Loving my local library

I sometimes feel a bit sad that we live in the outskirts of Perth when there seems to be so much going on closer to the city. It's true that there are advantages to living outside the hustle and bustle, but you know how that grass can look look when it's way over yonder.

With that said, we were lucky enough to have a couple of author talks recently at our local library in Clarkson. In late January children's book author Ken Spillman spoke about his 'Jake' series of books. My very-nearly-four-year-old got a kick out of his signed copy of Jake's Gigantic List, the story of Jake's quest for the perfect birthday present.

I was multi-tasking as always, listening for writing tips, birthday gift hints and corralling the littlest mister. Afterwards whilst getting our books signed I learned that the proceeds of 'Jake's Gigantic List' go to the Children's Book Council of Australia. What a great show of support for a very hard-working organisation.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a flyer advertising a talk by local author Sara Foster. Her latest book 'Beneath the Shadows' was released last month.

So off I went again, this time without children, to attend a very civilised event which even included refreshments! Of course, the crowd were all there to listen. Many had questions - including myself, but I was not quick enough to get them in! Anyway, Sara was very easy to talk to afterwards during the book signing. As fate would have it I bumped into her at the local market the following night. So who knows, maybe next time she'll be ahead of me in the grocery queue and I can ask her how the heck you're supposed to write novels with young children in the house!? As for the book itself, I'm very much engrossed and cannot wait to stop writing this so I can get back to it.

So, I'm very much looking forward to finding out what talent will be heading our way next. We really do appreciate them thinking of us out here in 'upper-whoop-whoop' :)