Here are a few of my favourite moments from 2011. I had a cracking year. Hope you look back on it fondly, too.
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I met and hung out with lots of cool authors and kidlit folks. From L to R,
Kristina Schulz, Tristan Bancks, James Moloney, Wendy Orr, James Roy. |
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| With author, John Danalis. |
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| Taking Simon Higgins’ sword for a spin. |
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We revamped my website, designed by my lovely wife, Amber Melody. Here’s one of the early design concepts.
I wanted it to feel like a work in progress, like something active and vigorous and fun. |
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| I travelled a lot. |
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| I visited the locations from my second Mac Slater book in New York. |
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| I visited a bookstore outside L.A. where Henry Winkler (The Fonz) had recently been! Woohoo. |
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| New York Public Library |
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| My favourite building in the city… The Chrysler. |
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| A misty, wet morning spent wandering Central Park. I felt like Holden Caulfield. |
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| Hollywood, baby. |
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I spent a few days writing at the beautiful and very grounding Varuna Writers’ House
in the Blue Mountains. |
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| I swung on a rope swing at some stage. |
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| One of my two new books… the very first copy. I am smiling as I take this. |
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I did lots of speaking about my books and children’s literature and the creative process.
This is at Byron Bay Writers’ Festival. Picture by James Roy. |
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At Voices on the Coast Festival. (I told them to go wild like this in order to give the sense
that my sessions are perhaps the most fun thing you are likely to encounter at a kidlit fest.) |
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| I did a lot of Skype sessions. |
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| On tour with Get Reading. From Townsville to Sydney to Wollongong to Melbourne to Geelong in five days. |
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Delivering ‘My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up’ talks at Ipswich Fest of Children’s Literature
with my mate and the other half of Tom Weekly’s brain, Gus Gordon. |
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I loved seeing the books heading out into the world and chatting to kids about what they liked
and what was slightly too gross.. |
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| Being interviewed in a school’s own TV studio! |
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| People-watching and freewriting with kids at the State Library of Queensland. |
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I loved offering tools like modelling clay and drawing paper and toys and the web and magazines
as stimulus for stories in writing workshops this year. Cool critters and Jack Sparrow! |
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| My jealousy of other authors’ stamps became too much and I had one made. 😉 |
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| Opening night of Brisbane Writers’ Festival was incredible. |
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| Nit Boy creation by a student! |
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And, of course, Bertie Bots Every Flavoured beans pilfered from Adele at the State Library of
Victoria’s Centre for Youth Lit. |
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I finished up 2011 with three months of fairly solid writing and developing some new app
and TV projects for 2012. Looking forward to diving in but, first, two weeks screen-free. Sweet justice. |
May you be well and happy.
