Yoo Hoo!

I went to the Lady Culter Award dinner, sort of like a CBCA Hall of Fame for people who have given heaps to childrens’ books.

It’s Chris Cheng this year. I met him at this year’s KIDYA festival and he was a really upbeat guy. He’s really passionate about illustrations and manga comics. Yes, comics are books too!

I had a nice time, chatting to authors, publishers, booksellers and teacher librarians. It’s not networking because it doesn’t feel like work at all. Everybody’s so kind and generous with their time. 

Dianne (Di) Bates passed on some valuable advice which will be golden when Thai-riffic! comes out. She’s a legend in children’s lit, so her words are precious. I got to praise Bill Condon in person for his latest work, Confessions… (check out the review under Books) 

Looks like I’ve started to pencil in some dates and ideas for promoting Thai-riffic! already. *YaY*
I’ll be going on a little tour up to the Central Coast. Claire has done an awesome job with her childrens’ section to promote reading around the Gosford area. I can’t wait to go up there and meet their successful book clubs.

Then I met Tony from Shearer’s on Norton St. He has this killer idea of authors meeting kids over milkshakes for a chat. Mmmm, make mine banana 🙂

The night ended with a short performance by Steven Herrick. He’s a poetry legend. He doesn’t make poetry cool, he makes poetry real. All poems should be read aloud for enjoyment and Steven really does that well.

Oh, and there’s a very good chance that I’ll be on a panel at next year’s KIDYA festival on July 3rd, 2010…

Stay tuned!

O.W 

Steven