NAIDOC | Cristy Burne - AUTHOR AND STEM CREATIVE

…I’ve just come back from three days of workshops in Geraldton, where I met lots of terrific and talented people, including Zac R, a budding writer from Room 13. He worked very hard over two days to finish Chapter 1 of his story, and I promised to put it on the web for all to see.

So, here it is: A MONSTER HOUSE, by Zac R from Room 13.

A MONSTER HOUSE: Intro/synopsis

The monster I’m going to talk about is the Monster House. I hope you enjoy!

The Monster House eats anything that goes or is near the house. The Monster House is afraid of fire, smells like a zombie, looks like an ugly house and sounds like a zombie dying.

A MONSTER HOUSE: CHAPTER 1.

One day a kid named Zac R went for a walk at night and saw a weird-looking house. Zac felt relaxed. Then, the house turned into a monster house and Zac felt scared. Zac started to run from China to Perth.

Zac was soooo scared that he said: “Awww, I’m going to get eaten alive!”

So, Zac carried dynamite.

Zac lit the dynamite on fire and threw it as hard as he could. The house blew up into many pieces.

The house turned into a zombie house and tried to kill Zac with a diamond pick axe. But Zac took his flare gun and blasted the zombie’s roof off, because the roof is the house’s main power source. So, Zac was now safe and went back home to go to sleep.

The next morning, Zac went to the place where he killed the zombie house and he saw graders, dump trucks and bobcats cleaning the place up. So Zac met a friend named Bob who was at the place, cleaning up the broken house pieces. Then, after that, Zac and Bob went to the playground and saw the Filth Licker. The brought the Filth Licker home and the Filth Licker started to clean up the house.

Then, the Filth Licker got hungry, so Zac and Bob gave the Filth Licker a name and talking cockroaches to eat, and the Filth Licker’s name was William. So William went around to other people’s houses to clean them. And they lived happily ever after.

THE END.

That is the end of my monster house story. I hope you enjoyed it.

By Zac R, Room 13.

….Way to go Zac! I did enjoy it! Thanks so much for sharing: now lots of other people enjoy your story too…

It was great to meet everyone in Geraldton…thanks for your fabulous stories!

Cristy

Artist Patrick Lee worked with kids from seven schools at the 2013 Geraldton NAIDOC Sports Festival.

Kevin Burgemeestre facepaints for NAIDOC festival

Author/illustrator Kevin Burgemeestre joined in with spontaneous Antarctic face-painting…

Woo hoo!

Just back from Geraldton, where I’ve had a terrific week with gorgeous authors and illustrators Sally Murphy, Kevin Burgemeestre and Den Scheer (who has also done a great write-up of this event).

Together, we did meet-the-author school shows and writing and illustration workshops across three days and seven schools, and it was FANTASTIC.

I trialed heaps of new jokes, met lots of great people, and had stacks of fun. Yee ha! (And thanks for laughing at my jokes :-))

Cristy Burne, Den Scheer and disembodied head

Me, Den Scheer and the disembodied head.

We saw an awesome Aboriginal dance troupe, made up of Year 9 students. Very impressive!

Thanks to the Children’s Charity Network for supporting the event, to artist Patrick Lee for his amazing talent and generosity, and to Marg Maxwell and her team (including Ken and the cat) for their brilliant hospitality. Hugs to you all (even the cat)!

Young Australian Art and Writing Awards

While I’m on the subject of the Children’s Charity Network, they run some exciting award programs for young authors and artists.

I was (am?) addicted to entering competitions of this kind, and even won a couple when I was still at school (the old Canon Young Writers of the Year was a highlight…my first trip to Sydney! Yee ha!).

We all know how hard it is to be a writer, how much you need to believe in yourself if you’re even going to put words on a page, and awards like this can give young artists a real boost, right when they need it most. It sure helped me!

So, if you know a young writer or talented artist (or if you suspect you might possibly be one…), check out the awards, and the OzKids in Print magazine.

I’ll leave you with more images from the NAIDOC Sports Festival…it rocked!