[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-templar-start-up-a-fiction-list":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/helenamandadug_sm-2182a9eaf4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nFunny, I went to two events in two weeks where two publishers were celebrating their 30th birthday. Last night I posed as \u003Cb>Nikki Gamble\u003C/b> from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.writeaway.org.uk\">Write Away\u003C/a> and had lovely drinks and intriguing-but-tasty canapés with the lovely \u003Ca href=\"http://www.templarco.co.uk/\">Templar Publishing\u003C/a> crowd. Here's the write-up I did (which will shortly be appearing on the Write Away news page):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Champagne flowed freely at the Covent Garden Hotel as Templar launched their first-ever children's fiction list in their 30 years of publishing. Managing Director \u003Cb>Amanda Wood\u003C/b> proudly lauded books displayed around the room, including \u003Cb>Simon Bartram\u003C/b>'s humourously illustrated chapter books, \u003Cb>Johnny O'Brien\u003C/b>'s historical adventures and a beautiful diminutive repackaging of \u003Cb>Shaun Tan\u003C/b>'s \u003C/i>Eric\u003Ci>, one of the short stories in his \u003C/i>Tales from Outer Suburbia\u003Ci>. Talk in the room also buzzed about their upcoming e-books, to be available in June, and an as-yet-undisclosed new digital format. \\r\n\\r\nThe evening's guests included \u003Ca href=\"http://johnnyobrien.net/\">Johnny O'Brien\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=200000214\">Dugald A. Steer\u003C/a> of the Ology books, \u003Cb>Helen Boyle\u003C/b> from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.peters-books.co.uk/tBkmag2.htm\">tBk magazine\u003C/a>, writer \u003Ca href=\"http://www.piccadillypress.co.uk/pages/book-categories/teen/kelleher.html\">Damian Kelleher\u003C/a> and \u003Cb>Wendy Cooling\u003C/b> of \u003Ca href=\"http://www.bookstart.org.uk/Home\">Bookstart\u003C/a>. \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foreman_%28author_/_illustrator%29\">Michael Forman\u003C/a> and Amanda Wood schemed late in the evening about another book they wanted to do together; \u003Cb>Louise Foreman\u003C/b>, Michael's wife, talked about working as manager and agent for her husband, and about several other illustrators (including Tony Ross) who are supported similarly by their spouses. Then a rumour went round that the Shaun Tan \u003C/i>Eric\u003Ci> books weren't in all the goodie bags and everyone surreptitiously tried to nab a loaded bag without looking too vulture-like, and the sounds of muffled squees erupted from various corners of the room.\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-cut text= \"More photos under the cut\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/templar_bks_sm-39ee59c547.jpg\" width=\"380\"> \u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/shauntan_eric-20edda6cb6.jpg\" width=\"280\">\\r\n\\r\n(I was going to link \u003Ca href=\"http://www.shauntan.net/\">Shaun Tan\u003C/a> but I see he's exceeded his bandwith, the popular guy. But you can still read about him \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Tan\">on Wikipedia\u003C/a>).) The bit I didn't record for Write Away was meeting up with two reps from Waterstone's, \u003Cb>Sorrell Waldie\u003C/b> and \u003Cb>Jonathan O'Brien\u003C/b>, and happily continuing the party down the road.\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sorrelljon_sm-4d1832607a.jpg\">","2010-02-25T14:25:00.000Z","templar-start-up-a-fiction-list",[],"templar start up a fiction list",1776628734033]