A Froggy Fiasco at the Book Launch Party!

Today, I held the launch party for More Granny Rainbow.

It. Was. Brilliant!

There weren't as many people there as I hoped, but we had a great time regardless. Books were bought, cakes - and teeth - were eaten, and frogs were counted.

Like last time, I had a competition. You had to guess the number of frogs on the fabric to win. If you'd seen me, earlier this morning, with a jar of tiddlywinks, putting one tiddlywink on each frog  so I didn't lose count (any frog whose eyes I could see got counted!)...I'm amazed that someone actually guessed the EXACT number of frogs! But they did. Their prize is a limited edition copy of More Granny Rainbow which has a single coloured picture inside. There are only five copies like this - one was earmarked for Laura, who did such a fabulous job of illustrating for me again (Marmaduke's my absolute favourite in this book) and another three will be posted on Monday to the winners of the story idea competition I held last year.

...101, 102, 103...

I also had activities and props laid out on the tables for the children (and bigger children) to have a go at, which related to each of the seven stories.

Here's the post box I made for Granny Rainbow and the Poetic Postman. The cards could have a picture and/or words added and be 'posted' to Granny Rainbow. 

These are some of the posted results...My favourite? 'To Granny Rainbow. I like all your poshons.'

For Granny Rainbow and the Big Top Bother, you could dress up as a clown...

You could eat the teeth that the Tooth Fairy had forgotten to collect (Granny Rainbow and the Tired Tooth Fairy.) They were very fruity, and very chewy!

Marmaduke was getting up to no good in Granny Rainbow and Marmaduke's Mischief. (And yes, they are all socks I've knitted...)

Hubert the dragon flew in for a visit (Granny Rainbow and the Dragon Drama), though he didn't fancy trying any of Old Tom's blue honey (Granny Rainbow and the Blue Bees) - unlike some of the little people at the launch who seemed to like it quite a lot!

And there were lots and lots and lots of frogs! (Granny Rainbow and the Froggy Fiasco) These fabulous cake pops were made by Shell's Cup Cakes and Cake Pops - you can see more of her creations here. They were absolutely delicious.

An edible Froggy Fiasco!

Frogs featured quite a bit, as Froggy Fiasco is the shortest story in the book and the one I chose to read. 

The audience, listening intently!

And of course, I had books to sell. I took both Granny Rainbow and More Granny Rainbow, because I knew there were folk coming who had not yet met Granny Rainbow; although you can read the stories in the second book without having read the first, I thought maybe some would prefer to buy the first to find out what Granny's all about. I set up a lovely display...then my son arrived and rearranged it all. With mathematical precision. Just look at the steps on that bottom pile...

And people bought books - hooray! I was asked to sign quite a few...

And that was that. An hour later, done and dusted. More Granny Rainbow had been officially launched!

The one photo I forgot to take was my addition to the Wall of Fame at Delice Deli. You might remember it from the previous launch?

The wall has got a fair few signatures on it now, but there was just enough space to add something along the lines of 'And back for the second book too'. 

In fact, if any Loughborough folk fancy a read of either of the books when they drop into Delice for a coffee, lunch, or to purchase some of the fabulous produce on sale, then there are reading copies on the shelf and - even better - you can purchase a copy of either from them (along with several other local history titles published by Panda Eyes). How fab is that? An outlet for my books, in my home town. *squee!*

(And if you can't get to Delice or live far away, details of ordering by post are on my website.)

Huge thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with me - Granny's got off to a good start thanks to you!