Tag: Single Parents

My Super Family going to the London Book Fair!

Posted on | by Bronny

There is some exciting news on the horizon for the My Super Family book series… We are going back to the London Book Fair! Second only to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the London Book Fair is considered something of a mecca for the who’s who of the European book world. This is our second time at the Fair, and last time we were picked up by the Mundt Agency! Clearly My Super Single Mum, My Two Super Dads, and My Super Groovy Gran have lots to offer!

Spanning three days, the Earls Court location for the Fair becomes home to publishers, booksellers, literary agents, wholesalers, distributors, media, online service providers – the list goes on. The venue is transformed into a miniature global marketplace. The Fair hosts international business professionals, with 25,000+ attendees in 2012 from 113 countries, and over 1,500 exhibiting companies! It is the place to be for networking and learning from global industry professionals, and the My Super Family books (My Super Single Mum, My Two Super Dads, My Super Groovy Gran) are going to be right in the middle of it!

We are so exited to be bringing My Super Family to the London Book Fair, and to be sharing the values of love, safety and security that are communicated in the books. We very much hope to make useful contacts at the Fair, and extend the reach of our My Super Family books, so that even more alternate family situations can have children’s books that help promote healthy relationships in their family, so the children grow up feeling that no matter what makeup their family is, they were loved in safety and security.

All About Bronny’s St Kilda Library Picture Book Writing Workshop

Posted on | by Bronny
BronnyAndMuntsa's St Kilda Library Picture Book Writing Workshop album on Photobucket

As those of you who are keeping up-to-date with our blogs about the My Super Family children’s book series will know, Bronny recently gave a workshop at the St Kilda Library about writing children’s books and self publishing. The same day the 25 tickets became available, the event was sold out, and even then an extra 5 people came in! Plus it was so popular that it ran 20 minutes over the 1 hour and 30 minutes allotted! We are very pleased to see such interest in the books (My Super Single Mum, My Two Super Dads, and My Super Groovy Gran), as well as what Bronny had to say! Bronny also talked about marketing and how promoting your books are so important to the self-publishing process.

Bronny opened with a reading of My Super Single Mum that was well received, with positive comments on both the words and illustrations.  Participants also appreciated the important messages key to the My Super Family series: values of love, safety and security in families. She also tailored her discussion to the needs of the participants – who were budding authors and illustrators as well as those with books already published. She hoped to better help them with their own writing by asking everyone to introduce themselves and to chat about their own ideas and goals. Creating a network of like minded individuals is so important in the creative process for brainstorming and industry contacts.

The workshop also covered writing conventions, and Bronny provided a writing exercise that helped the participants figure out where they wanted to go with their ideas, as well as stimulating networking between the participants. This exercise was simple and effective and provided every participant with their very own children’s book idea and skeleton to go home and work on.

Bronny gave useful insights into self publishing, and the importance of finding an illustrator for children’s books, as well as how she came to find Muntsa (they met at the online artistic community Lost at E Minor when Bronny was creating AskBronny.com). As a successful self published author, Bronny also gave the participants realistic estimates on the costs of self publishing, and how much it would cost for a first run; information that is crucial for any author considering the self publishing path.

During the workshop Bronny also provided useful tips and information on the importance of marketing, and how to utilize the internet; teaching the participants how to set up their own websites and online stores, as well as how to make use of social media. At the end of the workshop, Bronny conducted a Q&A session with the participants to ensure that they went away with a clear understanding of her discussion, as well as to give them a chance to find out useful information specific to their own needs.

The event was a complete success; the workshop receiving really good feedback – with everyone rating it either 8, 9 or 10 out of 10! Hopefully this workshop is the first of many more to come for the My Super Family series!

As a direct result from this we will be putting self publishing and writing tips on our Facebook page regularly. So make sure you like us so you can get all the latest information!

For more information on Bronny’s Picture Book Writing and Self Publishing workshops send an email to Melissa at melissa@bronnysandmuntsa.askbronny.com/. Bronny is available to present for your Library, Community Group or Event.

Super Single Families Facing Tough Changes in Australia

Posted on | by Bronny | 1 Comment on Super Single Families Facing Tough Changes in Australia

When you’re walking down the street and see an adult with a child; do you ever wonder if it’s a single parent family, single mum, single dad, maybe two dads or even another alternate family situation? It can be very easy to assume that the large majority of families in Australia are the typical statistic that springs to most people’s minds; two working parents with 2.5 children.

Did you know (according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics as of June 2011 Australia) single parent families account for 950,000 homes in Australia with single mums making up the majority! Staggering isn’t it? Considering that we are a population of 12 million this is nearly 1 million homes in Australia with only 1 parent.

As you are probably aware, key to the My Super Family children’s book series (My Super Single Mum, My Two Super Dads, and My Super Groovy Gran) is communicating the values of love, safety and security. We care about promoting healthy relationships in single parent families, blended families, and all other types of families hence why we decided to produce the series of books. We just love it when we get feedback from mums and dads who have bought our books, just like this;

Hi Bronny & Muntsa, 

Just wanted to send a big thank you for writing such a beautiful book! So many children’s books out there are aimed at the more typical family unit, it’s nice to know that someone is out there thinking about the less ordinary. 

I admit I actually cried reading it, and even though it’s just me and my son (rather than Mother and daughter) I think my son will get a lot out of reading it with me (he’s 4), especially as his Father unfortunately has had no part of his life and has never met his son. As well, my family do not have a big part in our lives so it really is just me and him. I can’t wait to show him it, so much so I won’t be waiting for Xmas, but look forward to reading it to him tonight.

Thanks,
Nyssa
♥ ♥ ♥

Parents in nuclear families find it tricky to juggle work commitments and quality time with their kids, but imagine how much harder this is for single parent families! Many single parent families in Australia are struggling with the new laws about family benefits. Basically, when your youngest child turns 8, single parents are no longer eligible for the Single Parent Pension, this means they must transfer to New Start and start looking for work. This sounds great in theory, but with only one person sharing the care and still with young children (imagine if it’s only 1 child) most of the money earned goes towards childcare anyway, and all of a sudden someone else (not the best option) is raising your child. Yes, we hear you now! What about a nanny? What about relatives? It can be tricky finding a good nanny – not to mention expensive! Do you really think a single parent can afford one? Most can’t! And, after all, you’re putting your child’s welfare into their hands, and entrusting them with what is most important in your life; it’s a BIG burden of trust to hand over, and it’s difficult to do willingly. Also, not everyone has got relatives that live nearby, so taking your child over to Gran or Pop’s is often out of the question.

This doesn’t cut a fair deal for single parent families, who giving up precious time with their child/ren to earn money to pay another person to do what they’d willingly do if only they could, while instead they’re trying to make money to support them. In this, the importance of government support for single families can be seen. As a result, a stable future for many single families lies in the hands of Australia’s future policy makers. The take home message from the family behind My Super Family children’s book series is that parenting, regardless of your family make up, is not always easy; it has its ups and downs just like life, and that making some decisions carefully can help smooth out some of the bigger bumps in the road, and help other families as well as your own keep on being super! And remember, the most important family values you can ever promote, whatever your makeup is that of love, safety and security.

The Reason We Do What We Do

Posted on | by Bronny | 1 Comment on The Reason We Do What We Do

People have asked me from time to time ‘why did you choose to write books about different types of families Bronny’. It’s fairly simple, I decided to start with this particular topic because their was nothing available for my own child about our family situation.

As you probably already know, I went through pregnancy on my own and after looking for books about single mother situations I couldn’t find any that actually used the words ‘single mum’. You see I wanted children to identify with this type of family and to then feel that it was normal – which it is!

If you look at Sensis statistics in Australia you can see that single parent families, blended families and other types of families that are not mum, dad and 2.5 kids make up close to 50% of families!

With that in mind, I wanted to share with you some feedback I received from one of our readers in the USA. After sending My Two Super Dads express post before Christmas it was with surprise that I received a note asking when the book would arrive! Whilst I was in the process of locating the book, I sent a digital copy hoping this would at least be something until I tracked down Australia Post. In between me doing all of this the hard copy of the book arrived and I received the following lovely email, I hope you find it as charming as I did ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
“Hi Bronny,

Thank you so much for your reply!

I wanted to let you know that the mailman delivered the book today! (If only I’d waited two days before writing…) I’m sorry if we put you to a lot of trouble.

I did want to thank you for sending the digital copy. You should have seen my wife’s face, she was elated. 😀 Yours is the first two fathers book she ever bought sight unseen (usually she gets them through the library first) but she was so charmed by the sample and cover on the website that she couldn’t resist. We both thought it was marvelous and are so pleased to have the hardcopy in hand.

Thank you for the beautiful art and wonderful message you put out into the world with your books.

Evin”

To all my readers a massive thank you and please do as Evin did, get in touch and let me know if you love the books! I have now finished writing My Super Single Dad and Muntsa has begun work on the illustrations. We can’t wait to bring you this next installment in our My Super Family series and want all of you out their to remember you really are SUPER!