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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 Danalis

The 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.)