I’m just back from Brisbane and the International Association of School Librarianship Conference, hosted by the School Librarians Association of Queensland. What a fabulous conference!
I started off with the Author Breakfast on Wednesday morning. Have to admit a teeny bit of grumbling about the 6:45 am start, but meeting so many book people, including a wonderful bunch of Brisbane authors, was much more energizing than another hour’s sleep! So many books to look out for; so many conversations started… I love that when authors get together we seem to skip the chitchat and head straight into deep conversations.
Friday was my panel session: Page to Screen with John Marsden, still glowing from seeing Tomorrow when the War Began, and David McRobbie, whom I’ve admired for years without realizing that he also wrote for television, and had adapted his own work for TV. Chris Bongers, author of Dust, chaired the session brilliantly, turning it more into a conversation – and a fun one at that. (How could it not be fun, to interact with people of this caliber?) At least that’s how it felt from my side of the table, so I hope the audience felt the same way.Here we are, courtesy of Chris Bongers, who kindly sent me her photos:
John Marsden, Chris Bongers,me, David McRobbie
Chris Bongers, author Michael Bauer, me
Michael Bauer, me, and Chris Kahl, President of the School Library Assoc of Qld.
And since we were the plenary session, we got to hear the summing up of the conference, the thank you from the librarian whose school of mostly refugee children received the parcel of books from the other attendees, and the lovely invitation from the Jamaican contingent for the next conference. So many dedicated people, determined to bring children and books together... I ended up a bit teary.
Last week I was lucky enough to attend the
Somerset Writer's Festival up at the Gold Coast. This was my first Somerset, and whilst I've enjoyed other festivals, this was hands down the most fun I have ever had at a book festival. We all stayed at Jupiter's Casino in town which, at first, I thought was a strange place to accommodate a bunch of authors (especially since I can't stand gambling and all it entails) but it worked out to be a good venue (especially the pool!) albeit a bit surreal. The
author/illustrator group were a really nice mix of rockstar authors, the well published and the up and coming folk. And we all seemed to get along very well indeed. There were no big egos roaming around with their publicists and entourage nibbling at their side while we bottom feeders swum aside enviously looking up at their shiny undersides. None of that - which was refreshing. In between sessions and book signings we headed back to the green room (the library) for some down time. This was a great place to have a chat, compare notes and to just chill out (it can get bloody tiring.) Here's some of us kicking back in the green room (in a school photo like way.)
From back L to R:
Brian Caswell,
James Roy,
Nette Hilton,
Tony Eaton,
Kate Constable,
Belinda Murrell, Me,
Chris Bongers and
John DanalisThe whole thing was so well organised and it's a credit to Karen Mackie, the programme director, that it was such a success. There were a lot of kids. 15,000 tickets were sold - 15,000!! The place was buzzing. I had five sessions over the three days in total, two with
James Roy and three by myself. Jim and I did a session based around our book '
The S Word' which is a boys guide to sex and puberty. Jim talked about sex and growing up (basically a stand up routine) and I drew cartoons as quickly as I could. They were fun gigs - also a little challenging trying to find the right line. I was constantly asking myself, 'Do I draw a boob gag here or not?' Our biggest group was 250 odd kids. Here's an iphone photo (a bit blurry) of one of many cartoons. Taken by
Belinda Jeffery (Thanks Belinda.)