Round up

Almost there ... in Sydney...

So, we're back in Down Under, and merrily jet lagging away. The photo shows us in Sydney, after our arrival, waiting for Hans to go to the Chinese visa application centre next door. My birthday, the next day, I have to admit, went by in a bit of a soporific haze (cause: same jet lag), but we did have a very nice lunch with Tess, Yarrow and Mieke. Getting there. Only woke up at 4.30 this morning, and had to have a bit of a nano nap this afternoon to catch up, but other than that - all good.

Having followed all our adventures in Europe, avid readers won't really need a rehash of our adventures, but perhaps a tune-up as to the work-side of things. We haven't talked about that side much on this blog, but this trip was definitely also about work old and new. Attending IATEFL and having meetings with publishers left, right and centre, on and off conference, in the various countries we visited has always had great results and this time, too, we were not disappointed. So, the low-down on what keeps us off the streets...

Cambridge Exams for Schools

Niki was invited to join a team of authors working on a Cambridge University Press course for teenagers (global) called (excitedly...) Cambridge Exams for Schools and will be writing a course book as well as a few workbooks. CUP are very happy to have her on board as a  teen specialist whose face and experience is well-known around the EFL community!

350 first words

Niki and Hans were invited by Harper Collins (for whom we did some editorial work last year) to write two activity books and a teacher's guide to accompany First English Words, a dictionary for Very Young Learners (3-6 year-olds), which we will be working on together. We've agreed to take on a packaging role, which means we do both the writing and editing as well as the communication with the design agency (in India) and deliver a ready-to-print product to the publishers. If all goes well, this project will be followed by another project later this year, the writing of a Kindergarten course for Asia and the Middle East.

The first in a series...

Hans firmed up his deal(ings) with Garnet Education to contribute more coursebooks, workbooks and teacher's guides for their new EAP series (English for Academic purposes) called Moving into ..., of which he has already written one (on tourism and hospitality), and will also be writing workbooks for another EAP course for them, called On Course. Hans is securing a a deal with Garnet which means they will be paying him a retainer during an agreed period of time - which helps, as funds will come in with monthly regularity and it takes away the chore of having to chase payments all the time, or wait for them (while nothing else comes in) when things are (and they always are) delayed.

Exam time for Realtime

Dutch Malmberg's Realtime and All right will be continuing for a little while longer for Hans till spring 2014 with a series of three exam prep books (Realtime) for which Hans will be one of three authors, and online materials (All right).

A sample spread from one of the iRead readers

The iRead - New English Readers project, which Niki and Hans have been working on for almost a year now, will continue with more new graded readers. The first batch of 10 (grade 7, 11 year-olds) will be published soon, and new grades are being planned (there will be 10 grades in total of 10 readers each, ranging from primary to senior high). Hans will be scooting off to China on 3 June for a few days to attend a project meeting with his Chinese publishing partners. (In July, both Niki and Hans will go to China to attend and present at a conference in Beijing as well).

More adventures to come!

Moving on Magic! Good news reached us today that our course Magic Adventure (avid readers will remember it being mentioned before), of which we wrote the first two levels, and which was then 'paused', because of changes in the government curriculum, for well-nigh two years, will  be completed in 2013-14 with a third level (which was always the plan) for 8-year-olds, but (and this was a nice surprise) will also be published in a separate, slightly different edition, in Turkey. It's always good to be patient.

Niki, in the meantime, while we were away, received news that her application to become a Cambridge ESOL inspector, was awarded and she will be doing a training programme soon for that. It'll complete her involvement in the Cambridge exams side of things, already being a team leader and examiner, and it might see her inspecting Cambridge Exam Centres in Australasia - requirements of such centres are extremely strict and they need to meet many criteria. For endorsement, the centres need to submit to unannounced inspections. Sleuthing!