It’s a great sci-fi adventure on a huge scale filled with action, drama, humour, memorable characters and a miraculous alien spacecraft called the Ark Angel that’s come to help a diverse team of unlikely heroes try to save humanity and the essential treasures of the Earth.
Or has it?
I’m not a big reader of sci-fi but I really enjoyed this and can’t wait to read the sequel. If you ARE into sci-fi or like me just love a great story well told, I hope you can check it out. It’s available in paperback ($20)and ebook ($4).
And please leave a review for Rob if you have a positive response (as I’m sure you will!). Cheers.
Rob Bauer co-signing my first ever publishing contract for THE RUNNING MAN.
Wait, what? It’s February already! That can’t be right. Aren’t we supposed to have January first? Isn’t that the usual order? |Huh? We did? When? Oh, in January … riiiiight….
Well HAPPY NEW (first week of) FEBRUARY then!
Anyway, so speaking of New Year’s RESOLUTIONS – I don’t make them any more.
I used to but I found I never kept them. Except for that one time when I resolved not to make any more resolutions. I really nailed that sucker!
In place of Resolutions what I’ve done at the start of every year since around 2006 (a couple of years after I was first published) is make a list of WRITING RELATED GOALS (sometimes I called them HOPES & DREAMS).
I like making the list. It’s fun to imagine all those good things happening (even if you know most of them won’t) and then there’s the sense of achievement you get if you hopefully tick a few of them off.
The number of goals I’ve set myself over the years has varied quite a bit from a modest 13 in 2006 to a ridiculously over-ambitious 52 in 2011!
Each list has always included a RANGE OF GOALS from ones where there’s a ‘GOOD CHANCE IT MIGHT HAPPEN’ through the ‘IT’S POSSIBLE BUT DOUBTFUL’ and on to those where ‘DIVINE INTERVENTION IS DEFINITELY REQUIRED’.
So for example ‘GOOD CHANCE IT MIGHT HAPPEN’ goals have included:
Starting a new manuscript or finishing one I’d been working on for a while
Earning a certain (very modest) level of income from writing related activities.
Completing a very achievable number of school visits
‘IT’S POSSIBLE BUT DOUBTFUL’ (sometimes very doubtful) goals have included:
Having a current book longlisted or shortlisted for Literary Awards
Getting an invitation to a Literary festival
Having a new manuscript accepted for publication
Gaining overseas sales
Earning a certain (higher than expected) level of income from writing related activities
‘DIVINE INTERVENTION IS DEFINITELY REQUIRED’ goals have included:
Having a current book win Literary Awards
Receiving an offer for movie or TV rights
Getting invited to an overseas festival
Successfully applying for a Grant
Hitting the Best Sellers List
Keeping my commitment to write at least one BLOG every week
So how did I go over the years I pretend to hear you ask? Well stop hounding me and SEE TABLE BELOW!
Anything around the 40% success rate I’m pretty happy with. That usually means I achieved most of the ‘probable’ goals and even a few of the ‘possible’ but less expected goals. (You can see the effects of Covid and Lockdowns in 2020 & 2021)
YEAR Goals Achieved/Total Goals Set Success Percentage
2006
8/13
61%
2007
10/18
55%
2008
16/37
43%
2009
17/28
61%
2010
20/40
50%
2011
20/52
38%
2012
12/31
39%
2013
20/50
40%
2014
18/30
60%
2015
16/38
42%
2016
18/53
34%
2017
18/40
45%
2018
17/32
53%
2019
16/46
38%
2020
8/42
19%
2021
2/20
10%
2022
9/16
52%
2023
?/23
????
So what about THIS YEAR? (Again with the questions!)
FOR 2023I have set 23 Goals. (And I’ve only just realised as I typed that sentence that 23 is a fairly appropriate number. Who says I’m slow?!)
Of the 23 Goals I’d say approximately 8 have a GOOD CHANCE of happening, another 6 have SOME CHANCE, and the remaining 9 are possible but VERY UNLIKELY. (For example Goal 19 from this year’s list is to WRITE ONE BLOG PER WEEK. I’ll let you figure out in which category that one fits!)
Also on my Goals list for 2023 is one that says: COMPLETE SERIOUS YA MANUSCRIPT & SEND IT AWAY.
That exact goal for the same YA manuscript first appeared on the 2019 list and it’s been on every list since then. Actually there are references to STARTING this same YA manuscript as far back as the 2011 list. (OMG, those people who say I’m slow ARE RIGHT!!!!)
Anyway, I’m writing this blog to tell you that THIS is the year I will finally COMPLETE THE SERIOUS YA MANUSCRIPT & SEND IT AWAY!
Naturally another Goal on the 2023 list is that someone will want to publish my serious YA novel. I’ve placed that one firmly in the DIVINE INTERVENTION IS DEFINITELY REQUIRED basket.
I hope plenty of your goals and dreams for 2023 come true.
Cheers Michael
One of my other long-time Goals is to finally repair my Space Pod so that one day I might return to my home Planet.
1. ANYONE can buy a Rabbit book at EASTER – that’s so PREDICTABLE and BORING. But buying a Rabbit book at CHRISTMAS makes you seem WILD and EDGY!
2. If you DON’T BUY A COPY then at Play Care or Kindy or Primary School, when all the other little ones are gathered around the bubblers or sitting in the sandpit talking and laughing about RODNEY, your special little person might feel left out because of your thoughtlessness. Now I’m not trying to lay a GUILT TRIP on you here, but what kind of a MONSTER would risk that?!?
3. ALMOST every cent earned in ROYALTIES from the sale of the book will be spent THOUGHTFULLY and ETHICALLY by the illustrator and author on OTHER BOOKS, COFFEE and COMFORT FOOD. The remainder will be blown on NON-ESSENTIALS.
4. Unlike its predecessor RODNEY LOSES IT! the sequel RODNEY FORGETS IT! is actually a “HEART-WARMING story of GREAT BEAUTY with many important SOCIAL VALUES that every child in the country should be exposed to” . (I put that last bit in inverted commas because I said it OUT LOUD as I typed it.)
5. I’ve already spent the ADVANCE.
6. I’m supposed to keep my wife in the MANNER TO WHICH SHE IS ACCUSTOMED and what not many people realise is that Adriana is actually the daughter of an INSANELY RICH Arab Oil Sheik and she was cruelly and unfairly cut from the family INHERITANCE for marrying, to quote her dad, “a commoner who is FAR MORE COMMON than most”. Nasty.
7. RODNEY LOSES IT! won the CBCA Award and everyone knows that sequels are always FAR BETTER than the original. Look no further than Police Academy 2-7.
8. HIGHLY STRUNG and FORGETFUL rabbits are criminally under-represented in the vast canon of Australian Literature. You can help redress this SHAMEFUL IMBALANCE!
9. If you know me PERSONALLY there’s a good chance I will ask every special little person in your life if they have a copy of BOTH RODNEY books. What happens if they say NO? Do you really want to subject yourself to this level of EMBARASSMENT, HUMILIATION and ABUSE?
10. EVERY SINGLE PERSON* who buys a copy of RODNEY FORGETS IT! between now and Christmas will go into the DRAW to win a PRIZE PACK of RODNEY POST-IT NOTES and RODNEY STICKERS as seen below!
* NB: To be eligible for the prize draw readers must ALSO:
send in a copy of your DATED RECEIPT
post a PHOTO of yourself (smiling) with the book on a SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
submit a 300+ word GLOWING REVIEW on Goodreads or similar
absolve me of any responsibility regarding this competition
As the last major blog I posted was back in March and it’s now almost November (!) it might be time for a bit of a recap on some things that occurred in the between time.
I received a Chinese language edition of RODNEY LOSES IT!.
I filled in for three days at the wonderful IPSWICH STORY ARTS FESTIVAL after Covid unfortunately struck down some presenters.
We renovated our ensuite and added new bookshelves to the study. I still think the toilet should be inside!
Even though I had more or less decided to stop doing school visits I still had a great time visiting St Ignatius School Toowong, Ambrose Treacy College Indooroopilly, Our Lady Help of Christians Hendra, Somerville House Sth Brisbane, Kimberley College Carbrook, St Finbarr’s Ashgrove and The Springfield Anglican College.
My wife and I had a few stays in Melbourne to catch-up with our lovely grand kiddies and their equally lovely parents. Leaving is always a bit hard on the heart.
Our banana trees produced their first ever bunch. Give them a hand!
I was stoked to find the missing RINGO PEG DOLL that was made by my son Joe and featured on the original Australian cover he designed and created for DON’T CALL ME ISHMAEL. It had been missing for close to a year. And even though I had searched there previously and more than once, it eventually turned up hiding in the bottom of the bag I use for school visits.
Rodney Loses it but Michael finds It!
I helped launch LITTLE SHARK LULU for good friend Josie Montano, co-author Charlotte Birkmanis and Carla Hoffenberg (illustrator).
I read a bunch of good books including …
I did a bit of work in the back yard. (Just kidding of course! That’s our front yard.)
I had (another!) birthday and was very happy to score this.
And last and probably most, I was surprised, humbled and honoured in equal parts to be awarded The Dame Annabelle Rankin Award for Distinguished Services to Children’s Literature by the Queensland Branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia and to have the award presented to me by Governor of Qld, Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM . My acceptance speech is HERE.
As for my the current state of my writing, I’m happy to say that I’ve signed a contract for a new picture book (not a Rodney) with Scholastic Australia which will be released in 2024. I’m also playing around with some other picture book texts as well as still continuing to work on the YA novel which seems to be turning into a never-ending project. Although in my defence (after only two or three years) I now have a reasonable First Draft, so where there’s life there’s hope!
And for your great amusement I leave you with son Joe and d-in-l Rita’s take on Halloween. You can check out all their other amazing and hilarious videos, and maybe join their over 2.4 MILIION HAPPY SUBSCRIBERS, on their ARTSPEAR ENTERTAINMENT page.
Michael Gerard Bauer Author 