Supanova Part Two: Melbourne Event

Category: Supanova

Travel, Internet Buddies, Sickness and Serendipities

For reasons best known to the good Lord, I managed to book myself a horrific 6am flight from Nelson which required being at the airport at 5.30am which meant my body was on high alert to not miss my alarm which meant I started the day at 3.30am. Oh my Lord. Naturally, I collected a virus on the plane and landed with a head cold and a bonus bout of vertigo. Blimey! What a start! But, I promise it gets better from here, beginning with lovely reader, blogger and internet friend, Nicole, generously taking time out of her day to come and pick me up from the airport. We drove into town, ate dumplings and found my Air BnB.

Friday I went in search of cold medication, navigating the streets with my dodgy google maps and possibly walking in circles. Late in the afternoon I went to find the hotel where the fancy Supanova celebrities stay to meet the other authors and felt very smug about my Air BnB booking because it was less than 2 minutes walk away! Boom! We bussed to the Melbourne show grounds and made our way to the green room to wait for the start of the Supanova Showcase.

Authors and Panels

(Pictured left to right: Corey J White, Alan Baxter, Supanova volunteer – Paige Belfield, Lynette Noni, VE Schwab, Me and Marlee Jane Ward)

After the showcase, in which Alan, Marlee and I pelted audience members with lollies and competed in a game of Taboo where we had to pitch our novel without using the 5 most-used-words to describe our novels (I lost in the first five seconds – HA!) all the authors gathered on stage for the Supanova Book Club. We talked about our favourite novels and were all quickly established as colossal nerds.

Bright and early Saturday morning we gathered again in the lobby of the hotel for the bus and were back in the green room where the famous roam freely amongst mortals. We were then escorted to Publisher’s Precinct next to the QBD Bookshop stand and I was excited to see all my books on display. (It was a close call the night before, when lovely QBD manager, Jeremy, was unpacking books and discovered that none of my stock had arrived from the distributor. Using his book-sourcing superpowers, he harvested titles from all over Melbourne and by the time the doors opened, he had ALL of my books on the shelves.) MIRACLE WORKING WONDERS! What an incredible team! The Supanova crew seem adept at making the impossible possible.

Customers started rolling in. We had two particularly fabulous draw cards on the signing table: VE Schwab of Darker Shades of Magic fame and Lynette Noni, author of the Arcarne Chronicles,  who draw rather exciting numbers but none of us were left long without readers or books to sign. I was overwhelmed to meet fans who came especially to see me, bringing all their copies of my books from home for me to sign.

In the afternoon we had Part 1 of our panel: Powerful Women in Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror.

One of the best aspect of being on a panel is the insight you gain into other author’s writing processes. Very inspiring stuff. Katya was fascinating, coming from a scientific background. Lynette has 6 best-selling fantasy novels and 1 science fiction novel under her belt. Astrid comes from a film, design and animation background, while Jodi is a brilliant academic. Marlee cares passionately about diverse voices and Victoria has 16 books worth of knowledge and experience! I wanted to soak up their brains.

That night we went to the cocktail party VIP guests pay big bucks to attend and mingle with the SUPA-VIPS then early to bed (for most of us) ready for Sunday’s shenanigans. We signed all the next day. Had our second panel and went home exhausted but happy.

(Pictured above: VE Scwab, Marlee Jane Ward, Katya de Becerra, Astrid Scholt, Jodi McCalister, Me & our epic Supanova MC)

Keep an eye out for my upcoming posts about my week in Melbourne and my Gold Nova adventures.

4 Responses to “Supanova Part Two: Melbourne Event”

1. Angela says:

   April 22, 2019 at 8:01 pm

   What a smashing bunch! AH!

   Reply
   • Rachael Craw says:

     April 24, 2019 at 9:28 am

     OOOh! Website comments are so exciting! Ha, thanks mate.

     Reply
2. Tanya Carter says:

   April 28, 2019 at 8:41 am

   Oh Rachael, what a trip! So sorry you were sick, and so happy they managed to get copies of all your books after they initially didn’t arrive! Melbourne was very blessed to have you there and I’m sure your Aussie readers and your fellow writers will never forget meeting you. You are such an inspiration to us all. 😊

   Reply
   • Rachael Craw says:

     April 28, 2019 at 2:12 pm

     Tanya, you are so lovely! My ultimate cheerleader! Yes, it was a dicey moment when I got the word “no books!” but hoorah for Supanova team busting their guts to sort it out for me. Heroes! It was a joy to meet so many lovely readers!

     Reply