Today’s blogpost is by Paula Harrison, author of the upcoming Red Moon Rising, a quest-driven epic for 9+ year olds, as well as the best-selling Rescue Princesses series for younger readers.
I set off for the Oxford Literary Festival in bright spring sunshine last Saturday. I was feeling pretty cheerful because Nosy Crow’s lovely Mary Berry had posted copies of Red Moon Rising to me and they arrived that morning. It was my first sight of this new book! I may have stroked the cover a little.
It felt like an auspicious day to be going to the festival. It was the 21st March – exactly 4 years since Nosy Crow emailed with my first offer of a book contract (yes, I have it marked on my calendar. It was a Thursday and the offer landed in my inbox around 5:30 pm and made me burn my daughter’s fish fingers).
I’d been invited to take part in an informal “Meet the Author” event in the Festival Marquee, where each author had an allotted time to talk about their stories and sign books. The marquee was erected in the courtyard between the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre. It didn’t really strike me till afterwards, but it was quite prestigious surroundings in which to talk about my books. I’m glad I didn’t think about that till afterwards!
The old Bodleian library
As always, the best thing about the event were the children. A girl named Charlotte had stayed around the marquee especially to see me and she giggled when I donned my tiara to read from “(new-window)The Rescue Princesses. I was also charmed by the children’s brilliant mask-making. There were several small but vocal wild creatures in the marquee that day!
I suggested Daniel could cut out the eye holes with the help of his mum so that he could see!
I particularly loved introducing my book Red Moon Rising to the audience. Seeing it on sale in the marquee was a great moment too. Thank you so much to the staff at Blackwell’s for looking after everything and generally being lovely.
Thank you, Paula! Red Moon Rising will be out next week – you can take a look inside below, and pre-order the book online here. And if you’d like the chance to win a copy, you can find out all about our monthly books newsletter competition here.
