[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-a-drink-with-sally":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"I was going stir-crazy today from painting all day like a maniac for an upcoming picture book deadline, so I popped out to the \u003Cb>Waterstone's Children's Book Awards\u003C/b> to get some air and a glass of wine with the lovely \u003Ca href=\"http://www.sallynicholls.com\">Sally Nicholls\u003C/a>. (You may remember I made her a big foam \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/67130.html\">airship\u003C/a> for the launch of her book \u003Ci>Ways to Live Forever\u003C/i>.) Since she won the award last year, she was presenting it to this year's winner, \u003Cb>Michelle Harrison\u003C/b>, who bagged the five thousand squid for her book \u003Ca href=\"http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=6319498\">\u003Ci>The Thirteen Treasures\u003C/i>\u003C/a>. I thought I could say 'you read it here first', since I came home early to do more work tonight (no party girl, me) but the \u003Ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7897877.stm\">BBC have already beat me to it.\u003C/a> (They are so quick, these guys.) \\r\nSally's the one giving the speech, and in the line of nominees, Michelle's the one in the red dress:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sally_wstones-d00f2997f8.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen the prize was announced, I was standing next to publisher Barry Cunningham and author \u003Cb>Rachel Ward\u003C/b> (black blouse, with the glasses), who didn't win the prize. But I must say, the write-up for her book, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=6329023\">\u003Ci>Numbers\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, sounded the most interesting of the lot. It's about a girl who can see exactly when each person is going to die when she meets them, and how that affects her relationships with them. That sounds a lot like a daydream I had as a kid, on long car journeys, when I imagined I could see a billboard on top of every single car on the freeway, saying exactly where each car was going and why they were going there.\\r\n\\r\nAnd here's a little portrait I did the other day for a \u003Cb>DFC prize winner\u003C/b> named Katherine. (Keep checking the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thedfc.co.uk\">DFC website\u003C/a> for all sorts of competitions.) I hope she doesn't mind being a mermaid, but in the photo, she had great hair that I thought would be fun to make all swirly. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/dfc_portrait-5037291dbd.jpg\">","2009-02-18T21:09:00.000Z","a-drink-with-sally",[],"a drink with sally",1776628728947]