Local writer going national

Miriam Vale author Kathryn Apel will be overseeing the Net A Story: Online Project as part of the 2012 Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale.

Contributed

KATHRYN Apel set upon a career as a children's writer while taking leave from teaching to be at home with her two young sons.

She now has two books under her belt, one of which has been screening regularly nationally since it appeared on Playschool in 2010.

Her boys, Branyon, 13, and Fletcher, 12, are now too old for her books, but it was for them that she wrote her first chapter book, Fencing with Fear, when they were youngsters.

The Apel's live on a grazing property outside of Miriam Vale and Kathryn wanted books about farms to read to her sons.

But she said all the farm books were typically based on the United Kingdom "where they have one cow, one sheep and small farms". Nothing related to the situation in Australia.

"Fencing with Fear is about two children, a boy and a girl, going out with their father to check the fences and all the dangers they could meet while doing that," she said.

"I decided to write the book for them while I was on leave, but now I write because I enjoy it."

The book was launched in Gladstone in 2008 during the Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale and published a year later.

Since then she has published her first picture book This is Mud! a rhyming tale about a cow that gets stuck in the mud during a typical Australian drought and the community's effort to rescue her.

This is Mud! was selected to be read on national ABC Play School program and has since had many screenings.

"I didn't want (the illustrator) to have a dairy cow, so I chose one of our beef cows as a model.

"She's 11 years old now, and we've still got her."

Kathryn has a very active website where she has pioneered a number of group writing activities; She is also co-founder and co-convenor of #pblitchat, the worldwide chat for those in the picture book industry, and also coordinates Month of Poetry (#MoP) during January.

This year Kathryn will take part in the Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale's second biennial in the Net a Story project for school groups from throughout the region.

She will write a "story starter" then host a web conference for enrolled groups to orientate and engage students and give pointers for the writing process.

In subsequent weeks, participating groups will then contribute their own additions to the starter, until the story is complete. Each school will have one week to write their section of the story.

The project runs from 23 February until 25 July, when it will conclude with a special guest appearance by Kathryn at the Gladstone CQU campus.

Nominations by school groups must be in by February 15.

During the program this year, the Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale will also welcome six acclaimed authors and illustrators:
Deborah Abela, Pat Flynn, Jackie French, Anne Spudvilas, David Legge and Frances Watts.
For details re Net a Story contact Sandra Vince Ph: 4973 4782 or Email: vinces1@chanelcollege.qld.edu.au