After the Ball

La, la, la......
I'm still dancing around my loungeroom after the CBCA dinner on Saturday, fondly recalling the magical night in all it's glorious detail.
Well, this is a slight exageration but it was like being locked in a lolly shop for a few hours with lots of your favourite sweets. It was a lovely blur of talking to other writers and people passionate about children's books. It was lovely to meet people like Di Bates, Bill Condon, Deborah Abela, Jeff McMullen, Jenny hale, Sue Whiting, Roslyn J Motter, Mary Jacobs. I can honestly say it was no less exciting meeting newbies like myself and sharing tips and stories. There weren't a lot of illustrators that i know of ( I couldn't see any inky fingers or paint in hair) except for one lady who amazingly was in my year at school. I sold 7 of the 10 books I took to sell AND I got to do my first signings! Very cool! Thank you so much to those lovely people who bought my book and /or gave me huge encouragement and compliments. It was all great. I also bought books, got them signed and me and my children are madly reading those.
We are doing it all again next year and will be having a very well known literary figure as guest speaker whose name I will disclose when I am allowed!
On another note I had the AGM for my Federation of Australian Writers group, for which i was hoping to avoid nomination as treasurer. I smugly managed this but then nearly fell over when I was instead nominated as president. Arghhhh! Needless to say I have not accepted however flattering. A big mouth does not a good president make! I have only been attending for 5 months (1 meeting per month roughly) and I do not understand the running of things. i thought it was a huge step for me to offer to be the minutes secretary for my branch of the CBCA. I normally avoid committees like the plague but understand there is no such thing as a free lunch. I am learning that no matter how flattering an offer you get, give your ego a good firm slap and only take on what you can realistically manage. You get to realise that every time your head gets bigger, your brain gets smaller. For very action there is an equal and opposite reaction!