A very belated blogpost

Really should have blogged about this a couple of weeks ago, but so much has been happening. However, I do want to put just a few things about The Great Cotterill & Dougherty Book Launch Party online!

On the 6th May, my best bookworld buddy Jo Cotterill and I held a joint launch party to celebrate our new publications. I was celebrating the launch of Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers, the fifth in what's proving to be an increasingly ridiculous series. 

In this one, the badgers get hold of a copy of, er, Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers. Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face have to foil the furry fiends, as per usual; but it's difficult to foil someone who keeps changing the story as it's happening to you!

Things are confused even further by the arrival of someone called Alfred Kendon-Furtado, who has won a competition to appear in the story...

Jo, meanwhile, was launching her fabulous A Library of Lemons, which is not at all silly and is in fact incredibly moving and heartwarming. In fact - confession time - it made me cry. More than once. Actually, it made me cry even before the story started, because on the dedication page Jo says some rather lovely things about a group of her friends, and I was extremely touched that she included me.

ANYWAY: read A Library of Lemons. You'll love it. And, of course, read the Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face books too.

Now: back to the party. It was great. Jo and I talked about our books; and we sang a few songs; and our editors said some lovely things; and there was CAKE! Oh, my word, so much cake...

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My daughter Cara and I worked very hard on the Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face cakes. The bomb-shaped one (shaped like the bomb in the logo) was made with BLUEBERRY JAAAAMMM!!! while the ketchup-splat one was made with ketchup. Yes, honestly. It tasted surprisingly yummy.
 
Meanwhile the fabulous Cake Addiction Oxford made us some fantastic lemon meringue cupcakes, and some gorgeous badgery salted caramel cupcakes, and... and now I think I'm just going to show you some photos with helpful explanatory captions where necessary.

Guests at the party included....

My lovely editor Kathy, and Karen, the wonderful designer who works with the incomparable David Tazzyman to make the books look so amazingly awesome!

The original Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face - my marvellous and much-loved children, Noah & Cara, who came up with the names that inspired the characters.

Author friends Dan Hartwell &  Steve Cole (seen here with the back of someone's head), and Linda Newbery & Mary Hoffman (seen here with Mary's husband Stephen).

Alfred Kendon-Furtado!!! Yes, Alfred is a real person! We really did run a competition to find someone to be a character in the new book, and Alfred won! It was lovely to meet him. Everyone at the party thought he was great, and I think Karen the designer would have taken him home if she could. 

My old school-friend Robert 'Leggy' Legge, who I haven't seen in about 25 years. Robert was the guy who first convinced me I could learn the guitar... and write poetry... and write songs... and in fact, if it wasn't for him it's quite possible that I would never have become a professional writer. 

All in all, it was a terrific party. Looking forward to the next one already!