Monday stuff and items

1) The Design Awards were held last Thursday night, and our Tall Designer went along. Unfortunately he didn't pick up any prizes himself - but he did collect the prize for the Best Designed Children's Non-fiction Book on behalf of John and Stella Danalis for Riding the Black Cockatoo. Hooray!

2) Are you looking for something very interesting to while away your Monday morning? Meanjin and Jonathan Walker have you covered. Jon's guest post over at Spike on the Making of Five Wounds (in two parts) is absolutely fascinating. And there are videos - what more could you want?

3) Speaking of awards, and speaking of speaking, Speech Pathology Australia have announced their Book of the Year Award shortlist and we are very pleased and proud to see so many of our books.

4) The lyrics in the Wombles theme song are 'The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we' not 'The Wombles of Wimbledon, common are we'.

This proves two things: 1) punctuation is important, and 2) the world is an unstable place and at any minute things that you thought were solid can be ripped from underneath you.*

Also, Bloomsbury is reissuing the Wombles books. Womble free, wombles. Womble free!

5) People appear to be naming their babies Cullen. We feel that this is ... an interesting choice.

Speaking of names, likeable Collingwood** midfielder Steele Sidebottom is closing in on the coveted title of Name of the Year. He's up against Charity Beaver in the semi-finals. In our opinion Steele wins hands down.***

6) And finally, we have a new addition to our list of words that are impossible to pronounce. You've been hearing the news readers refer to it as the 'Icelandic volcano', you've seen it written down: Eyjafjallajokull. But have you heard it pronounced? We got a little addicted to clicking play and hearing it again, and again.

*To other Onions, it proved them right all along, but they can pipe down and let the others wallow in their sudden uncertainty.

** Two adjectives that don't normally hang out together in this neck of the woods now that the Cake-maker Extraordinaire has left the premises.
***Luckily that's all he looked like winning on the weekend. Go Cats!

Agent Report: Somerset Celebration of Literature

MISSION: Attend the Somerset Celebration of Literature. Soak up the atmosphere. Be nice to Onion authors (and any others you happen across).

STATUS: Accepted (with alacrity).

BACKGROUND INFO: This literary festival, organised by Somerset College on the Gold Coast, has been running for 17 years. Much beloved of authors, it is friendly, fun and extremely well-run.

OBSERVATIONS FROM NOTEBOOK OF AGENT IN THE FIELD

Ah, the Gold Coast - California crossed with Florida, and wherever you go there's a five-lane highway between you and the beach. [With thanks to Sean Williams.]

Green, green lawns and white marquees.

Cocktail party - a balmy evening with gentle rain. [Note from HQ: agent did not notice it was raining due to balminess of evening, perhaps agent needs to work on observational skills on return to HQ.]

The Green Room - cake!! (authors only). [Note from HQ: restricting cake consumption to authors may be an illegal practice. Investigate under the Freedom of Cake (FoC) legalisation.]

Slight panic attack and flashback to schooldays at lunchtime as students start pouring out into the quad. When did schoolkids get so huge? [Note from HQ: In future, do not deploy shortest agent to deal with large students.]

Huge students actually all very friendly and welcoming, do a great job of looking after the authors, and seem genuinely keen and interested.

Speaking to the fiercely smart & witty student novella finalists is like being in a John Green novel.

Helpful staff and willing parents seem to be always on hand to ferry everyone around in buses & cars.

SPOTTED IN THE FIELD
John Danalis: sharing his beautiful possum skin cloak and lots of sniffles in the audience
Sofie Laguna: 'Okay, she chops them up and eats them!'
Craig Silvey: being asked to choose - is it Twilight or Harry Potter? Pirates or ninjas?
Kate Constable: snorting peas through her nose [Note from HQ: This sighting is in dispute.]
Leigh Hobbs: wrangling a tent full of littlies with no paper and no pencils. Impressive.

CORROBORATING EVIDENCE







SEE ALSO
Agent Constable's report.

CONCLUSION
Highly successful operation. Agent has asked to be deployed again. Consider her highly suited to mission if she can curb her fear of large school children and quadrangles.