2024 Facelift!
Well, hello!
Much though I need it, I haven’t had a facelift myself. It’s the website. I hope you love it.
I worked particularly hard on the Advice to Writers. People who want to write picture books should read it to prevent themselves from making the many silly mistakes and foolish assumptions that I made when I sent off the first (rejected) draft of Possum Magic in 1978.
Anyway, the thrilling news I couldn’t tell in you in my last blog was that the Australian Mint was about to launch a coin featuring the Green Sheep, no less! And then it was pointless writing about it as it sold out within two hours of its release. Incredible. And there were also editions of Where is the Green Sheep? with one of the coins inserted in the covers but they were gone within days too, so why mention it? Except to say all of it was hugely complimentary and put the book on an even higher publishing pedestal.
Two more pieces of happy news: the Margaret Hendry school in Canberra has named its library the Mem Fox Library, so I’m making a literal flying visit to the school next week. I’m in awe that any school would do this in my lifetime. Divine of them. Photos will be here when I get home (and when I remember to update my website…). And here they are! I’m with the librarian Bridgette Manley.
Yesterday and today I’ve signed 200 copies of Meerkat Mayhem at the request of Readings Bookshops in Melbourne. Readings, for those of you who don’t live in Melbourne, is one of the best bookshops in Australia, so the fact they wanted 200 signed copies ready for the publication date on November 5th was (and is) a massive vote of confidence in the book. It made my heart race a little when the request came in. If Readings wanted so many copies, I reasoned, others would too. Thank God! The weeks before publication are nail-biting. Here’s the latest advertisement:
Wish me luck!
Love
Mem Fox xxx