Karen Collum">Australian Children's Author

Life has been busy, NaNoWriMo is almost over and my poor blog has been neglected. Feel free to have a poke around the archives until I get myself sorted.

We’ve just come home from a long weekend away up at Camp Howqua for the bi-annual (and hopefully soon-t0-be annual!) Adventurer Camporee for our state. Adventurers is for kids aged 6-10 years and is similar to Scouts, but with a focus on character development and spiritual development from a Christian perspective. The Camporee is a highlight for the kids and their families as they come together for worship, fun and adventure. The weather was divine, the activities were awesome and the theme of ‘Kingdom Kids’ was great. Our own boys had an absolute ball and ran the entire time we were there and it was wonderful to see them having so much fun in such a great environment. On a personal level, however, it was a weekend of significance for me as I got to do what I love: storytelling. Keep reading →

I heard a whisper that one of the Grade 3 classes at Sunbury Primary School have been reading Samuel’s Kisses and talking about authors recently. I just wanted to say hello and thank you for reading my book. I hope to get some questions from you very soon. You can email me at karen@karencollum.com.au.

Enjoy learning about authors!

P.S. Maybe I can come and visit your classroom one day soon. :)

I’ve been inspired in the last few weeks by the antics of everyone involved in the Month of Poetry over at Kat Apel’s blog. I love writing poetry but I don’t do it very often and I usually stick to the rollicking ballads that tell a story for some family function. Through Month of Poetry I’ve been exposed to a few different forms of poetry that I have never tried or never knew existed. Today, for something different, I thought I’d post my efforts. I have no idea if they are any good but they’ve certainly been a fun way to hone my word skills. I figure anything that enhances my control over language is going to be a good thing for my writing across the board. Keep reading →

I’m back :) I’ve been offline for a few months now and it was a much-needed break for me although I did miss chatting with all my writing friends. Life has still been exceptionally busy but I confess I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation away from all things online. In fact, I was rarely on Twitter or Facebook for the entire month of October and during that period I found time to breathe again. November came around (as it is wont to do) and I found myself doing NaNoWriMo once more that required me to jump back and connect again. I knew I wouldn’t reach 50,000 words in a month without chatting about word counts and daily totals so it was great to reconnect with people again as I worked hard to pass the finish line by November 30. I did just that…and managed to move house in the middle. So November was what you could call crazy. Here’s a picture of my NaNoWriMo graph. (Any guesses when we moved???) Keep reading →

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sometimes the world seems to be whizzing by at lightning speed, leaving me floundering in its wake.  There’s so much information, so much to know, so much to do that I find myself taking a step backwards to preserve myself and my sanity. Right now is one of those times. I’m calling Timeout. Keep reading →

Image: Evgeni Dinev, freedigitalphotos.net

I’m just a few weeks into my Year of the Novel course and I’m at the point where I’m ready to start writing. I think. I hope. Maybe. Possibly. On second thoughts, maybe not. I’ve got my story plotted, I’m really excited by my characters and the journey they’re about to go on and I’ve begun to inhabit the mind of my POV character and see the world through his eyes. I’ve done some basic research into athletics – my main character is a sprinter – and I’ve got a handle on the tone and emotional climate of the story. I’m thinking about my story all the time and find myself wandering off into my created world on a regular basis. I’m craving the time and space to write and am making all the right noises about about wanting to start. I’m standing on the precipice of my new, exciting story, but there’s just one problem… I don’t want to start. Keep reading →

I love The Rule of 3s in writing. Three events, three characters, three scenes; it’s all just so satisfying. So, you can imagine my delight last week when I had three exciting things happen in one day. Keep reading →

My lovely friend (and fellow mum to twins) Simone is the brains and beauty behind Hip Little One, a great site profiling the coolest, prettiest and most hip things for kids. Hip Little One is also the place to visit for giveaways and competitions. I’m delighted that SAMUEL’S KISSES is featured on Simone’s site at the moment. If you’d like to win a signed copy of your very own, click here and follow all the competition instructions. Good luck!

Just a quick post to let you know I’m a guest blogger over at the wonderful Kids Book Review site today. I share how I found inspiration at the bottom of a watermelon (true story!). Also, the lovely Megan from KBR has reviewed SAMUEL’S KISSES and has all sorts of lovely things to say about our book. Thank you, Megan!