Edinburgh Book Festival

The Edinburgh Book Festival - what a roller coaster! It was my first time and I was EXTREMELY nervous. I checked and double-checked that I'd packed all my props for both talks (The Wickit Chronicles (Ely Plot and Fen Gold) on the Monday and Questors on the Tuesday), caught my train, found the hotel, unpacked ... and discovered that although my props were all there, my sandals weren't. I couldn't wear my big clunky shoes with my talk skirt (not without looking like Granny Weatherwax) and it was 20 to 6 on a Sunday evening! ARGHHH! I needn't have worried, however. This was the big city, after all, and £3. later I was the proud owner of a pair of excruciatingly uncomfortable blue flipflops. (I took a poll to see if anybody in the audience actually liked them and then did the rest of the talks barefoot.)

(I wasn't the only one who was forgetful at the Festival. The guy who was supposed to be chairing my Questors event wrote down 1:00 in his diary instead of 10:00. Or perhaps he just couldn't find his shoes ...)

There's something enormously invigorating about tents full of great kids (they were friendly, responsive, attentive - you really couldn't have asked for better) and the rest of this week has had tons of writing in it as a result. So three cheers for the Edinburgh Book Festival - it was worth all that panic!

Cheers, Joan.

P.S. I just got a great review of Questors by Cassie from Essex, who's 12, and it's going on my website just as soon as I can grab someone who knows how!