For the release of my first middle grade novel Victoria Stitch Bad and Glittering, I had an industry launch event! It was quite exciting because I had never actually had a proper book launch before!

The party packs

Because of the pandemic the book launch had to be online. Special ‘party packs’ were sent out to all the people who had been invited. These were organised by Liz Scott and they were magical!

Inside each pack were some things wrapped in purple tissue paper with a STICKER of Victoria Stitch holding it all together! I was so excited to see the sticker!

There was a small gold bottle of fizz, a Victoria Stitch BISCUIT, a teabag (in case you preferred a non alcoholic drink!) a proof copy of the book (of course!) and then some tiny treasures too.

I had made the tiny treasures for each party pack myself and I was very pleased with them. To reflect the fact that all the characters in Victoria Stitch Bad and Glittering are miniature, I had created a miniature goody bag!

I included a tiny version of the book (which you can make yourself with this free activity sheet from my resources page), a miniature letter in a miniature envelope from Victoria Stitch herself, a tiny ‘crystal’ wiskling wand, and a little bag of sweets inside a pink striped paper bag.

There was a bit of variation in the tiny goody bags as I ran out of the tiny sweets so some people got a miniature jar of diamond dust and a miniature tote bag instead of the sweets!

The launch party

The launch event itself was great! My editor Clare Whitston asked me some pre planned questions and it was so lovely to be able to talk about how passionate I am about Victoria Stitch and Wiskling World. The guests asked some very interesting questions. I especially liked how someone pointed out that it’s no wonder I feel so attached to Victoria Stitch as I created her at a time of my life when there were a lot of high emotions.

I dressed up in my sparkly best for the occasion! My favourite Butler and Wilson necklace and tiara felt very apt for Victoria Stitch as there is a lot to do with crystals in the book. I thought they were quite wiskling-y!

As a little side note, when I was deep in my ‘Celestine mascot’ phase, I got her a tiny replica of this necklace and tiara made! A very talented miniature jewellery designer called Nalladris made it.

All in all, it was a lovely event. I am so thankful to everyone who had a hand in organising it and to the people who came to it and to those who reviewed Victoria Stitch Bad and Glittering! Thank you!! <3