Friday, March 02, 2007

Westbooks 'Night with our Stars'

Last night (March 1st) was the Westbooks 'night with our stars' event. Twenty Western Australian authors and illustrators were invited to address the 150-strong crowd of teachers, school librarians and publishing industry professionals, with each presenter given a few minutes to discuss their latest work.

It was a fun evening, although I managed to smash a wine glass, drop my own book (twice), crumple the cardboard podium by leaning on it and finished up by accidently throwing my bottled water across the stage. No, I wasn't under the influence — I don't drink — but I was animated and somehow kept the audience laughing throughout my brief melee. Sorry, speech. (As usual, I carefully prepared something to read and then ad-libbed wildly instead.)

There was a photo session at the start, lots of food and drink, and a couple of signing tables set up for authors to do the business. Apologies in advance to anyone who bought my books for their school thinking Hal Spacejock was uplifting literature with a strong moral message. You should have listened to my speech a little more closely ;-)

So, thanks to Westbooks and congratulations to all the authors present. It was a fun evening, and I'm looking forward to next year.

Complete list of authors in order of appearance: Raewyn Caisley*, Simon Haynes, Kirri Somerville, Julia Lawrinson, Broome Public Library, Andrew Lansdown, Guundie Kuchling, Anne Morgan, Kate McCaffrey, Diana Chase, Joy & Mike Lefroy, Steve Hawke, Louise Schofield, Aleisha Zappia, Sally Murphy*, Liliana Stafford & Sophia Zielinski, Katy Watson-Kell, Dianne Wolfer and Ken Spillman.

* Sent apologies.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

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