Yo yo!
I had a zooper-dooper day at the Norman Lindsay Gallery for their childrens festival. It is truly an event for the kids, with storytelling, songs, arts and crafts, face-painting, and lots of yummy lollies! (I haven’t had fairy floss in ages and after wolfing down a bag, I think I know why, it’s sugar overload, the tooth hurts!)
Kids and their love of books was celebrated with many authors and illustrators. There was an adult tent and children tent, so I got to see some work both audiences and pick up some performing tips hehehe.

Stephen Measday spoke about his new time-travelling novel Send Simon Savage. He’s got this cool ‘english/history’ teacher feel about him, full of fun facts. Anne Spudvilas   is a wonderful artist and illustrator who took us on a journey on how she came to illustrate for the award winning The Peasant Prince. She learnt a lot about Li Cunxin’s past life by travelling with him to China. She also learnt many new skills to really set the scene and lift the story. I was impressed with how many drafts and different processes that she goes through, she’s certainly got a lotta love for her work.

Finally, I got to hear the awesome Tristin Bancks whose books range from the slick Coolhunter series to the funny Nitboy books. He shared many of his writing methods, including making a soundtrack for his stories (any excuse to listen to music is cool with me, though I must admit…I listen to talkback radio when I write!). He’s quite friendly and had the kids giggling at his quiz about nits. I learnt something new about them!

It’s definitely a festival that I’ll be returning to, who knows, perhaps someday I’ll come as an author 🙂

In other cool fest news, I’ll be going to Brisbane Writers Festival in September this year. I can’t wait to bring the Thai-riffic! train up north.

O.W