Trentonomicon

Well, Death Most Definite is now launched.

I’ll be doing a few other events and some interviews for the book, but this was the big one. My first book launch, and I couldn’t have asked for a better send off. It was great to see so many people that I care about in one space at once, none of whom I could talk to for long – after the launch I was kept busy at the signing table almost until closing time.

My mate Marianne de Pierres managed to make me blush then almost cry, and Paul Landymore not only produced a fine limerick around the word Gunnedah (Yes, not only Miranda Kerr comes from there) but managed to dig up some dirt belying my reputation as a “nice” guy.

We even had my trailer playing on a projector screen, thanks to Daryl’s artistry, and it looked amazing!

And having it at Avid Reader felt like having my launch at home. The Avid Reader is just one of the best places to work, they even made t-shirts for the launch, I’m wearing one in the photo.

Thanks to my workmates, and friends,the night was perfect, and one I’ll never forget. You don’t get many moments like that.

A packed bookstore (and yes, that is bestselling author Kylie Chan, with Marianne talking in the background to Peter M Ball and Gary Kemble- who interviewed a very dazed Trent later on in the evening. Hey, when you get a chance to name drop you do!).

The top of my head and some of the people in attendance, including my serious looking younger brother.

The goofy author signing books (and occasionally misspelling witticisms or even, to his utter mortification, forgetting someone’s name!)

Me and my mate, Paul, SF Sunday compadre who organised the whole thing, and was the perfect MC, all with a terribly crook back. By this stage in the proceedings the launch was well and truly done (oh, and you can just see Tansy Rayner Roberts’ excellent book, with bookplates, in the background, hmm, why isn’t that face out?).

Afterwards we went out for dinner and I had Fried Ice Cream for desert, cracking’!

And finally, even though I know the launch was recorded I thought I’d put my speech up on here, just as a more permanent way of thanking those people who mean so much to me. (Of course, you don’t get the rambling asides, but it went pretty much like this)

Thanks Paul, and thank you, Marianne for your kind words, and thank you all for coming.

I’ve been working towards this moment since I was five. Which makes me a pretty slow worker, I guess.  I always imagined a book launch, as some sort of transformative thing, like pulling a sword out of a stone. You know and then bells start ringing, and suddenly By the power of Greyskull I AM A WRITER.

But the transformative thing really is the years it’s taken to get here. A writing life shapes you, and it’s shaped me, not just around the stomach area, but in everything I do. And it has for a very long time.

When I was young I used to write the acknowledgements before I’d even written the book. When I stopped doing that I think I was heading in the right direction.

Writing is a solitary endeavour, but it’s buoyed by so many people, people that quite often you neglect, because you want to get a story down, or want to write. But without them I wouldn’t be here.

There’s Mum and Dad who fostered a love of reading in me, and encouraged me to write, and who never doubted that I wouldn’t get a book of my own out(or if they did, they did so quietly or when I wasn’t in the room).

There’s the rest of my family who have always been supportive, who never voiced any doubt or tried to get me to do something more sensible, like, well, anything. And my in-laws too, who didn’t try and talk Diana out of marrying me. I would have.

Family’s important to me, and I think the reason it’s so important is because my family on both sides is just wonderful. You can’t choose your family, but I wouldn’t choose anyone else.

There’s the writers that you learn to turn to when you need help, and that you help in turn. And the staff at the various bookstores I’ve worked at over the years who’ve had to put up with my perpetual cloud of vagueness.

There’s the writer’s group Vision which kept the writing flame alive through the late nineties – even while grunge as a musical movement was dying. There’s the QWC, the best writer’s organisation in the country. If you’re a writer and you’re not a member, you should join and NOW.

Then there’s ROR, my writing family. Writers on the Rise (or the Riesling as we like to put it)  two other members of which are here today, Marianne and Rowena. ROR must be one of the most successful writing groups in the country, and for a long time, I was the only one letting the side down without a book out, but not any more.

And there’s the publishers that put in all that hard work making me lift my game, drawing the best book out of  me – and they really did work hard. So thank you, Deonie Fiford who helped the book over the first hurdle, and Bernadette Foley and co at Orbit and Hachette. So many people have worked on this book from cover art to marketing that I could spend the night listing them. I’d also like to thank Adele Fewster and the whole sales team for getting the book into so many bookstores. I really appreciate what you’ve done.

So many people, so little time. But I’ve only got a couple of people left to acknowledge.

Avid Reader is one of the best bookstores in the world, with some of the best staff. They’re all such wonderful creative and just lovely people. I mean, look at Kasia’s fabulous window. Look at everything set up here. So Fiona, Anna, Verdi, Kasia, Paul, Chris, Krissy, Stuart, Emily, Nelly Mae Thank you! And the Sunday crew Helen, Sophie, and Mellina. Thank you so much, you make it almost easy to get out of bed on a Sunday morning. Avid’s been a source of so much joy to me over the last couple of years, and you’ve all helped keep me sane.

And then there is Diana, my wife, who knew I was a writer when she met me, but chose to stick around anyway, and has supported me, and never stopped having faith in me.

It was Diana that talked me into quitting work and devoting myself to writing full time. Without her this book wouldn’t exist. She’s put up with the dreaded writer’s mope, she’s shared my dreams, she’s read too many rough drafts of things out of context, and not once, not ever, has she asked me to give it up.

This book is for you, most of all, my love. I can’t thank you enough.

So, by the Power of Greyskull!