Hey ya!

Last Sunday, I got to be a part of the SWF’s Family Fun Day. I’ve seen this day grow from strength to strength, it’s now a bubbly hub of storytelling, creative workshops, high tea with authors and crazy events. I was involved in two of these events, the illustrator’s battle in the morning, where 8 hardened illustrators prepared to battle for the shiny tiara. In the end it was Andrew Joyner who walked away with the tiara, though like Game of Thrones, his reign may be shaky at best haha.

The kids got shout suggestions of what the illustrators could draw, and they got weirder as the hour kicked on…by the end, the two finalists were drawing ninja monkeys taking over the world. I loved seeing the illustrators being caught unawares, drawing stuff that they would never do…that said, if Gus Gordon’s next book involves a beaver, you know where he got the idea from.

The afternoon session was the Comedy Storytelling Hour, where I was the MC. I got to share the stage with James O Loughlin. I saw him ages ago at the Comedy Store in 2001, and stalked him over his ABC Saturday night live show and also listening to him on 702 ABC Sydney…so to see him in the children’s author game was pretty cool. Watch out for his latest, Sir Roderick, the not so brave…

Tristan Bancks is as solid as always, I love seeing him perform. Our paths have crossed many times already this year, it’s nice to see him kick goals for his latest 2 books, especially Two Wolves (I’ll write up a review soon).

In other news, I’ve finished Ethan’s edits and now working on Nothing’s Prefect. I’ve given myself a June deadline, so hopefully I’ll have something to show Penguin at the end of financial year, yep I’ll be celebrating EOFY in style if I get it through hehe.

And of course, I’ll be playing Mario Kart 8 soon as well 🙂

O.W