Too many festivals and schools for one tired pair of feet

Back from a silly number of book festivals and school events. trying to forget most of it. Like the boy who wrecked the crucial moment of my gory story by putting his gloves on his ears for comic effect. Oh, how I laughed. And the school hall where they couldn't find the lights and so I thought I'd help by walking through it to see if the light switches were at the other side - maybe they were, but I didn't get there as I crashed into the chair and table which had been positioned for my talk.

Stuff happens in school events. Most of the time, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. The rest of the time I couldn't tell you for fear of defamation. There was the school where I arrived to find no audience when the biology teacher wouldn't let her class come, because they were digging worms. Visiting award-winning author vs a couple of worms - yes, I can see it was a difficult decision. Then there was the boy who had to be carried from the hall for bad behaviour and the invasion of another hall by five marauding deliquents being chased by two teachers.

And of course, there was the librarian who proudly announced, "We had a famous author here once."