It was a blast to celebrate the launch with a party at Harry Hartog Booksellers--the perfect location.

The hosts of One More Page Podcast launched the book and entertained us with a skit and song about a few of their favourite (monstery) things.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to dress up as Iris to read the book. The fun continued with lucky door prizes, morning tea, craft, book signing and lolly bags. Thanks to everyone who joined the party.

The highlight of the afternoon, in my opinion, was Molly, who the book is dedicated to. Katrina and Molly entertained us with a comedy routine.

​Katrina announced that we would sing some songs together before she read the book. But a few bars into 'Rock-a-bye Baby' Molly shouted, 'STOP!' The song was too scary because people would be afraid of the baby falling. 'Incy Wincy' (stop!) would scare people with a fear of spiders and 'Twinkle Twinkle' (stop!) was no good either, because some people are afraid of the dark. They eventually agreed to ignore parents' fear of getting the carpet dirty and sang 'Twinkle Twinkle Vegemite'. (if you drop it upside down, it will turn the carpet brown)

I enjoyed celebrating another friend's book launch today. Katrina Roe launched her fourth book, Gemma Gets the Jitters. 

Katrina sure knows how to put on a great launch! When we arrived there was a band playing, craft for the kids and a delicious afternoon tea. Authors Katharina Colmer and Marian McGuinness talked about writing and psychologist Collett Smart talked about how to help with kids' anxiety--very helpful! I will use all her ideas with my own kids. Some of her points which stuck with me were:
 - Never ridicule a child's fear.
 - Don't allow them to completely avoid their fears.
 - Give them gradual exposure, getting a step closer to the goal every time.
Collett has also written the parent notes at the end of the book.

Debra Tidball launched The Scared Book, her second picture book, on the weekend. Debra is such a supportive friend--she is always at friends' launches and tweeting about other people's books. This was obvious at her launch, because The Children's Bookshop was packed with authors who came to celebrate Debra's success. 

Debra is part of COW (Children's Omega Writers) and a few of us were there to cheer her on - Zoe Gaetjens, me, Penny Reeve and Katrina Roe are there in the photo on the left with Debra.
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I've wanted to go to CYA conference in Brisbane for years, but it has always clashed with our family holidays.

This year, we arranged our holiday around the conference. It has turned out to be the perfect year to attend, because I won an award: Commended for 3 unpublished picture book manuscripts. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll see these titles as published books.

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​I was thrilled that my friend Coral Vass won our category (published authors), not just because she's a great author and lovely friend, but because her next picture book is illustrated by none other than the talented Gabriel Evans. I can't wait to see it when it comes out in August.

Lisa Flanagan and I launched The Mighty Mighty King before Christmas, but with all the Christmas craziness, I forgot to blog about it.

Koorong Penrith hosted our launch. Initially I wondered if enough people would want to come, considering how recently I had launched Captain Sneer. I didn't need to worry--the room was overflowing with friends and fans. There wasn't even space outside the door for people to see in! I felt so bad for people who came for our launch and had to stand outside. Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate with us.