Scone Writers Festival

The third annual Scone Literary Festival was held this weekend and what a weekend it was. The weather was divine, the hospitality was warm, and the atmosphere was vibrant - perfect for talking books, current and local social issues and anything else that jumped into conversations.

The festival team organised three heavenly days and Kirrili and I were very privileged to be part of two of them.

School Day: Friday, 4th November @ Scone Library

We were invited to entertain almost 80 preschool children on the first day of the festival at Scone Library (which is part of the Upper Hunter Library Network).

We had visited the library during the previous school holidays and we had also presented to older siblings at our recent Coal and Allied sponsored 'Hunter Schools Book Tour'. So it was lovely to hear people were very happy we'd returned as they'd missed seeing us or had heard about us.

We sang songs, read Dandelions, told dandy stores, and drew illustrations lead by Kirrili. We were amazed at the talents these little ones showed us and their enthusiasm for reading.

Photo courtesy of Upper Hunter Shire Council Facebook page

Anne Davies

Anne Davies and Paula Stevenson, festival committee members, supported us, feed us, and made us tea and coffee as we were kept busy entertaining preschoolers for a few hours. They were as excited as the kids!

 

 

After all this fun, I raced down to St Josephs High School, Aberdeen (my old high school) to talk to over 100 Year 7 students about how picture books are made. They are currently studying how to write picture books and will be studying visual literacy in Year 8. It was a challenge going from fun times with 3 and 4 year olds to being very educational with 13 year olds within a few hours of each other. But the afternoon air-conditioning made it very pleasant. It was about 32 degrees outside and Friday afternoon - challenging conditions!

I got a tour of the new buildings afterwards and I caught up with some of the staff still there who had taught me many years ago - I won't reveal exactly how many years or names :)

Main Festival: Sunday, 6th November 

@Scone Arts and Crafts Centre

Sunday was such a lovely, sunny day - perfect for relaxing and attending a literary festival at the Scone Arts and Crafts Centre.

Kirrili and I were on the first panel for the day, titled 'Getting Published: Connecting with Editors'. Kate Mailer, a local solicitor, was our wonderful facilitator and Leonie Rodgers, a local and a published author was our participating chair.

We chatted about the general process of getting published and the role of the editor along the way. We all had different stories to tell and felt we gave a thorough insight into the publishing industry.

 

Leonie Rodgers, Kate Mailer, Kirrili Lonergan and I

Thanks to Hunt-A-Book, Scone for having our book for sale. 

The surroundings were divine. You just had to be there to fully take in the beauty. The shade and relaxed atmosphere made you want to curl up in a hammock with a good book and let the afternoon just glide away.

Yes, we even found dandelions poking out of the lawn.

The food was country style and just scrumptious. We were treated to homemade slices, all you can drink tea/coffee and freshly baked quiche and tossed salad. YUM!

 

Thanks for inviting us to be part of the fun, Scone Literary Festival. 

We'd come back in a heartbeat!

Thanks to Paula Stevenson for the photos of Kirrili and I.

All others are my photography unless otherwise stated.

We hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!

Spring Time! - Scone, Muswellbrook and Singleton Public Library Visits

It was a delight to celebrate Spring with some of the most energetic and fun-loving kids in the 

Upper Hunter Valley these school holidays.

Kirrili Lonergan and I visited Muswellbrook, Scone and Singleton Library from 5-7 October to share our book, Dandelions, and to sing, dance, laugh, tell stories, and create wonderful dandelion crafty pieces with the local children.

We started each session singing and dancing to one of my favourite dandelion songs 

by Demi Mays to get everyone in the mood.

Then we jumped into our story sharing. 

 

Kirrili then wowed everyone with her talent by showing the original 

illustrations from our book. I just love original illustrations!

Then we moved into a simple drawing workshop. Kirrili showed how the different parts of the dandelion plant can be drawn. She also gave a demonstration of how kids can draw happy and sad faces. The eyebrows tell a lot about how a character is feeling. She had children from the age of 3 drawing like superstars.

 

To finish, we celebrated with a couple of craft activities. Some of these activities included 

3D flowers, 3D puffballs, and 2D collaging. We even used real dandelion seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

A few lucky children got to take home their very own copy of our book 

and a hunger for dandelion hunting. We hope they found lots!

It was a lovely surprise to have some local media attention in Scone, my home town. I'll share the link to the story on my Facebook page when it's available.

Thank you to Scone, Muswellbrook and Singleton Libraries (Sharyn, Lee, Dion and Angelina) for hosting us and thank you to everyone who came along to help us celebrate reading, books and this lovely time of year.

Many beautiful moments will be remembered about this set of visits but one that stood out involved a dad arriving with his four daughters. He supported his daughters during the reading of the story and the drawing and craft activities. Then he bought a copy of our book for them to share. 

I have no words ... (except 'go him!')

Happy Spring everyone!

Kirrili and I will be returning to Scone library on Friday, 4th November as part of the 

school program during the upcoming Scone Literary Festival.

Our book is still available for sale if you haven't managed to grab yourself a copy. 

It's available through any good bookstore and online bookseller.

www.katrinamckelvey.com

www.kirrililonergan.com