Hello Narellan Vale Public School, New South Wales!

October 26, 2021 at 5:24 pm | Posted in Zoom visits | Leave a comment
Tags: , ,
Me with the students of Class 5/6P, Narellan Vale Public School via Zoom

A big hello again to the students of Class 5/6P, Narellan Vale Public School, in Sydney, Australia! It was fabulous to meet you all this morning via Zoom for a great Q&A, to chat about my books, inspiration and writing process, as well as that all-important question, how to become a great writer! It was really inspiring to meet a group who were so interested in writing and I feel sure that there are future published authors in your midst! Keep up the great work and I hope to meet you all again! And thanks to school principal Michelle Sarjana and class teacher Petra Pikula for inviting me!

Oh what a lovely launch!

October 26, 2021 at 12:17 am | Posted in Book launches | Leave a comment
Tags: , , , , ,

Thank you so much to Arti and Shonee Mirchandani and the team at Bookazine Landmark Princes Building for hosting the launch of my new chapter book The Marvellous Adventures of Maggie and Methuselah on Saturday! It was a fabulous event, and even though I couldn’t be there in person, I was there by Zoom for the whole launch and didn’t miss a moment!

Here are some slideshows of the event, from photos contributed by artist Charly Cheung and her friends, as well as my lovely daughters in Melbourne (who joined my zoom presentation) (you can see their faces on some of the pictures)!

First my publisher Pete Spurrier from Blacksmith Books started off by welcoming the lovely crowd which included some of my very dear old Hong Kong friends, as well as some fabulous young fans!

  • The launch begins, as Pete Spurrier introduces my new book!
  • The dream team! Publisher Pete Spurrier at Blacksmith Books, illustrator Charly Cheung, and me!
  • The kids had the chance to enter through our creepy secret tunnel – just like the tunnels in my book!
  • The cobwebs, spiders and bats on the secret tunnel were pretty creepy!
  • A lovely display of my books – including my Chinese Calendar Tales!!
  • Pete, Charly, me on the screen, and my friends Shonee and Arti Mirchandani from Bookazine!
  • An absorbed young fan…

Then I gave a talk by Zoom about the fascinating history behind the REAL Hong Kong mystery which inspired by story!

  • My presentation begins!
  • Introducing the remarkable Sir Paul Chater, creator of the valuable Chater Collection which so famously went missing!
  • Introducing the main characters in my story!
  • A brief summary of the events preceding Chapter 6! (You can see my lovely daughters Annabel (second from top) and Bea (at the bottom) at the side of the picture.
  • From Chapter 6: the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941
  • The chapter continues as Maggie and Edmund decide to search for the missing Chater paintings…
  • Some of my lovely listeners! Thanks so much for coming along!

Publisher Pete Spurrier then ran a fun quiz, where he asked the kids tricky questions about my presentation! The kids who got the right answers won some creepy spiders, snakes and bats worthy of the tunnels in my story…as well as upcoming Halloween of course :)!

  • Pete begins the Quiz with a tricky question!
  • It was fun for me to listen in!
  • Urgh!!! Pete throws a bat at a young fan when she answers a question correctly!

Then illustrator Charly Cheung taught the fans how to draw an African Grey Parrot, just like Methuselah!

  • Charly teaches the kids how to draw Methuselah, the African Grey Parrot!
  • A busy drawing class!
  • A young artist…
  • And another…
  • And some more!
  • And the youngest artist of all!
  • Charly presents the artist with the best drawing with an original Charly Cheung print!
  • Charly and some young fans…

Finally, everyone lined up to have their books signed! I’d already signed a book plate for my lovely readers, and Charly added her signature, while the kids had a chance to chat with me at the same time!

  • It was great to be able to say hello to our fans while Charly signed their books!
  • Lining up to get books signed…
  • Saying hello to my lovely fans, including my young friend Lauren (front centre)
  • A fun book signing…

Thank you so much to Charly and Pete for all the wonderful work they put into the launch, with some fantastic decorations and special effects! And a HUGE thank you also to Arti and Shonee Mirchandani at Bookazine, for their fabulous hosting of the event!

And if you’d like to buy your copy of the book, signed by both me and Charly, I believe that there are still some signed copies available at Bookazine Princes Building! Or you can purchase your own (unsigned) copy by clicking HERE!

Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.