and a publisher named David Fickling decided to publish it! My short story How to Build the Perfect SandcastleĪppeared in this anthology published by Frances LincolnĪnimal Tricksters is an Oxford Reading Tree bookĪnd then I wrote Tall Story. Which made me jump up and down for two months without stop and without water.

They chose Ugly City, my novel, as one of the winners. SCBWI had a competition for unpublished authors and published an anthology of all the winners. Winners of the Undiscovered Voices Anthology competition It's a group of writers and illustrators for children who spend a lot of time moaning about how hard it is to get published. Luckily I joined SCBWI also known as Scooby. The slushpile is where editors dump manuscripts that they probably will never publish.

To pass the time, I kept (and still do) a blog called Notes from the Slushpile. But getting published is a long, hard slog. I edited a magazine called Filipinos in Europe, did a bit of journalism and wrote and presented a documentary calledMotherless Nation for BBC Radio 4.īut mostly I was writing fiction for children. Once my children didn't require my nappy changing skills any more, I began writing again. Then I realized that what I wanted to write was fiction. The two women, fed up with government control of the press, set up the oddly named Mr&Ms Special Edition which played a pivotal role in overthrowing the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. And I was so proud that, during the People Power Revolution, I worked for some really fantastic women who helped good history happen.Įggie Apostol and Letty Jimenez-Magsanocwere publisher and editor, respectively, of the opposition magazine where I cut my teeth as a journalist. The eighties was a great time to be a journalist in the Philippines. And that cartoon is by the wonderful political cartoonist Jess Abrera. Photos clockwise from press card: Mandy Navasero, Bobby Coloma, Brian Allan, Rey Vivo. Pictured above is my press pass, that's me taking pictures in the Forbidden City in China, and that's a lion I got to interview (he said: 'Roar'). I didn't earn much money so I also drew a weekly cartoon strip for a women's magazine, and took photographs. I did become a writer but for a long time, I thought I was the wrong kind: working as a reporter for newspapers and magazines. Some of my classmates came from as far as Paris, Shanghai and Washington to attend my launch! Thank you, classmates! Photo: Nelson Malabanan They were just as noisy and giggly as they were when we were children. When I launched Tall Story in the Philippines, my classmates came along to celebrate!

Summary of tall story by candy gourlay