{"id":11064,"date":"2016-06-14T08:25:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T22:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=11064"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:52:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:52:03","slug":"raising-money-to-cure-kids-cancer-with-kidscancerproj-belindamurrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/raising-money-to-cure-kids-cancer-with-kidscancerproj-belindamurrell\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Money to Cure Kids’ Cancer with @KidsCancerProj @BelindaMurrell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ShapterOn Saturday afternoon a bunch of lovely young readers, friends, family and writers, including the bestselling children’s author Belinda Murrell<\/a>, came to Manly Library to support my continued fundraising for The Kids’ Cancer Project<\/a>, this time through the launch of my co-authored children\u2019s book Rider & the Hummingbird<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rider & the Hummingbird<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a ‘middle grade’ fiction novel, for 8-14 yr olds:<\/p>\n

Fourteen-year-old Lan is a computer genius\u2026 and a prisoner. After poking around in exactly the wrong websites, Lan\u2019s interest in drones has landed him in the High Country Youth Correctional Facility.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not a good start.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lan is resigned to his fate until he discovers that the mysterious hacktivist who framed him is part of a plot to kill thousands of people, including his mum and dad. With the help of Monk and his ferret, Lan breaks out of jail, and races to prevent a disaster that could change the face of Australia forever\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ZenaRider & the Hummingbird<\/em><\/a> has been in production for almost a year now, so it was wonderful to finally get my hands on copies a few days before the launch.<\/p>\n

I was so glad they arrived in time! Phew!<\/p>\n

Ah, lovely books! Both my children were at the boxes straight away, clawing for a copy. I made them wait until launch day! I know there ought to be perks when Mummy’s an author, but this book wasn’t written by me alone. It was co-written by my wonderful NBWG<\/a> author buddies Leah Boonthanom, Madi Duncan, Chris Lake, Tony McFadden<\/a>, Kylie Pfeiffer, Kristin Prescott<\/a> and of course myself; edited by myself and Zoya Nojin; and illustrated by Liz Michell and Mijmark. What a team effort! Thank you, guys, for creating with me once again! Happy bookday!<\/p>\n

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Everyone getting ready for the launch of ‘Rider & the Hummingbird’…<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Thanks

Thanks for managing the book sales, Madi & Leah!<\/p><\/div>\n

First things first, our lovely master of ceremonies<\/span> Kris invited bestselling author Belinda Murrell<\/a> to officially launch our book \u2013 thank you so much Belinda!!! You certainly got the crowd excited!<\/p>\n

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Belinda Murrell launches ‘Rider & the Hummingbird’!<\/p><\/div>\n

Then I asked everyone: what is family?<\/em> It was a rhetorical question, but of course someone put up their hand to answer \u2013 my daughter Ophelia! You can just about see her hand on the far left of this photo:<\/p>\n

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Family,<\/em> I said (after explaining what I meant by ‘rhetorical question’), comes about through our blood and genes<\/em>, our history and childhoods. But that kind of \u2018blood\u2019 family is not the only kind of family we have. Life brings us all many challenges, and our blood family might not always understand the difficulties we face. They have their own challenges to deal with of course, and sometimes, however much we might try to explain to them, reach out to them or try to include them in our lives, they simply cannot understand what we mean or need. In times such as those, we turn instead to a different kind of family \u2013 the family of circumstance.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n