I recently spent a packed couple of days at the Sydney Writers Festival Family Day! Here’s a couple of highlights.
A spy infiltrates the Festival…
As part of a panel on Junior Fiction, Adrian Beck and I had a spy-off. The objective? Blend in and make your way to the stage without being seen, using any means necessary.
This here hombre was served humble pie as his last meal, with bullets for dessert, as I went up against Serena Geddes, Heath McKenzie and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis in an Illustrator Battle. Congrats to Charmaine (AKA Lead-Pencil Lewis) for being the quickest draw in the inner-west. Special thanks to our excellent MC (and chief cat wrangler) Adrian Beck.
I also got to do a junior fiction panel with Adrian Beck (author/illustrator of Furball) and Jasmin McGaughey (author of the Little Ash series). The audience gave some fantastic suggestions for a new series about a giant hungry frog, which they named ‘Get Chunky’. Brilliant!
Every author at the Festival got a funny gift from our hotel. The bio on my website mentions that I have a labrador called Frankie and am a big fan of superhero movies, so I received this custom portrait! Adrian Beck mentioned how much he loves cupcakes and he received cupcakes … maybe I need to add cupcakes to my bio too?
I also had the chance to meet lots of readers. Thanks to everyone who came and grabbed a copy of Secret Agent Mole, Book 1: Goldfish-Finger. It’s always a pleasure to sign and personalise a copy for someone, and to see them walk away looking excited to read it. I saw one kid trailing behind his parents because his face was buried in the pages as he walked!
The other great thing about writers festivals is the chance to catch up with my writer and illustrator buds from around the country. It was so great to see everyone and hang out for the day. Thanks for having me Sydney!
James Foley 