Chatty fun & 60 launches!

Well that was fun

I just finished chatting to schools in the online festival. It’s wonderful to get to talk to the kids directly like that. I wish it had been longer! One of the cool questions was if I had made Sally a boy, would that have changed the design? Very good question. I’d like to think the style wouldn’t change. Hmm. It’s got me thinking actually. I purposefully pulled the story back from getting too scary because I wanted it to be exciting but not frightening. I don’t think that would have been different if it was a boy. I’m conscious of not having all adventurous stories being about boys which is partly why I chose a female character. Also because the story is the adventure I always wanted to have… so Sally is me, really.

One of the schools said that they were about to make their own books. There’s nothing better and I’ve seen some fantastic books made by students…

In fact…

Just last Wednesday night I went to about sixty launches! I was revisiting my Grade 3 friends at St Michael’s Grammar in St Kilda for the launch of all their own books. I was so impressed. There was a huge sense of occasion, excited parents, very excited young authors, a red carpet video, teasing blurbs, hardcovers and dust-jackets, beautiful endpapers, great stories and illustrations. Brilliant! Some of my favourite titles were “Attack of the Soap” and “The Unexpected Monster”. I am so proud of all their hard work and what they achieved. And of all the hard work of the teachers too! People underestimate what kids can do.