The night before the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators Sydney Conference 2019

It seems to take the deadline of ‘the night before…’ for me to add to this blog. Instagram has certainly become a bigger part of getting illustrations and drawings out there. So the night/day before heading off to Sydney I will do a quick recap of life since the Tasmanian Craft Fair. Being the guest artist was a singular privilege, four days of talking, explaining and enjoying the company of an engaged audience was indeed a pleasure. I had more than enough stock and will really need to go again to make any inroads, so applications are now open and I will be putting my hand up for a smaller stall and a neat and compact presence. Some contacts to come out of the Fair, meant that the books will now be distributed by 40 South with Lucinda Sharp on the job. Any trade enquiries can go through her now.

The Cuckoo market was early December and a fabulous experience, a constant stream of people looking for Christmas gifts…thank you Caroline for organising a classy, boutique, artisan market.

By then Christmas was nearly on us, I did try the Cruise ship markets to see how they panned out, hard work if only for long, long hours of waiting around…not really a good use of time, even with doing some work there.

The Cygnet Folk Festival was another treat with people engaged in my artwork (cards, posters and books). Thank you to the committee for giving me the opportunity to be there.

For the last 6 weeks I have been concentrating on my portfolio to present at the Illustrators’ Showcase in Sydney on Monday. Following the formula of Donna Rawlins from Walker Books, I have put together a 10 page collection of art and stories, thanks to Anne Morgan for her unpublished manuscript of ‘Abeline, the pigeon who flew half way to Antarctica - a true story’. So until the meeting has drawn to a close and I come back refreshed after seeing my author and illustrator friends, I will sign off, perhaps get some of the portfolio on Instagram and take my little bag for a journey north.