[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-adventuremice-at-cheltenham-lit-fest-2023":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"This weekend \u003Ca href=\"https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature\">Cheltenham Festival of Literature\u003C/a> was hit by an Adventuremice invasion! All the Adventuremice... and Reeve and McIntyre, doing what we do. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1307548_original-96436c4f51.jpg\" width=\"550\">\\r\n\\r\nWhich, of course, involves taking glam selfies with my co-author \u003Ca href=\"https://philipreeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a> in the festival photo area.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1307699_original-4eb08bcff2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nAh, we were not the only authors with this idea! Here are \u003Ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lauraleedockrill\">Laura Dockrill\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"https://www.lindsayliteraryagency.co.uk/silver-josh/\">Josh Silver\u003C/a>: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1308134_original-f7cd135722.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd the actual Professional Photographer, \u003Cb>Spencer McPherson\u003C/b> from \u003Ca href=\"https://stillmovingmedia.com/\">Still Moving Media\u003C/a>, who took a bunch of photos (but we haven't seen them yet). \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1309899_original-784104acb4.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nOn Friday, we had a big stage event with 500 children from lots of different schools, and they were absolutely brilliant, such a fun crowd, with great ideas. Thanks to Gary and the tech team who helped us so much with the setup! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1308329_original-c6ee118a1e.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.9em\">Photo \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/USLSchool/status/1713620350179610686\">tweeted by Upton St Leonards CofE Primary School\u003C/a>\u003C/span>\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1311864_original-8320390026.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.9em\">Photo \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/IVSchool/status/1712820648014221390\">tweeted by Isbourne Valley School \u003C/a>\u003C/span>\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nWe did a quick signing in the Waterstones tent, hosted by Mason and Jess: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1310214_original-51b5cc7db7.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThen we legged it to the Author Lounge, where the wonderful \u003Ca href=\"https://www.jojames.co.uk/\">Jo James\u003C/a> (we love Jo!) had organised quick transport to the rail station... \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1309973_original-8244a18d00.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\n...And we dashed off to Bridgwater in Somerset, where we gave the keynote speech for the \u003Ca href=\"https://www.somersetliteracynetwork.com/\">Somerset Literacy Network\u003C/a> conference!  \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1308596_original-e6bef71f00.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nIt was great meeting so many teachers there who had used our books in schools (particularly \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.co.uk/pugs-of-the-frozen-north/\">Pugs of the Frozen North\u003C/a>\u003C/i>!). And we're very grateful to poet \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jamescarterpoet.co.uk/\">James Carter\u003C/a> for spinning his event a bit longer so we could battle our way there as our train took an unexpected detour through Wales. But we made it, and it was wonderful to see everyone. Thanks so much to \u003Cb>Sarah Cooke\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Dora Allen\u003C/b> for organising our visit; Sarah has been running SLN and is retiring now, handing over the reins to Dora at a charity called \u003Ca href=\"https://www.librariesunlimited.org.uk/\">Libraries Unlimited\u003C/a>, which Sarah's certain is the best possible fit. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1308731_original-46cf4453dd.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nThen we dashed back to Cheltenham! Next day, costume chanage. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1306886_original-c8d9a3d08b.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Ci>\u003Cspan style=\"font-size: 0.9em\">Photo by Philip Reeve\u003C/span>\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nOur main festival Adventuremice event (open to the public, this time) was happening at the Parabola Theatre, and we were lucky enough to be able to slip into historian \u003Ca href=\"https://www.tom-holland.org/\">Tom Holland\u003C/a>'s event, which was happening right before ours in the same venue. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1308957_original-028fb0fa28.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI first met Tom back in \u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.livejournal.com/758399.html\">2016 at Marlborough Lit Fest\u003C/a> and had very much enjoyed talking with him. So it was great to hear about the new book he'd made with illustrator \u003Ca href=\"https://www.thelittleyellowbird.co.uk/\">Jason Cockcroft\u003C/a>, \u003Ci>The Wolf-Girl, the Greeks and the Gods: a Tale of the Persian Wars\u003C/i>. Usually Tom does events for grownups, so it was kind of funny listening to the Question & Answer session at the end, where kids were asking him to list, in various ways, his favourite and least favourite Greek gods, which ones were the most powerful, etc. He has such a knack of making his answers interesting, spinning them out into terrific stories - and if you haven't heard his podcast with Dominic Sandbrooke, \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"https://therestishistory.supportingcast.fm/\">The Rest is History\u003C/a>\u003C/i>, you must check it out. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1309220_original-1cf76b1eb9.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nBig thanks to our tech teams at both of our Cheltenham events! The setup is everything, whether an event will go well or not, if people will be able to see and hear, and Event Manager \u003Ca href=\"https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rose-harrison-725b13195\">Rose Harrison\u003C/a> and her team at the Parabola did a terrific job. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1309527_original-5459f4e0e2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nA few more photos of the sights and faces of Cheltenham Lit Fest! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1310637_original-ee4669fb81.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI was so glad to run into author \u003Ca href=\"https://www.niiparkes.com/\">Nii Parkes\u003C/a>, whom I hadn't seen \u003Ca href=\"https://jabberworks.livejournal.com/489519.html\">since 2012, when a bunch of comics friends and I ran the Pop-Up Comics Big Top of Awesome\u003C/a>. He's been very busy since then, and I went to the shop and picked up a copy of his new fiction book, \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/azucar\">Azúcar\u003C/a>\u003C/i>. \\r\n\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1311157_original-1d9ca7f45f.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nYay! It's writer-editor-translator-presenter \u003Ca href=\"https://www.danielhahn.co.uk/\">Daniel 16-events Hahn\u003C/a>! He's the No.1 person you're most likely to meet at any book gathering, the guy is a total festival pro and has probably read more books than anyone on the planet, all in prep for events he's chairing.\\r\n \\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1310876_original-a58eb5fa25.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI also met author \u003Ca href=\"https://www.andyseed.com/\">Andy Seed \u003C/a>for the first time, in the author lounge:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1311322_original-dfe1f4e5c1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nHuge thanks to the Cheltenham Lit Fest team for hosting our events, Waterstones for selling our books, the catering team in the author lounge for feeding us so well, and to Fraser Hutchison and Meggie Dennis at David Fickling Books and Stuart Pyle for coordinating our (rather complicated) visit. To my co-author Philip Reeve for being generally fabulous. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/1312161_original-66572a0d70.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd to everyone who came along, we hope you're enjoying the Adventuremice books! As ever, you can find fun, free, further activities at \u003Ca href=\"http://adventuremice.com\">Adventuremice.com\u003C/a>.","2023-10-15T16:28:00.000Z","adventuremice-at-cheltenham-lit-fest-2023",[],"Adventuremice at Cheltenham Lit Fest 2023",1776628731871]