The opening party was wonderful. There was a hilarious and touching speech given by E. C. Osondu. I met a lot of really lovely people, and I wish I had have gotten photos with more of them (everyone is very nice in Brisbane. I think it's the nice weather).
I met Jessica Rudd, author of Campaign Ruby (she's extraordinarily lovely):
And Fiona Wood, author of Six Impossible Things, was also there (she is awfully stylish and also very nice):
The next morning I had a panel with Van Badham (author of Burnt Snow), who was terrifically funny, chaired by Katherine Lyall-Watson, called Blogging: It's Nothing Personal. It was tons of fun.
This is me at the signing table. I met lots of really great kids (lots of young kids getting their bookmarks and exercise books and random bits of paper signed by everybody, reminded me a bit of the end of primary school, and racing around trying to get everyone in the entire school to sign my jumper), and signed a few books!
And this is me with Ranger Stacey from Totally Wild, filming a little interview for their show. That was fun, and she and the camera and audio guys were all really lovely (if anyone can suggest a good substitute for the word lovely, I would appreciate that. I fear I might be overusing it).
In the afternoon I had a panel on my own, talking to maybe a hundred or two hundred teenagers? I didn't count. But I was talking for forty-five minutes about stuff (advice for young writers and my writing process and reading from my book), and they were a really great audience, lots of fabulous questions. Even though I was extraordinarily nervous beforehand, it was actually a bit of fun in the end! (There were some laughs!) That's me in the halo of light:
So Brisbane was super wonderful (I especially loved sitting at the signing table and just chatting with everyone, kids and grown-ups and other authors. It was really cool). And then we went to Sydney! I signed some books, then went to the ABC to do a little interview for the First Tuesday Book Club's website.
And this is me with my beautiful mum (she rarely lets people take her photo, so I'm lucky I've got this and she's let me put it online!):
This is me and William Kostakis signing books at Gleebooks, Dulwich Hill (William is the author of Loathing Lola, for which a new, bluer edition just came out, because his book is on Get Reading's 50 Books You Can Put Down list this year, which is fabulous).
He wrote a lovely speech introducing me, which you can read here.
And then I went home (they gave me dinner on the flight back, and the in-flight radio played Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls and So Far Away by Dire Straits and I was pleased). And I slept. So yes, it was a wonderful and exhausting week, but I am terrifically glad and grateful and lucky to have gotten to go and do these wonderful things. And thankful especially to my publicist, for her awesomeness. And to everybody who came to see me talk or bought my book. You're all brilliant.
