Yo!

Just another day in paradise haha

I took a lovely holiday up to the Sunshine Coast this week…okay, so it was for Voices on the Coast, a mega festival for authors and kids alike. But the organisation was so good and smooth that I was so relaxed for most of the time.

Doing some writing by the beach!

After touching down on Sunday, I scooted around Alexandra Headlands Beach, checking out the lovely views. Then we had a dinner/catch up with the other authors, the line up was awesome. I finally got to say hello to Pat Flynn, an author that I looked up to when I was looking for a publisher (his books are full of humour). I also spoke with Burn Bright author, Marianne de Pierres, who I’ll see again at Supanova in Sydney.

Waiting for the fun to begin!

On Monday, it was secondary day where high school students came to meet us at Sunshine Coast uni. I had two talks and a workshop, gaining some new cHEwY gum gums through some chaos and fun. I was pretty exhausted afterwards so I recharged my batteries in the afternoon.

Inspiring kids at the workshop...I think 🙂

Then we had dinner at Immanuel College Library, yep the nerdy place got transformed into a restaurant. We got to chat to other teachers and writers. We were also entertained by some wonderful poets, Pascalle Burton and Ghostboy. They really make poetry cool!

Ghostboy in motion!

Tuesday was a whole different beast altogether with over two thousand kids swarming the uni. Every author got bombarded with autograph requests and even hugs (well one kid wanted a hug and who am I to say no hehe). My first talk felt like an Oprah episode as I tried to run up and down the aisles, high-fiving everyone. Then it was time for more fun with a packed workshop. By the time my last talk came around, Thai-riffic! was sold out and Con-nerd had a few copies left. I don’t know how many autographs I gave (I reckon about 500) but it was so much fun and it was the best part of being an author. Kids getting excited about books and authors…how can you not like it 🙂

At night, I went to hear Aleesah Darlison and Tristan Bancks talk about publishing to aspiring writers. They are both on the ball when it comes to marketing and publishing, so it was a lively discussion.

I had an extra day on the Coast to do some library visits, basically I wanted to go to Noosa and Coolum Beach and needed an excuse hehe. I’ve never really been allowed to let loose in a public library before so I raised a few people’s eyebrows and wigs as I screamed and wooOOoooed through my talks. Neways, I had fun visiting different libraries, gaining knowledge for a yet to be written book *hint hint*

So yeah, another fabtastic festival and perfect way to mark ONE year as an author 🙂

O.W