FULL STEAM AHEAD

Last week, Emma and I were honoured to meet  Linsay and John Knight who have started their own poetry publishing house, Pitt-Street Poetry.  Linsay used to work with Random House and was the publisher of my good friend Jacqueline Harvey's  brilliant, bestselling, super-popular  Alice Miranda and Clementine Rose books. 

John, Linsay, Emma and me

Emma and I met up with Linsay and John at the super posh Fullerton Hotel before we deciding to lunch at the nearby Indochine. Over a lunch of springrolls and Vietnamese pho, we discussed our experiences in publishing. Linsay has had a wealth of experience in the publishing field, having worked for the likes  Scholastic and  Random House. John's a medical doctor who runs Pitt-Street Poetry with Linsay.  Their younger son, Jasper, is an artist who is one of the directors of the Singapore Gallery, Future Perfect and their older  son Dominic is a broadcaster with ABC. What a treat it was to hear about their journey in publishing and what a talented family. Thank you for the time to meet with us, Linsay and John, and thank you for the books!

Helen and Emma with Princess Petunia

After lunch we cabbed it to Tanglin Mall to meet with Helen, one of my agents from Jacaranda to discuss a project we're working on.
Best-selling and award-winning picture book Emily Lim joined us as well for our tea-time meeting at Brunetti at Tanglin Mall. I have three manuscripts due for Jacaranda and I've got to get at least one of them ready in time for the Bologna Children's Book Fair. PRESSURE!

Denise and Sarah

Then a few days later I caught up with my new distributor Denise from Closetful of Books to sign my contract over coffee at Starbucks.  I've known Denise for some time and she's was fantastic when she was with Bookaburra so I know she'll do a great job distributing my books. Sarah Mounsey, who is also affectionately known as Competition, also signed with Denise. 

My latest book Sebbie's First Day of School is set to be hot off the press this week and my wonderful, talented and super fast illustrator Soefara is hard at work on our next book A Day with the Duchess. I can't wait to see the first illustrations.