Well, the launch has come and gone.  What an amazing night!  Here are some photos (2 of me, 1 of Adele Ward of Ward Wood Publishing introducing me):

One of the big discussion points was the book cover, which everyone loves and was curious about. Carol and Helen had asked about it, too. And, of course, there’s a story behind it. When we went into book production, I sent my publisher a disk full of photographs taken during my trip to Cambodia in 2007. Most of them were taken by my good friend, Mark, who is an engineer by vocation, but a talented photographer by avocation. My publisher poured over them all and finally chose the photograph which you see on the cover now. It’s colourful, it’s full of those puppets which are so reminiscent of the entire region, it’s a jumbled heap, it’s playful and captivating. We thought it was perfect. But the best part of it all was the fact that the photograph was not taken by Mark, but rather by his talented daughter, Elizbeth Lowey, who was 16 at the time, although now she is nearly 20 and an art student in one of the best art schools in the States. I love that the cover of my book which has so much to do with children was actually taken by a child. The fact that we have now also put together an exhibit of photographs to go along with the book, photographs taken by Cambodian children, makes the cover even more poignant.  The cover is just one of a growing list of synchronicities that surround the writing and publication of A Clash of Innocents. So, thank you for asking, guys. But I must reveal that, alas, neither of you won the free copy of the book.  That prize is going to Queenie for her question about choosing titles, which you can read here.
  As you can imagine, I woke up feeling a bit blue.  The party’s over.  But I can sit back and remember all that happened….over 100 people came including writer/blogging friends like Vanessa Gebbie, Tania Hershman, Kelley Swain, Clare Dudman, Sarah Salway, Elizabeth Baines, Carol Burns.  The exhibit of photos by the children of Anjali House was beautiful.  My presentation seemed to go over well.  I sold lots of books (but there are plenty more to sell, so…hint hint). And then I woke to find that the event had been covered in the Phnom Penh Post!  So now, I really can start planning in earnest for the Southeast Asia Tour.  Nope, you can’t keep the old girl down.  Thanks everyone for being here with me through it all!