Last night I was on the stage at Booktalkers with two other YA authors, Kathryn Lomer What Now Tilda B? and Michelle Cooper The FitzOsbornes in Exile, Book 2 of the Montmaray Journals. Arranged by the Centre for Youth Literature for teacher librarians, the discussion centred around what kinds of books girls like to read. We all agreed that girls like books on relationships with strong female characters. But also agreed that girls like a variety of books depending on their individual tastes. Perhaps we should have asked the question – what books do girls NOT like to read.

Apart from having the opportunity of meeting Kathryn and Michelle for the first time, another highlight was to see my book trailer for Little Paradise on the big screen. As the event was held in the Village Roadshow Theatrette it looked like a real movie. What a thrill that was.

James Roy was down from the Blue Mountains doing a week of school visits and he came to be part of the audience. Later, when a few of us went out for drinks, James showed me his ipad. I am now convinced I need one. I have a Macbook Air, which is light. But it doesn’t have a data projector port and I’ve begun to use powerpoint in my presentations more and more lately. Last night I copied my powerpoint presentation onto not one, but two USB sticks just in case one didn’t work. And because I really don’t trust technology, I took in my laptop as a final backup. This is so heavy with its power cord and attachments I decided to use a suitcase on wheels. In the end of course I didn’t need it as the USB stick worked fine. So when James showed me his ipad with its special data projector attachment, I instantly fell in love – with the ipad not with James, although James is lovable. He also showed me how he uses his ipad with small groups showing his bookjackets, photos, powerpoint, trailers etc. And it is constantly connected to the internet via Telstra 3G and works as an e-reader. The only thing it doesn’t have is a camera. I am in love.