Thursday, July 02, 2009

Glory at last!


Well isn't it nice to get home and find amongst the bills, a package from your publisher with multiple copies of your book inside it? This one has been a long time coming and I have to say....I'm very happy with the result! Scholastic and I are launching 'Glory' next month at the Storylines Festival Family Day in Wellington. You will get the opportunity to make your very own prize with me through the wondrous medium of arts and crafts of which I am so very fond.

Not getting awards can be very motivating- if I had, for instance, got the 6th Form Art History Prize (instead of that other girl!!!!) I never would have written this book. What prize did you miss out on that has bugged you for months or years? I will give away a copy of 'Glory' to the most entertaining story of missing out- but you have to leave it in the comments box!

12 comments:

Maureen Crisp said...

oooohhhhh.
I didn't get picked for any part in my new schools musical production in the 6th form.I couldn't believe it as at my old school I had had major parts in two musical productions. I have always wondered if the students selecting on behalf of the Drama teacher were frightened of my obvious brilliance and knew that their roles were under threat if the teacher heard me sing anything...
(I think I'm over it...Tim Balme was the other lead...I coulda been a contender....)

Mary McCallum said...

heather drysdale beat me in the senior speech competition - gnash -who won that art prize fi? fab news about GLORY - this deserves a drink to celebrate i think.... X

Tania Roxborogh said...

Go you. Oh, the pleasure of finally getting recognition for all that hard work. OMG. I need to say it again: that HARD WORK! It's hard peeples and, to get anywhere, you need to know that it's a priviledged place.
She smiles and shuffles off to the bathroom to brush her teeth and head to bed knowing that one of her own has, yet again, punched it! Yeah!

Anonymous said...

I had to post this from my famous writer friend Lesley Pearse. She was a wonderful mentor to me in Bristol when I was redrafting my first novel.

Congratualations FiFi,
I tried to write something on your blog but failed. I'm useless at computers, just as I am useless at anything involving awards. I was once beaten in a Beauty Competition by a woman with an artificial leg. How demeaning is that?
Anyway good luck and hope the book sells by the million.
Oooodes of love
Lesley xxx

Melinda Szymanik said...

Oooo, I do love the birth of a new book baby. She's absolutely beautiful. You must be very proud and i am really looking forward to meeting her and holding her...

cheers
Melinda
(this calls for a glass of bubbles I do believe)

Zoe Masters said...

I never missed out on any prizes I went for (quite frankly prizes were beneath my dignity) although I think I won a prize once for Maths which I used the Whitcoulls Vouchers to by the F-Plan Diet book!!! Go figure...

However the missing out-ness came way earlier in my lifetime. It was imposed upon me by my father who banned me - after not walking home with my big brother from school - from attending my much practiced-for recorder recital at age 5.

Life really has been about not missing out on ANYTHING since. Sometimes has me have 3 appointments to attend at once and often affords me the title of superwoman. However that drive can be exausting and have been learning in my most recent maturity, that life can just as rewardingly be about sitting, doing nothing more than reading a good book. Looking forward to reading Glory at or before Mapua this year!!!

xxx

Fifi Colston said...

Ha ha Zoe- theres a bit of that going on for me too...
Mary- Linda Evans (last name?) won that art history prize. And Heather...well how could you hope to compete on the talking front! Heather- are you there?

Vanda Symon said...

The book looks great Fifi - enjoy your celebrations.

As for not getting prizes. I auditioned for our school musical, Grease, and instead of getting the lead (because I would have looked soooo good in tight leather pants, honest) I got the part of Miss Roach, the teacher. Sigh.

BTW my v-word was verse!...

and somehow I managed to type that in wrong, and the next v-word was strings!

Mary McCallum said...

oh yes, heather talked her socks off to win that prize - and she didn't only talk, she wriggled and shook and jumped about - a veritable human cyclone - I remember I only had a bunch of words - not nearly enough

linda evans eh? wasn't she in dynasty?

sarah said...

I got lots of academic awards (mainly coz I was a nerd), but the thing I missed out on that I wanted more than anything was the role of Ophelia, in Hamlet. I got to be Gertrude. I hated the name, but I guess the role worked out okay, as I still got to straddle Hamlet (a little more than Ophelia did, if I remember correctly), and as I had a huge crush on him I got over my disappointment.

However, I was very happy when the girl who got it wrote in my yearbook 'you would have made a better Ophelia than me'... Dammit, I was born to play that role. (That of course was back in my deuded days, when I was convinced I was a good actress!)

Unknown said...

Hi Fifi
Well done on the book! Can't wait to read it.

Very recently, our team at work missed out on the Top Shop award in NZ but we won all the other prizes - except the one with the glory of being known as Top Shop at the ball last Saturday.

Gut wrenching!
Lesley (Masters) xxx

Rachel said...

i missed out on having a birthday party when i turned 9, 10 and 11 because i kept getting in trouble just before my birthday eg one year i ran up a couple of hundred dollars in phone bills.
i read the first few pages of the book when it was sitting on your coffee table and i think its amazing! i totally need to win a copy!!