Launching Grub’s Pups
Okay, so the date for publication of Grub’s Pups was closing in on me, and I had this idea… why don’t I have a book launch? Then I had this other idea… no, let’s not, too scary. I’ve been here before you see, and talked myself out of the thing. I’ve just sort of let ‘The Day’ pass without much celebration, except for me getting all giddy and excited. But this time, I got an email from the local Waterstone’s asking if I’d go in and do a reading. “Okay,” says I “…and Grub’s Pups is coming out soon… shall we have a kind of… little launchy thingy, just a small one, nothing too big.” At least, this is how I remember it. Before I know it, we are talking BISCUITS and BALLOONS! Now I know if people start talking BISCUITS and BALLOONS they mean business. I have two children, I get what BISCUITS and BALLOONS mean!
But it didn’t stop there… Oh no! BISCUITS and BALLOONS! became BISCUITS and 
BALLOONS and LOLLIES and POSTERS and then there’s telling people… “Ooh… err… I’m having a kind of little launchy thingy, just a small one, nothing too big… but there will be BISCUITS and BALLOONS!” Then there’s the mention of the local press, and someone’s offered to put a poster up in the library… and… and… I ASK MY DAUGHTER TO BE RUBY! I have to make a pink pinafore dress. And if there’s a RUBY there must be a GRUB! I have to sit down and get over the shock of what I have just done!
The good new is… Grub’s Pups was officially launched, at Waterstone’s in Chesterfield, on October 29th – Hooray!… and included all of the above, plus free BOOKMARKS and COLOURINGS for the kiddies…. Oh, and CHEESE TWISTS and JUICE! And I survived! A few very special people came – my family, friends, the Derbyshire Literature Co-ordinator, one of my students and her family, and last but not least – three Twitter buddies – Emma Pass, Mel Rogerson and Mark Darlington. How fab was that? Well, I guess you want to see the pics don’t you? Heeeeeeeerrrree they come!
My daughter’s dog, Daisy, underwent a bit of a transformation for the occasion and got all ‘Grubbed up’. Daisy… I mean, Grub, was especially talented for launch day and burst into song… yes, a singing Grub, and sang us a little Carpenters’ ditty. As you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed himself, and it made a change from all that digging he keeps doing!
I decided to ‘launch’ one of my letters on the audience… oh well, if you’re going to go for it, you may as well GO FOR IT! When I first started writing, I wrote a lot of odes, rhymes and poems, then I moved on to letters – to people with odd names, from people with odd names. They were quite often from very grumpy people complaining about something or other – this one was to do with sunflower seeds that had produced gigantuan sunflowers… oh the musings of a teenage mind!
Some chatting and some lovely people!
Of course, the day wouldn’t have been complete without a reading of Grub’s Pups – ‘Ruby’ was the best page turner ever!
And last but not least…
three Twitter friends:
Mel, me and Emma!
And just to finish off this special Launch Blogette, a big THANK YOU to all who came to the launch, to Waterstone’s for hosting the event and for providing BISCUITS and BALLOONS, to Emma and Duncan for being my photographers for the day, and to all those on TWITTER… you know who you are… who re-tweeted and re-tweeted and re-tweeted and made me BIG UP this day. Thank you.
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