I haven’t really posted much about what’s been happening over the last five months or so, and as it turns out, there’s been quite a lot!

Such as …

SCHOOL VISITS: I’ve had 25 or so great school visits including a week of bookings in Melbourne and four days in Perth.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I was especially pleased that I got to finally visit my old primary school St Finbarr’s Ashgrove  for the very first time and be part of their inaugural LITFEST day along with Morris Gleitzman, Christine Bongers, Sheryl Gwyther and Josie Montano.

On the day I had the pleasure of talking with the lovely Preps and Grade 1s and reading them Rodney Loses It.

Thanks to librarian extraordinaire Dom Gardiner for making the festival possible.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AWARD: Of course the big news was Rodney Loses It! actually winning the CBCA Book of the Year in the Early Readers category! Such a huge thrill for Chrissie Krebs (illustrator) and me. Unfortunately I couldn’t be at the big announcement ceremony in Brisbane because I was down in Melbourne doing school visits.

If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can view my embarrassing acceptance speech featuring a Special Guest Appearance by my wife Adriana, below.

A big thank you to the CBCA and to the judges for this wonderful award.

(And can I just point out that I was only joking in my previous blog 109 when I boldly proclaimed that Rodney would win because the Judges just wouldn’t be able to pass up the enormous irony of having a book called Rodney Loses It actually winning it. When I wrote that I had absolutely no idea that we were going to get the gong.)

Also thank to all the teachers and students who have embraced Rodney so enthusiastically. Special mention must go to the awesome teachers of Carnegie primary school (below) for going above and beyond the call of Rodney!

And a second special mention to QLD MP Leanne Linard. Thanks to Leanne, free copies of the book where given out at a couple of local Brisbane schools and Rodney even got a mention in Queensland Parliament!

BOOK LAUNCHES: In other news, it was lovely to attend the launch of my good friend and close neighbour Sheryl Gwyther’s new book for middle grade readers SWEET ADVERSITY. A terrific story for all young readers!

And it was a great honour and thrill for me to do the Brisbane launch of Caroline Magerl’s beautiful new picture book MAYA & CAT. I’m a huge fan of Caroline’s books and her amazing artwork.

NEW BOOK: The other big thing that happened since my last blog was that my latest YA book THE THINGS THAT WILL NOT STAND was officially released on September 1st.

I’m very excited to have this story out in the world. I know it won’t appeal to everyone but I’ve got my fingers crossed that there might be other readers out there like Elyy who had this to say on Goodreads, “Absolutely amazing, I could not put this book down. Sincerely hope there will be a series because I am just so in love with the characters.” Can’t ask for much more than that. 🙂

MISCELL: Besides all that, things just carried on pretty much as normal at Chez Bauer. For example, my wife got savaged by a macaw …

… and I transformed into a butterfly.

Cheers
Michael