Out and about

It has been a busy couple of months with lots of book signings, speaking gigs and other writing related outings. The definite highlights were the two school literary festivals — Yarra Valley Grammar on 20 October and the Catholic College Bendigo on 25 November. I love doing school visits. They are a great opportunity to speak with kids and teens — the audience that I write for. And it’s wonderful to see them getting enthusiastic about reading and writing. The festival in Bendigo made it into the local paper…

I also attended a couple of recent awards ceremonies. The first was for YABBA — the Young Australians’ Best Book Awards. These are a set of children’s choice awards. The second was the Children’s Charity Network’s Young Australian Art & Writers’ Awards. My thanks to the organisers of both events for inviting me along.

I’ve just finished judging the St Leonard’s College Writing Competition. It was an honour to get to read all the wonderful stories written by both primary and secondary school students. Judging is a tough gig! All the entrants deserve congratulations and I really wish that I could award prizes to all of them… but a winner needs to be chosen. And that’s a hard decision to make.

There are still more events lined up for the rest of this year and into 2012. But more on them later.