Just like budding ballerina Aisling, on Saturday April 27 I combed my hair into a neat bun, packed up some craft and headed to Quick Brown Fox Bookshop in Grange to launch my latest picture book, Aisling and Amelia. Aisling and Amelia is the story of two dancers. Aisling is able-bodied and Amelia has a limb difference. (I chose the name “Amelia” because there is a condition called “Amelia” when a baby is born without fully formed limbs.)
When I arrived at Quick Brown Fox I was delighted to see how Anna and Theresa had decorated the shop for the launch. There was a wall of Aisling and Amelia books, a cute sign and the displays had been pushed aside to fit lots of chairs and a pink rug to match the colour scheme of the book. Renata who would be MCing the event was resplendent in a tutu and rocketship earrings to mark the occasion of the launch.
Then the people started arriving. First illustrator Chloe Finnis who I had only met for the first time the week before, and many of her family who had made the long drive up from the Gold Coast, Nico O’Sullivan who is illustrating a graphic novel for me (I cannot reveal the name of the book just yet!), fellow Hawkeye authors and publisher Carolyn Martinez, my tap dancing buddies, other family and friends, and most curious of all, PEOPLE I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW! It was getting quite squishy with standing room only, but luckily Renata and I had chairs to sit on – although Renata did abandon her chair at one point to do a spectacular one-off dance performance.
I would like to extend a very big thank you to Theresa and Anna at Quick Brown Fox Bookshop in Grange for hosting the event, and to Renata from The Endless Shelf kidlit podcast for being such a wonderful MC.