never seen this from Penguin before. I’ve got a bit of a Penguin fetish going on, to be honest. It’s enough to get my heart all a-flutter. Imagine! Just imagine, if Penguin accepted one of my manuscripts. They recently rejected one of my junior novels, however they did provide me with the loveliest rejection letter I have received to date. Even if it is just a form letter, it still made the disappointment a little easier to handle. So in honour of all things Penguin, tonight I have polished up cover letters for two of my manuscripts: Slow Down, Stanley and The Gate. I really like both of these picture book manuscripts but for very different reasons.