Karen Collum">Australian Children's Author

All dolled up :)

Recently I did an author visit to my nephew’s school. This doesn’t sound like a particularly unusual thing to do, except that in our case, I’m in Ballarat, Australia and my nephew, Zeb, lives in Alabama, USA. Thanks to Skype, I was able to do a school visit to the other side of the world from the comfort of my own office. Keep reading →

It’s always surreal when I first lay hands on a book I’ve written and third time round is no exception. WHEN I LOOK AT YOU – MY BOOK ABOUT FEELINGS is another Autumn House* (UK) publication and my author copies arrived at my house just a few minutes ago. To say I am excited is an understatement. Before today I had only seen a few sample illustrations, so I was essentially reading the book for the very first time, even though I wrote it! I’m absolutely delighted with what Lorenzo Sabbatini has done with the illustrations. They are bright and vibrant and amazingly expressive and really do capture the heart of what I was trying to capture with the text. I could go on and on about the importance of teaching kids emotional intelligence skills and how the ability to name and understand feelings is crucial for kids’ (and adults’) well-being, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll let the book speak for itself.

Keep reading →

I was very excited to have a big box of books delivered today. Fish Don’t Need Snorkels is my latest picture book, published by Autumn House, a small UK Christian publishing house. It is vibrant, beautiful and interactive making it perfect for the preschool age group. My almost-3-year-old twins love it and joined in reading the story from the very first time they heard it. Keep reading →

Blast off!

Welcome to the launch of my new website. I’m so excited to be able to share the fantastic work of web designer, Jin Wang with you. Take a few minutes and have a look around and see what exciting things are coming up for me in 2010. And make sure you come back and have another look early in the New Year as I’ll be hosting a very special competition where you can win one of my books. I’ll even sign a copy for you :)

My blog is now integrated into my website, so if any of you currently subscribe to The Unutterable Phrase, now would be a good time to add this page to your Feed instead. I’ll be blogging regularly about all things writing and would love you to pop by and say hello.

Thanks so much for being part of my writing journey!