Among the other authors able to attend the Fair are Greg Scowen (The Spanish Helmet), Tui Allen (Ripple), Jenny Mortimer (Knock the bastard off), Anna Gowan (Hollie Chips), Rachel McAlpine (Scarlet Heels, as well as some very good corporate communication books), Ron Riddell (A love beyond) and Owen Scott (Deep beyond the reef). Richard Webster and Adrian Blackburn also have their recent books on display at the New Zealand Society of Authors stand, and Michael Gill (Himalayan hospitals - Sir Edmund Hillary's Everest legacy) put in an appearance yesterday, too.
And writer and performer extraordinaire Gerry Paul (Hank the wrestling shark) has been performing that book to music at 4pm every day to the delight of people at the surrounding stands and passers-by. Yesterday he also performed a joyful song about composting, reminiscent of the old song "Working on the chain gang"; "got no legs, got no arms, spend my days working on the worm farm" - the voice of the hard-working tiger worms!
One of my speaker colleagues, Sylvia Bowden, has two books on the stand (How to stop your kids from going broke; and Get out of my pocket) though she isn't at the Fair. 30-odd other authors are not at the Fair but their books have been attracting steady interest, and all comers are given the very classy catalogue of all the books on the stand.
Well-known gardening writer Kerry Carman has two books on the stand and kindly donated a dozen exquisite flower prints for a daily raffle. We all put the business cards of our publishing contacts in for the draw and each day two lucky publishers get to choose which print they would like - two of my contacts have won so far and were truly delighted.
The raffle and Gerry's performances make our wee stand a "Stand-out" stand in the nicest possible way!
We've also been visited by several very happy publishers from the Publishers Association of New Zealand stand just round the corner - this collective stand is doing very well and has been a great venture for them.
And of course the parties have been happening - Tui Allen was invited to the Latvian publishers stand (the population of Latvia is only 2 million!) and feasted on very good cheese and chocolate (not somehow the cuisine I would have expected...).
Yesterday afternoon we gate-crashed the Australian publishers' stand yesterday and expect to welcome them to the Publishers Association party tonight.
Several of us were lucky enough to be interviewed for a UK publisher's journal and we've all been giving readings from or presentations about our books - excellent practice and a privilege to gain an insight into our colleagues' work.
I have more publishers to visit today and hope to have time to revisit the New Zealand Pavilion again tomorrow to see some of our very famous authors in action. And will upload some photos when I can figure out how to do it....
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