Hi!
It’s been a tremendous week for Thai-riffic! as Kristin Gill from Penguin has been buzzing me around Melbourne to meet key booksellers and children and YA lit people.
It all started with the meet and greet event in Thai-riffic! Newtown (I sooOOooo wanna have the actual launch there hehe), it was a friendly and positive vibe for the book and myself and I’m thankful for the people who were there, including the legendary Chris Cheng who was reunited with his old friend and editor Heather!
On Thursday, I dashed down south to Melbourne with Kristin and we headed straight into a mini-tour of bookstores and places. We visited the two big children bookstores in Melbourne. I went to Ward-Sagar to see Kim Sagar and Leesa from The Little Book Room. The Little Book Room’s celebrating its 50th birthday, and it might be the oldest childrens bookstore in Australia 🙂 I also to got to meet a childrens buyer from one of the larger chains. She’s a keen reader and really liked Thai-riffic! Then we ventured to the VIC State Library to meet the brilliant Mike Shuttleworth from the Centre for Youth Lit. They’re behind inside a dog, one of the best YA book sites around.
I ended the night with a bonus treat! I attended one of Melina Marchetta’s events for her latest book, The Piper’s Son. It was an easy-going conversation about Melina’s books and her writing life. I really admire her dedication to the craft, waiting to hear the right voice to write her stories. It was held in a very grungdy club, perfect for the book’s Sydney inner-west setting. I’ve snapped up a copy, so I’m keen to read it-and no, I haven’t read Saving Francessa yet. Does anyone think I should first? Melina reckons there’s no need, so I’m going to do it backwards.
Today I visited the main Penguin HQ, where I got to meet and talk to the sales and publishing teams. It’s been a wonderful experience, talking passionately about Thai-riffic! I still reckon that there’s nothing like this out there on the shelves, and the positive vibes that I got from everyone from booksellers to teacher-librarians will lead the way for a successful launch. But the mission doesn’t stop there. I’ve still got a few things up my sleeve to keep drumming the word of mouth support for the book. I’m going to a shameless promotion workshop at the ACT Writers Centre on Sunday, so I’ll pick up some more tips.
In more good news, I’ve been picked to be one of the bloggers for the ABC Radio National Bookshow Blog. I can’t wait to start blogging about all things books. Don’t worry my cHEwY gums, I’ll still be plugging away on this one too.
O.W
