The Spring Equinox is traditionally a time of new beginnings, and this seems very true for me at the moment.

We have spent all year rebuilding and renovating our house, camping out in one corner or another as the builders worked their magic around us, and now we are feeling very blessed indeed as our new beautiful, comfortable and spacious dwelling (everything our old house was not!) All we have left to do now is plant a garden, a very appropriate way to spend spring.

Kookaburra on our new back terrace

And I have delivered the first draft of my latest book to my Australian publisher. It has taken me a seemingly endless fourteen months to write, though admittedly it has been such a busy year with travelling, teaching and promoting 'The Puzzle Ring' that I had long weeks where I had no time to write at all.

With a working title of 'The Wildkin's Curse', this novel is the long-awaited sequel to my YA fantasy 'The Starthorn Tree'. It tells the story of two boys and a girl who set out to rescue an imprisoned wildkin princess from a crystal tower, before her newly emerged magical powers can be used for harm. Rosalina is gifted with the Tongue of Flame, which means all her spoken words have power. Whether wishing or praying or cursing or foretelling the future, whatever she says will happen, which makes her a potent weapon for whoever controls her.

Filled with adventure, magic and romance, 'The Wildkin's Curse' is a novel about the power of words and storytelling.

Having managed to deliver it just before the kids broke up for school holidays, I am now enjoying a much-deserved break for two weeks, before I begin work on the next novel, which is the planned sequel to 'The Wildkin's Curse'. I will also, of course, have a great deal more work to do on the manuscript of 'The Wildkin's Curse' before it is ready for publication. A break of a month or so will help me see so many flaws in the manuscript, plus I am already having ideas of ways to deepen and enrich the story.

My cat on my desk

A few other exciting things have happened during the past few months. 'The Gypsy Crown' was nominated for the Surrey Schools' Book of the Year Award in Canada. This is an enormous thrill because it always means so much to me when a book does well overseas. The tyranny of distance means it's very difficult for an Australian author to do much to help and promote their books on the international stage (particularly when the author has three young children!) So often my books have to rely on their own strengths to build a market overseas, and believe me the competition is fierce! So I'm very happy about this nomination.

'The Gypsy Crown' also got another lovely online review which is fantastic since the books are now three years old. The reviewer said: 'Another spell-binding book by Kate Forsyth ... (her) writing is a charm in itself.' Read the full review at the 'A Writer Goes on a Journey' blog.

'The Puzzle Ring' also continues to gain some wonderful reviews. Here are two of the best:

"This is one of those books that I feel like I want to carry around with me 24/7. You know when every aspect of a book just calls to you and fills you with wonder and happiness? Well, this is that book to me. The entire story is enchanting from the first pages ... (and then) wraps up neatly by the last page, neither rushed nor convoluted. A wonderful ending to a wonderful adventure through time and magic." Read the full review at Beyond Book.

"The Puzzle Ring is one of those stories where you can't imagine how the heroes are ever going to get out of the situation they've got into. Just as they get out of one dangerous mess, things get ten times worse... these poor characters are put through the mill! The story was gripping and the historical parts were so vivid you could almost smell the 16th century world as they travelled through it. If you like a satisfying mystery that has just enough magic and mayhem to be gripping but isn't hardcore fantasy, then this is an excellent read." Read the full review on the UK Blog 'Chicklish'.

Otherwise, I've been very busy with the Book Week celebrations, visiting about a dozen schools in the Sydney area, and helping the CBCA (Northern Suburbs) branch organise the first Northern Beaches Literary Festival which I hope will continue to grow and flourish.

Wendy Burridge with Kate Forsyth and her sister Belinda Murrell
at the 'Meet An Author' event at Manly Library

One of our initiatives was a writing workshop taught by Melina Marchetta, James Roy and Belinda Murrell. Melina said that one of the best ways of delineating character was through the way people in a story moved and spoke. James talked about how you can find 'story starters' anywhere, even right before your eyes, while Belinda talked about the importance of using the five senses to describe a setting. It was a great success, and I think the kids got a lot out of it.

Melina Marchetta, James Roy, Belinda Murrell and workshop participants

James Roy has just written his first ever fantasy novel for younger readers, even though he best-known as an award-winning writer of contemporary social realism for teenagers. Intrigued by this change of genre and age group, I've asked him a few questions about the process.

Interview with James Roy

You are best known for writing contemporary social realist fiction. What made you decide to write a children's fantasy book?
Simply, I was asked. Paul Collins, who with Michael Pryor began the Quentaris series some years ago, asked me if I'd be interested in writing the third in a sub-series, wherein the city of Quentaris has, through a misused spell, been torn free from the earth and is now floating in the air like a giant ship. With giant masts. And sails. Paul wrote the first book, Alyssa Brugman did the second, and I was asked to do the third. And never having done much fantasy writing, apart from a brief flirtation with what I would call "Steampunk-lite" a few years ago, I jumped at the chance.

Did you find it difficult to write in a new genre?
Not especially. I think most of the same principles apply - characters have to drive the story forward, the action has to build and grow in a similar way, and many of the same technical skills apply. But I would add that I didn't try to go too far into the fantasy realm - I kept it pretty simple in terms of spells and magic that sort of thing. But I did have a lot of fun playing with myth, legend and Shakespearean theatrical tragedy.

In what way was it a different writing experience?
Quentaris is a shared world, so I had to work within a number of constraints. A number of the characters were already established, as was the physical layout of the city itself, and many of the day to day activities within the city, so that had to remain fairly consistent. But the other fun aspect of writing Quentaris is that the setup, by its very nature, allows the writer to head off on various storytelling tangents, so long as they bring it back in the end.

In what way was it similar?
I tend to work from a character-driven point-of-view in most of my writing. Even the books that I think are going to be action- and plot-driven end up focusing more on the characters within the story. This tends to be the case with the books I choose to read as well. So as I said earlier, the same principles applied when I came to write fantasy: get the character right, and the rest will generally follow.

Do you read much fantasy?
I've never been a huge fantasy reader, and this was my only source of reluctance when I was invited to write this book. This is why I tried to keep it fairly simple in terms of magic - I quite simply didn't feel I had have the reading experience to attempt anything too ambitious. I have too many friends who write great fantasy, and I like to keep my friends! But of the fantasy I have read, I enjoyed Ursula le Guin as a kid, I've always found Tolkien very hard work, and as an adult I really love the incredibly dark steampunk of China Mieville. And at risk of sounding like a fantasy-noob, I adored (and still do adore) the Narnia books. If fantasy is about creating a world that is different from ours but entirely believable, then CS Lewis got it so, so right. Quentaris is a shared world series. Can you tell us what that means, and how it affected your writing style?

Before Quentaris was turned into a floating, mobile city, it backed onto a giant cliff, which was full of "rift caves". Each of these caves led into another world. The genius of this idea was that so long as a story began and ended in Quentaris, a "guest" writer could pretty much go wherever they wanted, and do whatever turned them on, or write what they write best. But in its current form, and as part of a sub-series, I had to work with most of the same characters, and apart from a brief excursion "off-city", everything happens within the walls of Quentaris. This didn't affect my style too greatly, since the characters I was given were already so well formed. Likewise the city itself - I was even given a map and a "bible", which I was encouraged to study. On one occasion I staged a play at a theatre much like the Globe of Shakespeare's time, and was told by Paul that "there's already a theatre in Quentaris - it's called the Paragon. It's all in the map I sent you." So I burnt the Paragon down and rebuilt it as the New Paragon. And why? Simply because I could.

How much freedom did you have to change things in the Quentaris world?
I'm not sure how much I was given, but I'll tell you how much I took: I killed off a major character in the first paragraph. I think Paul and Michael had some reservations about that, but by the time they got a look at the manuscript, everything was utterly dependent on that drastic event, so they reluctantly agreed. The other things I changed were renovations to the city - both actual and metaphorical - and the introduction of an infiltrating horde. Plus some very odd water-borne critters...

Did you have to change the way you work, and your own personal style, to match the tone of the other books in the Quentaris series?
I like to play around with style anyway; many of my books differ from one another in style. So I didn't find it terribly difficult, no. Besides, with a shared-world series written by several authors, I don't think that matters so much. Now the people finishing the last of the books by the late Robert Jordan - they've got a much bigger problem on their hands.

Will you be writing more fantasy books?
Absolutely. It's good fun, having that freedom, but also having to hold it all together in a believable way. It's a good, fun challenge, and I love to challenge myself as a writer.

What do you consider to be good writing, regardless of genre?
If the books of Stephenie Meyer have taught us anything, it is that what one person considers good writing is vastly different from what someone else might believe it to be. So in one sense, good writing is anything with an eager audience. But in an empirical sense, I think that quality writing is made up of characters that engage, living in a world that sustains a suspension of disbelief, driven along through a strong story, written in a style that pleases the eye and the voice in the head. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Quentaris webpage: www.quentaris.com

James' webpage: www.jamesroy.com.au

My very best wishes

www.kateforsyth.com.au