Fabulous write-up about Britt McPherson and our 2017 launch of the Creative Dragons program in Toowoomba. I love this photo of some of my fave older students from Bundaberg and it was lovely catching up with some of my former students in Bundaberg in the past couple of months.
Term 3 Creative Dragons scholarship applications have been extended until Monday, June 27.
Application for after schools scholarship 2016 
After yesterday’s article in The Chronicle, Cherie Curtis was contacted by parents and asked if the scholarship application deadline (which was tomorrow) could be extended – many parents hadn’t known about the scholarship and were asking for more time to apply.
For those who wish to apply, simply download this form and email to cherie@creativedragons.com.au, along with a one-page essay by the prospective student, explaining why they feel they should be chosen, as well as 1-3 sample pages of their creative writing.
Scholarship recipients will be announced on Wednesday, July 6, via this website.
The Toowoomba Chronicle today featured Creative Dragons’ move to Toowoomba and the writing scholarships on offer to children and teenagers in the Toowoomba region for Term 3.
What captured my attention the most was the news article reference to me as a “Toowoomba author”. I haven’t lived in Toowoomba for many years. For the past few years, I’ve been a Bundaberg or Bargara author, or Queensland or Australian. The “Toowoomba author” signified that I am embarking on a journey to new horizons where I’ll be embracing new personalities and new challenges. What will my new writing students be like? And what talents are hiding inside them, waiting to be unleashed?
The countdown is on. Five weeks until I arrive. How many wonderful discoveries will I find. I cannot wait.
If you haven’t read about Creative Dragons’ move to Toowoomba, and the writing classes I’ll be teaching there, check out The Chronicle article here or read here.
It’s been a tough year for the Bundaberg region, being hit by tornado-type winds and the region’s biggest floods in recorded history.
Fortunately, Creative Dragons writing classes have returned to the Bundaberg Regional Library in the city and children will soon be able to use both experience and imagination to create masterpieces in 2013.
Dates for Term 2 are Thursday, May 2, 9, 16 and 23 and Thurs, June 6. There will be no classes on May 30 due to the Bundaberg Show Holiday. Two classes will run on Thursday afternoons: The first from 3.45pm until 4.40pm and the second from 4.45pm until 5.40pm.
Classes will be conducted by Young Adult fantasy author and long-time journalist Cherie Curtis (that’s her pictured with SpongeBob SquarePants above – SpongeBob’s the one with the YELLOW HEAD). Classes are not limited to SpongeBob SquarePants. Timelords, daleks, dragons and ordinary school children are also invited to enrol.
Email: cherie (at) creativedragons (dot) com (dot) au
Exuberance mingled with melancholy as our Junior and Senior Dragons traipsed across the carpeted floor of the Bundaberg Library for their final writing class of 2012.
For the past few months, we have stepped into the fascinating personas of fictional heroes and heroines – we have harboured Chosen Ones, grappled with unwanted gifts, fought off demons, sobered drunk relatives and dated Boy Bands.
We fastened our seatbelts as our spaceships destroyed empires, our young bodies took bullets and we lay listless in hospital, enabling us to add introspection to our plight 🙂
We learnt how to describe our senses and how to show not tell, and we discovered the wickedly slippery interrobang while crash-coursing into punctuation (I’m not sure how “wickedly” slipped in there when we know not to use “ly” adverbs).
Three-dimensional daleks rocked our meeting room with “Exterminate“, birthday cake left no crumbs at all (absolutely not on the floor) and we discovered that not all Freddo Frogs arrive perfectly formed.
We analysed the importance of false teeth and lasagne. We screamed, cried and shapeshifted – we even had tissues for those days when we laughed or cried too hard (and Ysa never led the laughter fray).
But most of all (and of course we never start a sentence with “but”), we crafted solid friendships with other young writers who will be there for us throughout the good and the bad of future rough (and polished?) drafts.
As your 2012 teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed this creative and joyful term. I feel honoured to have shared your dreams and writing (and laughter) with you and I’m looking forward to 2013 filling the Bundaberg Library with lots more fun and laughter – just don’t tell the librarians! After all… Shhsh! We’re meant to be quiet in there! Cherie 🙂