[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-pirate-shenanigans-at-imagine-childrens-festival":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Wow, yesterday was a BIG day! I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, but in a good way. I led three storming pirate events for the \u003Ca href=\"http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/imagine-childrens-festival\">IMAGINE Children's Festival\u003C/a> at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank. It's running for another week, so if you're around London, do have a peek at their great \u003Ca href=\"http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/imagine-childrens-festival\">line-up\u003C/a>! Here's a picture I drew just before my first workshop event:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_18-77b841a3a2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd then there was a huge stage event! It was PACKED! At least 500 kids and their families. It's one of those times when I think, wow, when I decided I wanted to make children's books, I never even dreamed this would be part of the job. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_16-4d54c24f4c.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.whodunnknit.com/\">Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nAnd it was great having some familiar faces in the audience. Here are fellow tweeters, my studio mate \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/deadlyknitshade\">@deadlyknitshade\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/_MissLWS\">@_MissLWS\u003C/a>. Oh, and the festival hashtag is \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23imaginefest\">#ImagineFest\u003C/a>.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_6-9328dc3328.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen I do smaller events, I tend to let the kids direct me in what I draw, but since there were just so many people, I thought I'd try doing a step-by-step drawing with them, of Captain Waffle from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/princess-pirate.php\">\u003Ci>You Can't Scare a Princess!\u003C/i>\u003C/a>. I was amazed how well even the youngest of the kids seemed to keep up with me, and I was thrilled at the end, when I had people hold up their drawings to show me, and there was a sea of pirates, all slightly different and funny and quirky, but all totally AWESOME. \\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for lots more under the cut!-->\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_10-1b34194b93.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.whodunnknit.com/\">Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/princess-pirate.php\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/draw_capn_waffle1-18265044d3.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nA lot of the kids came and showed me their pirates when I was doing the signing and I'm sad I didn't get photos of more of their drawings. But here are a couple (ooh, those two look familiar again!):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_2-839aabe4b2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's our pirate from the first workshop, that the kids helped me draw before designing their own pirates. Meet \u003Cb>Cap'n Fish-hat Pong\u003C/b>! He's eating bogey-covered chicken on toast, and no, that wasn't my idea, the kids get full credit for that one.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_19-3111563ac3.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thebookseller.com/category/tags/catherine-stokes\">Catherine Stokes\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nJust a note, \u003Cb>if anyone wants more of the activity sheets from the event, I have free, downloadable, printable activity sheets for each of my books \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk\">over on my website\u003C/a>\u003C/b>, just \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/books.php\">click on the book cover\u003C/a> to find the sheets for each book.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/princess-pirate.php\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/draw_a_pirate-b1d972d2b5.gif\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nScholastic UK have this great way of mixing round publicists, editors, marketing people, etc at events. So it's not uncommon to get an editor coming along with me instead of a publicist, and it's great, because they get to see how things work in a different side of the business, and I get to hang out with an editor for the day. Yesterday, I got the head of Scholastic! Publishing Director \u003Cb>Lisa Edwards\u003C/b> came along with me, and she totally helped me rock the house. Thanks so much, Lisa! (She's \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/Redwoods1\">@Redwoods1\u003C/a> on Twitter.)\\r\n\\r\nHere we are, having ginger beer. Which seemed like an appropriate piratey drink when I thought of Polly from the Narnia book, \u003Ci>The Magician's Nephew\u003C/i>, who loved to drink ginger beer while she wrote her stories in the attic: \u003Ci>She had often drunk a quiet bottle of ginger-beer in there: the old bottles made it look more like a smugglers' cave.\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_1-fdda8ca192.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.whodunnknit.com/\">Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nHa ha, it wasn't a 'quiet bottle of ginger-beer' at all all, the Royal Festival Hall was heaving. Here's \u003Cb>Cap'n Skeleton Smelly-breath\u003C/b> from my first workshop. He has a big pie on his head, also not my idea, but a cracking one, all the same!\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_9-06d5eb0c0e.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/Redwoods1\">Lisa Edwards\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nI never in a million years would have thought of myself as an actor, but when it's my books, I know the characters pretty well, and what I'm doing with them in the books is kind of like making \u003Ci>them\u003C/i> act. So I have to get into their heads, and it seems natural to pull a Princess-Spaghetti-style strop on stage. \\r\n\\r\nI actually used to be quite shy, this is all a bit weird, but cool, too. Now I really like doing stage events, it's fun to hear when something in the book or performance works and makes everyone laugh or get very quiet and go big-eyed. And it feels good to know I'm learning and picking up new ideas each time I do it. It's fun trying new things.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_12-69f95374ce.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.whodunnknit.com/\">Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nOne of the great things about a festival is getting to see the other acts! Here's the very funny, wildly energetic writer of \u003Ci>Astrosaurs\u003C/i>, \u003Ci>Cows in Action\u003C/i>, \u003Ci>Slime Squad\u003C/i>, \u003Ci>Doctor Who\u003C/i> novels and loads more books, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stevecolebooks.co.uk/\">Steve Cole\u003C/a>... in action! Steve's a great friend, we've done occasional events together (such as the \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/367873.html\">Make-a-Monster Mega-Challenge\u003C/a>!)  and he's very skilled at getting kids to come up with their own story ideas.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_17-65fe68a132.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI got to meet several people I'd only ever chatted with online, including \u003Cb>Zoe Toft\u003C/b> (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/playbythebook\">@playbythebook\u003C/a> on Twitter), who runs a great \u003Ca href=\"http://www.playingbythebook.net/2011/12/24/free-crafty-activities-from-sarah-mcintyre-and-neill-cameron/\">blog about children's books and activities they inspire\u003C/a>. Her daughter's a big fan of \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/vernlettuce-book.php\">\u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, yay! Here's she's wearing amazing writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk/\">Geraldine McCaughrean\u003C/a>'s pirate hat. I need to give Geraldine back her hat soon, I've been borrowing it for an awfully long time and she has \u003Ci>Peter Pan in Scarlet\u003C/i> events to do. \u003Cb>Give me a shout, anyone, if you see a quality pirate hat for sale anywhere!\u003C/b> (Or if you have a good one you want to off-load on me...) :)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_4-37d5b57c65.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cfont size=\"1\">\u003Ci>Photo by \u003Ca href=\"http://www.whodunnknit.com/\">Lauren O'Farrell\u003C/a>\u003C/i>\u003C/font>\\r\n\\r\nLauren, Laura and I stuck around to watch Steve's event, and Laura said she's definitely coming back to the Royal Festival hall next weekend for more festival fun. Lauren just gave me A LOOK. Ha ha...\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/imagine_southbank_5-edf28b4b4d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI'm incredibly grateful to organiser \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/Marielairre\">Ruth Huddleston\u003C/a> who invited me, the fabulous people who helped me set up for events and cleared up afterward and dealt with all the tech stuff, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_home_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100\">The Book People\u003C/a> who sponsored the events, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.foyles.co.uk/bookstore-festival-hall\">Foyles\u003C/a> bookshop for supplying my books, my Scholastic publicist \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/CRALP\">Catherine Alport\u003C/a> who organised me before the event, and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/#!/Redwoods1\">Lisa Edwards\u003C/a>, who looked after me on the day and was such great company. \u003Cb>Thanks so much, everyone!\u003C/b>","2012-02-19T10:11:00.000Z","pirate-shenanigans-at-imagine-childrens-festival",[],"pirate shenanigans at imagine children's festival!",1776628721481]