Onwards and upwards, today IS the first day of the rest of my life! There is life after 20 employment in one place. Watch out world, I’m on my way. The Ten Penners meet today and I’ve done my homework for March and April, taking a short story I wrote for a competition I entered recently. I’ve put together a pitch for my book that I’m working on for Camp NaNoWriMo this month. The sky’s the limit! Cheers all my friends.
_ Jill
Hi again,
Here is another couple of videos of our visit to St Joseph’s Bracken Ridge in October 2017. Elli introducing Baby and reading excerpts from her stories.
We really enjoyed the day, and I think the kids did too. – Jill
Hi friends and followers,
Just a heads up that this year The Ten Penners plan to do as many school visits as we can. The invitations have been sent and we have one already accepted, although the time and date is yet to be confirmed.
Here are a few more YouTube videos of our visit to St Joseph’s at Bracken Ridge, October 2017. Our book signing night and Jill’s talk.
I’ll post more during the week – Jill
I’ve finally managed to get some video’s of our school visit to St Joseph’s ready to post, here is Marion Martineer’s talk, part 1 and 2. More to follow shortly – Jill
We had a lovely meeting yesterday and to make it special we had someone new join us! Peter Boey popped in to take a look at what we do and said he would like to return to join us! We are very happy to have a boy join our all girl team. It will be nice to have a little balance. Originally, we had two men in our line up when there were ten of us. Another couple came and went, so we are hoping we don’t scare Peter away! He is already a published author and what he shared with us yesterday was wonderful.
So, this year is shaping up to be interesting. Our creative activities have been fun and stimulating. Keep watching this space as we share some of our happy times and special pieces.
Have a beautiful week.
Marion 🙂
The Ten Penners have our monthly meeting this morning and I’m looking forward to a dose of inspiration from my friends. Lots of creative ideas will be sparked as we talk about writing, do some creative writing exercises and plan the year ahead. We hope to submit to many writing competitions this year and the first will be the Gold Coast Writers Short Story Competition.
After attending last months Gold Coast Writers meeting, I’m glad to say I was inspired by the buzz in the room and the way the new President Ocean Reeve has embraced technology to showcase audiobooks. The Gold Coast Writers facebook page in full of videos and inspirational messages. Featured authors each month and competition links. The website links to an equally motivational blog. Well done!
_ Jill
After a massive year in 2017 where we wrote, edited and compiled our latest anthology Mystery, Mayhem & Magic!
2018 is promising to be another great year.
With our regular monthly meetings returning to creative writing exercises and stimulation, we’ll be endeavouring to grow in our craft, along with working on presenting our books to the world.
We started the year on a sad note with Julie Baythorpe losing her husband. Our heartfelt condolences go to Julie at this sad time. Marion attended the funeral as did several representatives of Gold Coast Writers Association, Gavin Fisher, Joan Songaila and Penny Ivory.
On a happier note, we are planning to visits several schools this year to promote our books. The Ten Penners are currently preparing to contact schools so that we can go out and show the world what a fun group of dedicated writers for children we are!
_Jill
What a wonderful year it’s been for The Ten Penners.
I just wanted to wish each of our members who are my valued friends: Marion Martineer, coordinator extraordinaire, Kate Russell amazing editor and techno whizz, Elli Housden for her editing eagle eye, Lindy Standage for her continued participation in our group now having been in all three of our anthologies, Julie Baythorpe for her great stories and creating Plinko, to Sharon Alexiou for her artwork and devotion to creating fun stories for children, and Louisa Wright who continues to grow her writing craft.
I wish you and our readers and followers may you travel safely over the holiday season, and have a Christmas filled with joy and love.
– Jill
For your enjoyment, here are some more photo’s from our fun book launch today.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the Plinko colouring-in competitions.
For St. Joseph’s Year 2 – the winner is Harper age 8 …
For St. Joseph’s Year 3 – the winner is Vania age 9 …
And for our book launch competition the winner is Paige age 5 …
And here are a few more highlights of the morning. Thank you to GC Libraries Broadbeach for the venue and refreshments.
Our book launch at Broadbeach library was lovely! Had a beautiful audience and nice surprises! Check out our special visitor, Plinko!
We are all ready for the big launch of Mystery, Mayhem & Magic!
We’ll be announcing the winners of the ‘Plinko’ colouring competition, sharing our journey into the creation of our book, and enjoying refreshments.
You might meet a Pirate, a Witch, a Highland dancer, a Dragon, and Ted Bear Esquire will be watching over proceedings. We only hope that Baby will sleep quietly throughout, but then again, Baby may need to save the day! (again!!)
-Jill
Only one more day and we will be at Broadbeach library to launch our third anthology, Mystery, Mayhem & Magic. A lovely paperback novel size, that’s jam packed with thirty six stories, poems and novellas, for children aged 8 to 12, and early readers. Though mums and dads c
an read the stories to younger children too.
Featuring amazing adventures and magical creatures with a little bit of mayhem thrown in!
To say we are excited is an understatement! We are ecstatic! So, please come along to Broadbeach library on Saturday 4th November, 2017, 10.15am to 11.15am for a sublime celebration of an exceptional team effort in producing our third book.
Book on line or phone 5581 1555. Bookings are for catering purposes as the wonderful library staff supply tea, coffee, cordial and biscuits. We will be bringing along some treats too! – Marion
Mystery, Mayhem & Magic blog tour giveaway…
These people all entered and were in the draw and will all receive a bookmark consolation prize.
Maud Finch – (the very first post on Dimity’s blog )
Mary Preston – (who commented briefly on 5 different blogs)
Artelle – (fellow host commented on multiple blogs)
Gretchen – (fellow host commented on multiple blogs)
Taryn Gale – (beautifully written post – she’s my boss!)
Michelle Sergeant – (another Foxtel worker)
Jeanene French – (Foxtel co-worker and grandmother)
Desertsand – (on Gretchen’s blog)
Dot H – (on Gretchen’s blog)
Cecilia Adam – (who was prompted by Gretchen to comment for the chance to win – lovely comment)
and the winner is…
drum roll…
Michelle Sergeant!!
Who is thrilled and collected her signed copy of the book today!
Today was a perfect day for the Halloween market .The sun was shining all day until the clouds started rolling in late in the afternoon but it didn’t rain and the movie of the night played for all the excited children who had already bounced, learnt how to juggle or hula hoop, had their faces painted and no doubt had a full belly from all the wond
erful street food sold from quirky vans! The range of interesting food was great. And there among the plethora of market stalls was the Gold Coast Writers’ Association (GCWA) showcasing lots of local authors and answering questions for curious writers. I was there representing The Ten Penners, which is a sub group of the GCWA, along with Julie Baythorpe, Kate Russell and Jill Smith. We all had fun chatting and reading from our new anthology Mystery, Mayhem & Magic. We handed out lots of colouring-in competition forms too! Our winner will receive a fully signed copy of our new book and will be announced at our book launch next Saturday morning 10.15am at Broadbeach library. Hope to see you there! – Marion 🙂
We are just a little excited to be reading from our latest anthology, Mystery, Mayhem & Magic at this Saturday’s Halloween market! The Lanes on the corner of Bermuda Street and Nerang-Broadbeach Road at Mermaid Waters, will be abuzz with street food and market stalls, with fun Halloween themeing! Come and say Hello! – Marion
Yes, the time has come! Today marks the end of a successful blog tour.
The Ten Penners celebrate the upcoming release of our new anthology. We’ve discovered a great deal about the variety of writing styles and talents of the ladies within our group.
As a final fling, each of us has answered one more question about ourselves, to add to the already abundant knowledge of our group.
Marion Martineer
Q. What were your goals and intentions in this book? And how well do you feel you achieved them?
A. As a coordinator of a writing group our goals were to have another anthology published. Pulling the team together to have everything on track was reasonably easy because the girls are all very enthusiastic. We are also lucky to have a couple of exceptional editors in Kate Russell and Elli Housden! Our intentions were to produce adventure stories to entertain children and I think we have achieved that. We have had some test subjects who came back with positive comments. Now, we are sending the book out into the general public for scrutiny and we hope to have glowing results as we did with our first two books!
Kate Russell
Q. What do you think most characterises your writing?
A. There is always one element that slips into my writing, whatever genre it is, and that’s 
humour. The Kai Russell stories in Mystery, Mayhem & Magic were deliberately written with a sense of fun (and I hope readers get a giggle out of them) but even when I’m writing something more “serious”, humour always slips in. I did try once, many years ago, to write a Mills & Boon type romance, but I just kept wanting to make my characters do silly things for a laugh, so that didn’t really work! Writing with humour comes naturally to me, so there’s no point fighting it. I know that I’m never going to be able to write some deep and meaningful Great Australian Novel because it’s just not my style. I’ll leave that to some other author! Frankly, I don’t want to write about dark and depressing stuff, because there’s enough of that around you every day. I want my stories to entertain, and I hope I do that. Mostly, I want readers to finish my stories feeling happy and hopeful. Even though my first self-
published novel, Shadow of a Soldier, which is romantic suspense with supernatural elements, was written as a more dramatic story, there are still lots of fun scenes in it. You can’t have darkness without light. Lately, I’ve been listening (again) to the Harry Potter books on CD, and JK Rowling balances this perfectly. The stakes are high for Harry and his friends, but even when things are at their bleakest, there is still hope and humour. The darkness is never overwhelming (which is not to say I didn’t bawl my eyes out when certain characters died!). I find that when I try to write something too “serious”, I really struggle. But if it’s fun, the words just fly across the page! Of my own books (I have six novels which I hope to publish over the next two to three years), my favourites feature Kylie Cooper, a teenage witch I first wrote about in Fan-tas-tic-al Tales. I liked her so much that I’ve now written three YA novels about her! And a close second is a murder mystery featuring a crime scene cleaner as the protagonist, because, although the subject matter is dramatic, the main character and her family are great fun to write about. You’ve probably all heard the saying “write what you know”. Well, I think you should also write what you love and what comes naturally to you! I do.
Jill Smith
Q. What books have inspired you to write?
A. When I was a child my mother read a chapter each night from Enid Blytons’ The Magic 
Faraway Tree. I still remember begging her to read just one more chapter even though my eyelids were drooping. At school, I wasn’t a breeze through and pass student, like my older sisters. I had to work very hard. I stopped reading books because school gave me so much I had to read that it became a grind. Then I discovered the joy of reading in a small and simple but heart touching book Johnathan Livingston Seagull. All of my family read and I finally caught the bug when I discovered Ann McCaffrey and her wonderful world of Dragons on Pern, and the many other worlds she created. I particularly loved The Ship Who Sang and Restoree. I still have copies of these books on my bookshelf and on my iPad! From there I became an avid reader.
Julie Baythorpe
Q. So, Julie, where do you get your inspiration to write?
A. Life! The wonderful people I meet in my day-to-day activities, the spectacular places I’ve been fortunate enough to visit during my lifetime. Experiences … mine and my friends and family. And throughout my working life … encounters, events … especially in the school situations, I’ve gleaned a myriad of ideas. I’ve read a kaleidoscope of books, poems and plays, all of which contribute to my creativeness. Heroic people who battle day and night to just survive inspire me. Those who battle adversity e.g. the Rohingya in Myanmar (Burma) at present. Lastly, I attribute my motivation to my delightful family; I love them dearly. All of these elements coalesce to stimulate my writing!
Sharron Alexiou
Q. Where do you get your ideas from, when writing for children?
A. Most of my ideas come from children and being around them. Lots of ideas and sparks 
fly being around them. It could be a funny thing they’ve said, a new craze, friendship, or problems they have. Just recently my son went to school with a new t-shirt. His friend said, ‘You have a new t-shirt, I can smell it, it has a new smell!’ All the children went to smell his t-shirt. It was a funny moment and a great idea for a story. My childhood memories, what made me laugh and tick as a child, a photo or picture can trigger a hundred thoughts and develop into good stories. Why? What? When? How? Where? Are always good questions to ask yourself when writing. I love Pinterest. I’m always finding/make up my storyboards with pictures and ideas on it. Every day, I’m finding myself with new ideas for books. I have this big jar, with names of picture books, I want to write. Maybe that might be another book? ‘The never-ending jar of stories!’
Ellie Housden
Q: What are the advantages of belonging to a writers’ group for you?
A: Giving and getting feedback on our writing to improve the final product.
Louisa Wright
Q. Why do I write?
A. Because it makes me and other people happy. It’s an achievement to see my stories in print.
Lindy Standage
Q. How have you found this writing journey creating stories for Mystery, Mayhem & Magic?
A. It’s been an inspiration and has made my life happy.
We hope you’ve enjoyed the tour. If you haven’t caught up with previous posts go back now and check them out. Leave a comment so that you can still be in the running to win a copy of Mystery, Mayhem & Magic.
Mystery, Mayhem & Magic is an anthology of amazing adventures for young readers!
“Take the path through a forest of imagination into mysterious journeys filled with mayhem and a kaleidoscope of magical creatures.
From the authors of “Shock! Horror! Gasp!” and “Fan-Tas-Tic-al Tales”, “Mystery, Mayhem & Magic” is the new anthology written by the Ten Penners … Come and explore!”
15/10/17 Sunday -Marion Martineer – https://marionmartineer.wordpress.com/Dimity Powell – author The Fix-It Man http://dimswritestuff.blogspot.com.au/
16/10/17 Monday– Yvonne Mes, www.yvonnemes.com Elaine Ousten – author Mystery of Nida Valley https://elaineoustonauthor.com/
17/10/17 Tuesday – Jill Smith – https://authorjillsmith.wordpress.com/
Candice Lemon-Scott, author https://candicelemonscott.com.au/
18/10/17 Wednesday– Kate Russell – https://katharinerussell.wordpress.com./
Teena-Rafa Mulligan – In Their Own Write https://intheirownwrite.wordpress.com
19/10/17 Thursday –Julie Baythorpe https://juliebaythorpeauthor.wordpress.com/
Gretchen Bernet-Ward – Thoughts Become Words https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/
20/10/17 Friday – Robin Adolphs http://www.robinadolphs.com/
Artelle Lenthall www.journeygirlontheroadtopublication.com
21/10/17 Saturday – The Ten Penners https://thetenpenners.wordpress.com/
We will be attending Gold Coast Writers Meeting to announce our book launch
23/10/17 Monday – Aleesah Darlison – author of Fox and Moonbeam-Greenleaf Press http://www.greenleafpress.net/
Special Announcement – book giveaway!!
There will be a giveaway of a copy of Mystery, Mayhem & Magic! At the end of the blog tour those who have left a comment on this page, or on any of the other hosts’ pages during the blog tour, will be in the running to receive a free copy! The announcement of the winner will be at our book launch at Broadbeach Library on the 4th November.
So, please make a comment to be in the running! Good luck!
There’s also a colouring competition, ‘Plinko’ our mascot, for children to send in via email. The winners will be announced at our book launch on the 4th November at Broadbeach Library. Book to attend – Download our book launch poster PDF here >>> Ten Penners Approved Poster Broadbeach Library
Download the book launch competition form, here >>>Plinko-Colouring-In-Competition-2017_Booklaunch
Yes, the time has come! Tomorrow The Ten Penners celebrate the upcoming release of our new anthology.
Mystery, Mayhem & Magic is an anthology of amazing adventures for young readers!
“Take the path through a forest of imagination into mysterious journeys filled with mayhem and a kaleidoscope of magical creatures.
From the authors of “Shock! Horror! Gasp!” and “Fan-Tas-Tic-al Tales”, “Mystery, Mayhem & Magic” is the new anthology written by the Ten Penners … Come and explore!”
Please take the journey with us and discover how diverse and talented a group of ladies we are.
The blog tour plan is as below:
15/10/17 Sunday -Marion Martineer – https://marionmartineer.wordpress.com/Dimity Powell – author The Fix-It Man http://dimswritestuff.blogspot.com.au/
16/10/17 Monday– Yvonne Mes, www.yvonnemes.com Elaine Ousten – author Mystery of Nida Valley https://elaineoustonauthor.com/
17/10/17 Tuesday – Jill Smith – https://authorjillsmith.wordpress.com/
Candice Lemon-Scott, author https://candicelemonscott.com.au/
18/10/17 Wednesday– Kate Russell – https://katharinerussell.wordpress.com./
Teena-Rafa Mulligan – In Their Own Write https://intheirownwrite.wordpress.com
19/10/17 Thursday –Julie Baythorpe https://juliebaythorpeauthor.wordpress.com/
Gretchen Bernet-Ward – Thoughts Become Words https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/
20/10/17 Friday – Robin Adolphs http://www.robinadolphs.com/
Artelle Lenthall www.journeygirlontheroadtopublication.com
21/10/17 Saturday – The Ten Penners https://thetenpenners.wordpress.com/
We will be attending Gold Coast Writers Meeting to announce our book launch
23/10/17 Monday – Aleesah Darlison – author of Fox and Moonbeam-Greenleaf Press http://www.greenleafpress.net/
Special Announcement – book giveaway!!
There will be a giveaway of a copy of Mystery, Mayhem & Magic! At the end of the blog tour those who have left a comment on this page, or on any of the other hosts’ pages during the blog tour, will be in the running to receive a free copy! The announcement of the winner will be at our book launch at Broadbeach Library on the 4th November.
So, please make a comment to be in the running! Good luck!
There’s also a colouring competition, ‘Plinko’ our mascot, for children to send in via email. The winners will be announced at our book launch on the 4th November at Broadbeach Library. Book to attend – Download our book launch poster PDF here >>> Ten Penners Approved Poster Broadbeach Library
Download the book launch competition form, here >>>Plinko-Colouring-In-Competition-2017_Booklaunch
_Jill
The Ten Penners are getting very excited, we’ve received a proof of our new book Mystery, Mayhem & Magic!
Mystery, Mayhem & Magic is an anthology of amazing adventures for young readers!
“Take the path through a forest of imagination into mysterious journeys filled with mayhem and a kaleidoscope of magical creatures.
From the authors of “Shock! Horror! Gasp!” and “Fan-Tas-Tic-al Tales”, “Mystery, Mayhem & Magic” is the new anthology written by the Ten Penners … Come and explore!”
The blog tour is now not far away so keep these dates in mind.
15/10/17 Sunday-Marion Martineer – https://marionmartineer.wordpress.com/
Dimity Powell – author The Fix-It Man http://dimswritestuff.blogspot.com.au/
16/10/17 Monday– Yvonne Mes, www.yvonnemes.com
Elaine Ousten – author Mystery of Nida Valley https://elaineoustonauthor.com/
17/10/17 Tuesday – Jill Smith – https://authorjillsmith.wordpress.com/
Candice Lemon-Scott, author https://candicelemonscott.com.au/
18/10/17 Wednesday– Kate Russell – https://katharinerussell.wordpress.com./
Teena-Rafa Mulligan – In Their Own Write https://intheirownwrite.wordpress.com
19/10/17 Thursday – Julie Baythorpe https://juliebaythorpeauthor.wordpress.com/
Gretchen Bernet-Ward – Thoughts Become Words https://thoughtsbecomewords.com/
20/10/17 Friday – Robin Adolphs http://www.robinadolphs.com/
Artelle Lenthall www.journeygirlontheroadtopublication.com
21/10/17 Saturday – The Ten Penners https://thetenpenners.wordpress.com/ Attending Gold Coast Writers Meeting at Fradgely Hall to announce the launch of the book
23/10/17 Monday – Aleesah Darlison – author of Fox and Moonbeam-
Greenleaf Press http://www.greenleafpress.net/
Special Announcement – book giveaway!!
There will be a giveaway of a copy of Mystery, Mayhem & Magic! At the end of the blog tour those who have left a comment on this page, or on any of the other hosts’ pages during the blog tour, will be in the running to receive a free copy! The announcement of the winner will be at our book launch at Broadbeach Library on the 4th November.
So, please make a comment to be in the running! Good luck!
There’s also a colouring competition, ‘Plinko’ our mascot, for children to send in via email. The winners will be announced at our book launch on the 4th November at Broadbeach Library. Book to attend – Download our book launch poster PDF here >>> Ten Penners Approved Poster Broadbeach Library
Download the book launch competition form, here >>>Plinko-Colouring-In-Competition-2017_Booklaunch
– Jill.
Say hello to Plinko. He is our, soon to be famous, character for our colouring in competitions. We are expecting Plinko to be adorned in lots of wonderful colours, and maybe even something sparkly? But which ever way the kids create, the lucky and talented winner shall receive a completely signed (by all 8 authors) copy of our latest book Mystery, Mayhem & Magic.
Download the official competition form which can be found on our Media Kit page.
So get colouring! Winners will be announced at our Book Launch at Broadbeach library on Saturday morning 4th November, 2017. – Marion
Terms and Conditions:
Entries are for Australian residents only.
There are three age group categories for children under 12 years of age.
Entries may be sent by email to thetenpenners@gmail.com
Be sure to have your entry received by us no later than midnight on the 31st October, 2017.
Winners will be announced at our Book Launch – Broadbeach library on Saturday morning 10.15am, 4th November, 2017. And posted on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
