And in other news I’m talking today at the free CAL lectures/discussions happening in the SLV. I’ll be on around 2.15, discussing where I think we’re heading with ebooks, opportunities, issues and the challenges coming up. A favourite topic for me!

Kristina Olsson, Angelo Loukakis, Rosalind Hinde

There’s been a lot happening. Last weekend I was in Sydney for the Australian Society of Authors AGM, the awarding of the Barbara Jefferis Award to Kristina Olsson for her book The China Garden by (UQP) and first meeting of the committee of management for the year. We have a great group of dynamic people and a lot of experience. Don’t forget that you can contact me with ideas, questions and concerns throughout the year. I’ll do what I can to answer or assist! And if you’re an Australian author, illustrator or someone interested in the industry, you should have a look through our website which is full of very useful stuff on rates, contracts, industry news and tips.

The illustrations are in, the judges have met and now it is time for the people to vote! Hop onto the Koko Black site to vote for your favourites in the Easter Drawing Prize.

You may win something delicious yourself!

As for comings-ups, there is a market this weekend on Sunday at the Abbotsford Convent. Outside will be the gorgeous Shirts & Skirts market and inside will be the magnifique Maker’s Market via the big-tree courtyard. We’ll have beautiful things to see, good things to eat and the near-by Children’s Farm will provide nose-to-nose time with some of our furrier friends. Don’t worry if it looks rainy – the Maker’s Market is under-cover.

So to summarise some 2009 things…

The online shop was brilliant – hordes of visitors and all in all a nice smooth system. Let me know any feedback please! Thanks for all the support and thanks to Peter for making it all run so brilliantly.

The exhibition dates were set for May 2010. It makes a huge difference to have an opening night to work toward now.

On an activist note, the campaign to stop the canning of the Parallel Importation restrictions was a success, thank goodness. There was a lot of weird press that went around last year relating to all of this. When this arises again, I can only hope that all of us will be involved in the process to come up with a good strategy and some clear aims this time – politicians, creators, publishers, book sellers, agents and societies, all. For now, with the digital book about to become a major player and change the book landscape in the next 5 years anyway, we have bigger fish to fry! How do we keep publishing alive, keep printing the glossy stuff we love, satisfy the need for low-price digital books and make sure that the people creating this stuff can still afford to do so? It’s going to be very interesting.

These arrived in December – the second glorious book in the Moorehawke trilogy by Celine Kiernan. And, joy of joys, the covers match up as they should! They’re also starting to get some attention, the first one being voted one of the top 5 covers of the year on this great blog. Yay! So here’s book one, and 2 of book two… because you could line up book two over and over for a long forest, if ever you should need one…

There was also gingerbread. Much much gingerbread, made by Peter and iced by me (mainly) for all our friends and family with kids. Sorry to those of you without kids. No gingerbread for you. And then as an antidote to all the cheerful houses we made, here are the gingerbread ZOMBIES. The trick is to make good use of the change-over time when the white icing is combining with the red icing in the icing syringe… it looks just like intestines.

And I have greened the studio a little with a yukka and random tubes of bamboo.

We are all getting along just fine.

It’s been a busy week actually. There were school visits to Ardeer Sth Primary on Monday and Tuesday - hi kids! You were brilliant!! And yesterday I did an 8 min talk representing the ASA at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival. As you’d imagine it was all over very fast… it was part of a whole day of info about the business of being a writer.

I have another MWF session next weekend at ArtPlay, a wonderful business located below Fed Square  along the banks of the Yarra River.

Kid’s Art Workshop – WordPlay @ ArtPlay

For more info and to book… click here

On Saturday 29th

At 12, 1:15 & 2:30pm

There is also just so much coming up that I need to understand and keep up with. Things like e-books, POD, e-readers, web-based content, copyright and contract issues and that big question – how do we embrace new technology and still manage to earn a living?

So. I’m representing illustrators and authors in Australia, and most particularly, in Victoria. If you’re not a member of the ASA I suggest you have a look at them. Even if you don’t use their resources very much there is a lot that they do behind the scenes. They’re hugely responsible for ELR and PLR and countless other initiatives, and provide enormous support to creators legally, politically and in their everyday working lives. I’m spruiking them but that’s because I think they’re pretty great. And if you are a member and you have problems/questions/ideas/requests then you know who to come to I’ve always been happy to help, but now it’s official.

Did you know that both ELR and PLR are permanent now? No more lobbying to keep them going! Hooray! Now we just need them to grow the pool of money to match the growing number of creators entering it…

So that’s my ASA news. I had a very full weekend of meetings and discussions and of course my friend’s reception which I managed to get back to Melbourne just in time for! Before the Sydney blackouts and baggage strikes. It was obviously fate.