With the Words on the Waves Writers Festival now underway, a free family fun day will be held on Sunday, June 2, as part of the festival’s new two-day event The Dip.
It will take place in and around a giant marquee in the Jasmine Greens parklands area at Umina Beach.
Saturday, June 1, will feature short-form talks appealing to a broader audience, ranging from celebrity cookbooks to children’s literature.
And Sunday’s Family Fun Day will feature demonstrations by illustrators, authors talks, book signings and more.
There will also be free face painting, craft activities and storytelling running throughout the day, a roaming giant puppet, photo opportunities with the University of Newcastle’s giant seahorse mascot and a range of market stalls and food trucks.
Highlights will include a The Sea In Me writing and craft workshop, an epic illustrator showdown, a puppet-making session, a drumming workshop and an activity making a mandala collage.
MC and author Nat Amoore will introduce children’s authors and illustrators and run the Book ‘n’ Boogie session at 10am.
Amoore is a children’s author, speaker and all-round bucket of fun.
Her first three books, Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire, The Power of Positive Pranking, and The Right Way to Rock, all centred on the fictitious Watterson Primary School.
Her new series, Showerland, launched this year and the first book Break the Curse was an immediate hit.
Local author Rebecca J. Chaney will be there, signing copies of her book Stu and the Sketchy Time Stops, which was released worldwide in May.
In this story, 12-year-old Stu is new to Las Vegas and he’s lonely.
His best friend back in Australia has dumped him and his only friend in Las Vegas is his pet snake.
He wants more friends but it hurts too much to lose them.
Then Stu runs into a pair of casino thieves who can stop time and what follows is a jam-packed adventure full of science and laugh-out-loud moments.
Stu and the Sketchy Time Stops was the first children’s book shortlisted for the Newcastle Writers Festival Fresh Ink Emerging Writers Prize, and has just been awarded Honourable Mention in the Kids’ Choice Kidlit Writing Contest, a global competition where the judges are kids.
Chaney has previously worked as a bookseller, publishing assistant, schools science program co-ordinator and platypus monitor, among other things.
“You could say that books and science are my thing,” she said.
“I’m also passionate about keeping young people, especially boys, engaged in reading novels.
“This book is aimed at 10-13-years-olds, which research shows is the age at which many boys lose interest, and I’m hoping that the humour and fast-paced action in this story, along with its nod to science, will keep them turning the page as much as girls.”
She will be signing copies of the book on the day, with a limited edition hardcover version to be presented to the young reader with the most creative answer to the question: What would I do if I could stop time?
The free family fun day will be held from 9am-2pm on Sunday, June 2, at Jasmine Greens Park, Umina Beach.
Words on the Waves, the Central Coast’s first and only writers’ festival, returns from May 29-June 3, with more than 80 authors and about 70 sessions.
For more information and the full festival program go to wordsonthewaves.com.au
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