Librarians welcome Templar

All three librarian groups, the YLG, SLG and SLA came together over the weekend of 9th and 10th June for what I called a Mega Mash-Up.   Over 300 librarians from schools, colleges and the public sector spent an enjoyable weekend at a conference venue in Old Windsor.

Templar's stand, as ever, caught everyone's attention with lots of comments on our new fiction list - which Helen Boyle was ready to expand on and introduce them to new titles for next year.  The picture books looked really strong and again, lots of ooohing and aaaahing over the titles.

Templar sponsored the Grand Opening of the Exhibition with glasses of bubbly for everyone and Mandy giving one of her wonderful exhortations on the wonder and power of books - urging everyone to get out there and sniff a book!

Katherine, Simon and Mandy

Up early the next morning Katherine Roberts, chaired by Helen Boyle, gave a spirited talk about her work and how much she loves her new characters in the Pendragon series.  She is clearly loved by the librarians who understand exactly what she means about inspiring children with legends and history mixed together.   All the delegates left with a special 'magic' Arthurian bead to guide them through the day.

After coffee, it was Simon Bartram's turn to describe a day in the life of an illustrator - or rather, what goes on in his shed when he's creating a picture book.  Alongside Simon was David Macintosh, an illustrator who works entirely digitally - so a really interesting session on the style and practice of each of them.

Back to the stand where Helen and I continued to talk to delegates, show them blads of new books and hand out reading copies.  Glad to say most of those found a good home.

Templar - after the reception - not all drunk by us!

All in all, a successful conference and once again, lots of compliments to Templar!

SLA - Guest Post by Author Teresa Flavin

Here is a guest post by Templar Author Teresa Flavin after her recent trip to the SLA conference

Last weekend I ended my winter hibernation and got on a train south to do something for the very first time: attend a School Libraries Group conference. It was my first time speaking about my writing to an adult-only group, let alone a conference of librarians. This might have been daunting except that I was able to mingle, share a meal and be on a quiz team with the friendliest librarians you could wish for.

There was a terrific buzz about the conference centre and it was infectious. Many librarians told me how much they enjoy meeting authors and what a great time they have at the SLG Conference.

Johnny O’Brien and I were the Sunday morning speakers on a panel chaired by Templar Publishing’s Helen Boyle. Any pre-speech nerves I had evaporated when I recognised familiar faces in the audience – although I did ‘encourage’ Johnny to speak first so I could see how it’s done properly!

Johnny is a really engaging and interesting speaker. I got so engrossed listening to him talk about the inspirations for his Jack Christie books that I almost forgot that I was there to speak about mine. Luckily, I love speaking about the story and inspirations behind The Blackhope Enigma; and for the first time, I spoke a bit about the forthcoming sequel, The Crimson Shard.

One of the nicest parts about speaking to audiences who love books is meeting them when I sign their copies afterwards – and the school librarians were no exception. It’s especially thrilling when people tell me they’ve connected with something I said, or they know a child who will love my books. A number of librarians mentioned that they would be giving The Blackhope Enigma copies as school prizes, which makes me very happy.

Thanks to all the lovely SLG conferees who made me so welcome!