[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-fun-at-edinburgh-book-festival":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"This festival totally rocked! Stuart and I had so much fun, and the best thing was meeting people I'd only ever heard about. I'd been Twittering for ages with \u003Ca href=\"http://alextsmith.blogspot.com/\">Alex T. Smith\u003C/a>, but my publicist talked with his publicist and set up a quick tea-and-cookies session with him before he had to dash for the train. It was fabulous to see him, but part of me was dying that we couldn't get out drawing supplies and make pictures and comics together for a few good hours. He lives all the way up in York, so I'm going to have to plot hard how to work it so we can somehow do an event together. You can just see cartoonist \u003Ca href=\"http://www.belltoons.co.uk/\">Steve Bell\u003C/a> over Alex's shoulder.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest3-c33bd3ab6a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nA guy named \u003Cb>Colin Galbraith\u003C/b> who's been \u003Ca href=\"http://twitter.com/edbookfest\">tweeting the festival\u003C/a> set me up with a five-minute interview an hour before we left for the train back to London. Here it is! I'm reading \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/morris2.html\">\u003Ci>Morris the Mankiest Monster\u003C/i>\u003C/a>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"283\"/>\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://audioboo.fm/boos/172630-children-s-illustrator-sarah-mcintyre-reads-from-her-book-morris-the-mankiest-monster\">\u003Ci>Audioboo direct link\u003C/i>\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nI feel a bit guilty for not mentioning my Scholastic picture book, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/princess.html\">\u003Ci>You Can't Eat a Princess!\u003C/i>\u003C/a> when Scholastic were FABULOUS at coordinating my visit. I swear, I've never met people so organised, my publicist, \u003Cb>Alex Richardson\u003C/b>, had this great printed schedule, booking me with something almost every hour, including two company dinners with other authors and two quality comedy Fringe events: \u003Ca href=\"http://www.pennydreadfuls.co.uk/\">The Penny Dreadfuls\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.danantopolski.com/\">Dan Antopolski\u003C/a>. (The publicists were in hysterics watching Dan Antopolski giving an alternative \u003Ca href=\"http://www.maisyfunclub.com/\">\u003Ci>Maisy the Mouse\u003C/i>\u003C/a> story, complete with twisted readings of all the Maisy book covers.) I didn't have much time to go to other book events, but I did manage to catch authors \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-reeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.tomtrueheart.com\">Ian Beck\u003C/a> in conversation with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.marcussedgwick.com/Marcus_Sedgwick/Home.html\">Marcus Sedgwick\u003C/a>. The little girl in the chair in front of me (in the front row) spent the whole time twisted around watching me draw, so apologies to the panel for my subversion.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbkfest_panel-296fb7e35a.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nI got to have a quick chat with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.pollydunbar.com/\">Polly Dunbar\u003C/a>, who's been doing a puppet show based on her amazing picture book \u003Ca href=\"http://www.writeaway.org.uk/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,2071/Itemid,99999999/\">\u003Ci>Penguin\u003C/i>\u003C/a>. That's her actor husband in the lion costume! I'd love to see that show.\\r\n\u003C!--more Lots more photos and write-up under the cut-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest8-f29e8748ca.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWrite Away's \u003Cb>Nikki Gamble\u003C/b> booked a group of us onto a Ghost Tour, where we got to tour some of the underground vaults and hear about the gruesome punishments people used to inflict on each other in years past. We thought it would all be pretend, but our buxom blond guide Ella actually \u003Ci>\u003Cb>horsewhipped\u003C/i>\u003C/b> Marcus Sedgwick. And that's when it really got scary, because she didn't just whip him a few times, I think she gave him over \u003Ci>20 lashes\u003C/i>. I think maybe they had a secret history together or something.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest10-a5cca09f8a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe two other people I was incredibly chuffed to meet for the first time were \u003Cb>Philip Reeve\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Martin Brown\u003C/b>. I had a few meals with Martin, and a Chinese with Philip, and just before I left, Philip and I bought each other's book at the shop. I'd only ever heard of his \u003Ci>Mortal Engines\u003C/i> books, not read them, but he suggested I start with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/27/fever-crumb-philip-reeve\">\u003Ci>Fever Crumb\u003C/i>\u003C/a> and I did, on the train. I'm going to finish reading it tonight, it is \u003Ci>riveting\u003C/i>! (Coincidentally, my studio mate Lauren has been reading \u003Ci>Fever Crumb\u003C/i> at the same time as me.) You can follow Philip \u003Ca href=\"http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philip-Reeve/104518809593653\">here on Facebook\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest5-32dc736032.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou're probably very familiar with the \u003Ci>\u003Cb>Horrible Histories\u003C/i>\u003C/b> books, and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.horrible-histories.co.uk/index.tao?PageId=authors_martin_brown\">Martin Brown\u003C/a> is the long-time main dude behind those. (He was very complimentary of mutual acquaintance illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://dinlos.blogspot.com/\">Rob Davis\u003C/a>, who's been doing lots of work on his covers.) Martin's a really lovely guy and really made Stuart and I feel so much more at ease with the whole festival experience. Here he is, eating lunch in the Speigeltent from a bowl which, I swear, was the size of a head. (It looks smaller here somehow.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest4-40749c9062.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen Steve Bell interviewed Alan Moore (during one of my kids workshops), loads of comics people turned up! It was great to see \u003Cb>Joe Gordon\u003C/b> from \u003Ca href=\"http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/\">Forbidden Planet International\u003C/a>. The FPI office sits like a troll under one of Edinburgh's bridges, and Joe does his prolific blogging from this lair. (Joe's the dude in the bandana.) Comics artist \u003Cb>Garen Ewing\u003C/b> and his wife \u003Cb>Elyssa\u003C/b> were staying at the same hotel as us, so we caught each other over breakfasts and briefly in the Speigletent here with the comics gang. Garen's Volume 2 of \u003Ca href=\"http://www.garenewing.co.uk/rainboworchid/\">\u003Ci>The Rainbow Orchid\u003C/i>\u003C/a> looks amazing.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest1-403eb00ef3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest7-90583172be.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne of my four workshops was off-site, a festival Outreach Event, at Craigmillar Library. Scholastic has sent along printed \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/new/princess.html\">Design-your-own-Alien\u003C/a> sheets, but when I saw they had giant rolls of paper, we scrapped the plan and just went crazy after the storytelling drawing monsters and aliens all together on the same paper. Here's the lovely library coordinator \u003Cb>Colm Linnane\u003C/b> taking a photo of the sheets pushed together. (So sad we can't take photos of the kids for legal reasons, they were a lot of fun.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest2-33a6662073.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nBut here you can see some of the stuff we made!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest9-a1a58f8e55.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAt last year's \u003Ca href=\"http://britishscbwi.jimdo.com/\">SCBWI conference\u003C/a> in Winchester, I'd had dinner with children's book writer \u003Cb>Maureen Oakley\u003C/b>, who also works as a stand-up comedian and Radio 4 scriptwriter. Unfortunately we just missed her Free Fringe act \u003Ca href=\"http://www.freefringe.org.uk/showlistings/855-eyes-up-here-comedy\">\u003Ci>Eyes Up Here!\u003C/i>\u003C/a> with \u003Cb>Lydia Parker\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Daniel Carter-Hope\u003C/b>, but Mo and Lydia came on the Ghost Tour with us and Stuart and I spent the rest of the evening having a great laugh with them in the pub. (If you're in Edinburgh, they're going for one more night, go see them!)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edfringe-8740cd4d8d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd here are a whole bunch of the members from the brilliant festival team! Thanks so much to Sara Grady and everyone who made the festival happen so magnificently, and to my publicists at Scholastic and Random House for making my trip run so smoothly. You wouldn't believe the amount of work they do for something like this, these guys are amazing.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/edbookfest6-79082cd43f.jpg\">\\r\nClockwise from top left: \u003Cb>Ellie Parkin\u003C/b> (Scholastic Senior Commissioning Editor, Picture Books, Novelty and Gift) & partner Philip; Festival coordinator \u003Cb>Sara Grady\u003C/b> (centre) with two of the excellent assistants; Random House publicist \u003Cb>Rosi Crawley\u003C/b> next to Scholastic publicist \u003Cb>Catherine Alport\u003C/b>; me and Scholastic Group PR Director \u003Cb>Alyx Price\u003C/b> in the cosy Authors' Yurt (complete with free doughnuts and whisky).","2010-08-27T22:39:00.000Z","fun-at-edinburgh-book-festival",[],"fun at edinburgh book festival!",1776628719116]