In the last month, I not only finished compiling teachers’ notes for Flying through Clouds, but I’ve almost finalised the itinerary of a book tour, started planning a blog tour, and the big one – I sent the final PDF files for Flying through Clouds to Griffin Press for printing.
After 
compiling the Teachers’ Notes, I ran them past a friend and former high school English teacher, who had some helpful advice. I made a few changes then sent the final Teachers’ Notes to Australian Standing Orders and uploaded the PDF to the Books page of my website.
I set the date for the launch of Flying through Clouds in Bowral – 1 April – then proceeded to organise a book tour. I wanted to follow the route taken by my main character in Flying through Clouds. I’ve organised author talks and workshops at bookshops and libraries in Canberra, the South Coast, Sydney, the Hunter, New England, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and North Coast of NSW. Dymocks in Brisbane and Armidale Library have already posted publicity for their events on the web. I’ll put the full itinerary of the book tour on this blog as soon as the details are finalised.
I’ve also started arranging a blog tour, where I’ll be writing articles to be published as guest posts on various author and literary blogs. Some of these articles will be about Flying through Clouds, others will be about writing for young adults, my research process, marketing strategies, publishing journey, historical events that inspired me and some interesting trivia.
It was a painstaking task having to read through the final PDFs to be sent to the printers. I alternated between reading the proofs on paper, on an iPad and a PC. Arielle Gamble, the cover and layout artist, did a brilliant job with the final changes and I sent the PDFs to the printer on 2 February. The printer has a backlog of jobs and has been slowed down by blackouts due to the heatwaves this summer. I’m hoping they meet the deadline and deliver the printed books in the first week of March.
Every Wednesday morning I’ve been busy compiling tweets and posting them on behalf of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia. The 2017 HNSA Conference will be held in Melbourne in September, and I’m part of a volunteer social media team helping with publicity. I’ll also be appearing on a panel of authors at a satellite HNSA event in Sydney on 26 July.
Only three more nail-biting weeks until Flying through Clouds arrives back from the printer.