Coming to a School Near You!

Well, some schools in Brisbane and northern NSW at least … Nice bit of advertising outside St Francis College in Crestmead! It’s opposite my granddaughter’s best friend’s house, which is how I found out about it in advance. This will be my second Queensland tour, which happened because my son and partner in Brisbane decided to get married. I”ll be MCing, which fits in perfectly with the fact that I’ll already have my tailcoat for talking about steampunk on the school visits.

Frankenstein lightnings!

My guitar lights up! but I can never capture it properly in a photo. Think of the electrical lightnings zigzagging around inside a glass dome in a Frankenstein movie.
Here’s the best image so far – at least you can see the glass dome lit up with blue-purple light

But when the lightnings move and crackle – zapristi!
That photo comes from Oxley College near Bowral, taken yesterday.

Having fun!

Here’s a pic of ace guitarist (not) Richard Harland, backed up by some awesome members of the English and Library staff at Nowra Anglican College –

Left to right: Mary Owen, Shelley Middleton, Keturah Jones, Rachel Pickering.
That was yesterday; for today, it was another trip to Nowra, and St John the Evangelist’s College –

St Joseph’s, Albion Park

Here’s how we do the giving away of the free signed copy of Song of the Slums. First, handing out the cards-

Then, students check their card for the special winning sign –

Then, presenting the prize copy to the winner –

That was all at the end of the talk to Year 8s at St Joseph (Albion Park). Here’s a photo of a later talk to the Year 9s –

Up North

Well, only a little way up north! I’ve been travelling around schools in Newcastle and the Central Coast but I started out with Terra Sancta in NW Sydney. Lovely school – and I now own a Terra Sancta golfing umbrella. How’s that for different? Here’s Ludi, the teacher-librarian, introducing me at the start of a presentation –

Then on to Morisset, where I stayed at a brilliant, hidden-away little B & B called Montifmor. Next day, Avondale College –

Made the mistake of staying the night at the Hotel Jesmond – as bad as Montifmor was good. I was being nostalgic, because Hotel Jesmond was my local pub and the Jesmond Centre was my local shopping centre when I used to live in Victory Pde. Hah! the shopping centre had changed to a Stockland, and the pub had been re-coated in a sort of grey plaster. Worse – the disco music downstairs kept me awake until midnight, and I had to sit on the stairs to make the wifi connection work!
I was at San Clemente College the next day, in Mayfield, enjoyed it a lot but forgot to take photos.
Those were all schools I’d never visited before, but on the last day, in Gosford, I went to two schools I’d visited two years ago – Henry Kendall High, then Kariong Mountains High (doesn’t that sound poetic?). It was very gratifying to be so well remembered, and to discover that so many people had since read and loved Worldshaker and Liberator. Great feeling, to know you’ve had an impact – and made some steampunk converts too! None more so that Laura Morrigan, who came in to the Henry Kendall presentations dressed in steampunk costume –

Check out that parasol!