The rain poured, Sydney was brooding, but the launch of Gracie and Josh was a total joy.
Paul MacDonld from The Children’s Bookshop, VARIETY the children’s charity, Meredith Costain from Ford Street Publishing and an enthusiastic crowd welcomed ‘Gracie and Josh’ into the world.
I couldn’t believe it when Jodie Wells Slowgrove and Vicki Stanton and others braved the weater to drive hours from Woollongong to this event.
People came from fare and wide:-
Sharon Rundle, Christie Lamb and one of my favourite fans – the wonderful girl Nina Lamb – came from the Central Coast.
Loved poet Beverely George , award winning illustrator Sarah Davis and Nikau – gosh I couldn’t believe that she already a teen. – also from the Central Coast.
The award winning Libby Gleeson, Sue Murray playwright from School Magazine, Rachel Greenwood editor of the CBCA magazine and so many people piled into the Children’s Bookshop.
Serena Geddes and I shared the very special journey of creating our picture book ‘Gracie and Josh’ -
where we celebrated children and families who faced illness through the joy of words and colour.
Deeply personal, ‘Gracie and Josh’ is our public testament to the resilience and courage and love of children.
We were privileged to partner with Variety the children’s charity in ‘Gracie and Josh’ – www.variety.org.au
The buzz of the festival is brilliant – kids, teachers and dynamic authors.
A huge banner welcomes everyone to Newington College in inner city Sydney.
Chris the Newington College bus driver arrives at The Hughenden Woollahra to collect the authors.
Hard to get their attention as everyone is catching up on news – best selling adventure writer Simon Higgins is running late with his samurai sword - he’s a master at it. International fantasy author Isabelle Carmody is jet lagged as she flies in from Prague. Barry Jonsberg is just having a good time – must be the Darwin lay back atmospher. He’s just flown in from Darwin of course.
The bus rocks into Newington and other authors join us – Duncan Ball, William Kostakis, Sue Murray, Max Barry ….. and many more.. welcomed by Festival Coordinator Sue Richer.
Jampacked, with champagne flowing, the launch of Kate Forsyth’s ‘The Wildkin’s Curse’ and Belinda Murrell’s ‘The Ruby Talison’ was a celebration of sisters, their joint love of fantasy, family, friends, fans.
Their brother – another talented author, who writes business books – launched his sisters’ books with humour and love. 
Kate’s dedication to her sister Belinda is beautiful:-
‘For my sister Belinda Murrell
For listening when I need to talk
For talking when I need to listen
And for travelling the writer’s road hand in hand with me.
Belinda and Kate will be speaking at the Kids and Young Adult Literature Festival at the NSW Writers Centre on 3rd July.
The rain poured, Sydney was brooding, but the launch of Gracie and Josh was a total joy.
The award winning Libby Gleeson, Sue Murray playwright from School Magazine, Rachel Greenwood editor of the CBCA magazine and so many people piled into the Children’s Bookshop.
We were privileged to partner with Variety the children’s charity in ‘Gracie and Josh’ – www.variety.org.au
