This weekend was a busy one.

Saturday was SCBWI meeting, sandwiched between our choir performance at the Yarraville Festival and a masked birthday party for my niece and her father, my brother. So I had to carry changes of clothes, and three bags with the bits for each part of the day. Fortunately I got through without wearing/bringing the wrong bits to any of the three events.

Usually, we have two member speakers who speak about particular elements of their writing/illustrating journey. This month we had a panel of members, all talking about their experiences with promotion. It was fascinating to see the different approaches and a reminder that not all methods of promotion will suit all people.

After afternoon tea, we got down to the nitty-gritty of the business side of the industry, hearing about accounting and tax and how to do it as accurately and easily as possible. The session went long as the accountants fielded questions about some of the issues particular to our industry.

Sunday saw the launch of Penguin’s new Our Australian Girl series, by Bridget Duclos.

The first four books, each being book 1 of 4 for a particular character, were released to the world.

Jane Godwin, Penguin Children’s Publisher talked about the genesis of the series. They are for 9-13 year old girls and make history real for this generation. Readings in Hawthorn was overwhelmed by the number of people. I feel for anyone who came trying to just browse.

Alison Lloyd and Sherryl Clark, two of the series authors.

Sofie Laguna and Gabrielle Wang (the other two series authors) with the series editor, Davina Bell who spoke very enthusiastically.