It’s been a little while since I wrote a blog post but it’s February, and things are afoot! Most excitingly, we have a release date for the second Marlow Brown book.

Marlow Brown: Magician in the Making will be available from June 1st. Hooray!

This means not only is the writing done and all the illustrations finished, but the cover design is also complete. All that needs to happen now is for it to be put together in book form, proof read and printed.

Well, that might be simplifying it slightly. There are undoubtedly a few more things that need to happen from the publisher’s end at Celapene Press, but … we’re well on the way. And on that note, I am delighted to be able to reveal to you the cover of the new Marlow Brown.

Drum roll…

More drum roll…

And…

Tada!

I love Marjory’s illustrations!

They are up to their usual excellent standard in Magician in the Making and I can’t wait to see the book in its finished form, and, of course, to share it with you.

So, what about the launch? Well, we are working on plans for a magical one. Of course! With Magician in the Making as its title, how could we do otherwise?

Our current plan is to launch it at the Melbourne Magic Festival in the midyear school holidays (end of June/beginning of July), but I’ll keep you posted as things develop. Times being as they are, it’s possible we may need to be flexible about how this happens.

Please keep your fingers crossed with me, as I can’t think of a more perfect place to launch Book 2.

What else? While my goal for the next few months is to write the third Marlow Brown book, I’ve spent a lot of time recently, playing around with picture book texts. I have a couple of new manuscripts in the polishing stages which I plan to start submitting to publishers very soon.

Contrary to popular belief, the picture book market seems to be one of the toughest to crack, but one of these fine days I hope my dream of having one published will come true. (Those of you who write for children yourselves will understand!)

Other news: Marlow Brown, Scientist in the Making (Book 1) is now listed on the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge book list (Grade 3-4 category), so if you’re in NSW with children in this age bracket (your own, or a class full), please let them know they can count it towards the challenge.

I don’t think the book lists have been finalised for the 2021 challenge in the other states yet, but I know Marlow Brown was also under consideration in SA, VIC and QLD, so it’s worth keeping an eye out to see if it appears on their books lists for this year too.

Last but not least, there are now 5 experiments up in the Experimenting Spot for young scientists to try out, and 19 books in the Story Corner to listen to (11 junior fiction book tasters and 8 picture books). If you haven’t checked them out yet, please do.

The latest addition is Tabitha Page’s picture book Mikah’s Wandering Feet. This will be the last for a while as my chief put-er-together-er of recordings is in Year 12 and has other priorities. (His mother agrees with him totally!)

Happily, this leaves more time for me to work on Marlow 3.

So, on that note, I’ll sign off and start scribbling!

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