launch of June, July and August titles

Last Thursday night we had a party to celebrate our last quarter of beautiful books by our truly stunning authors. Here is the launch speech:

"Hello and welcome here tonight. For those who don’t know me, I’m Andrew Kelly one of the publishers at black dog.

And it has been another gorgeous quarter for black dog authors. There’s been a lot of history packed into the last three months. Both Australian and world history, and in terms of black dog’s own short life.

We kick off in June in Ancient Egypt with Ramose. Carole was one of the first authors we published after we hung out our shingle as a trade publisher. It is very satisfying to see these beautifully written books re-issued with Chatri’s gorgeous covers. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my fellow publisher Maryann Ballantyne who was the driving force behind these re-issues and behind the flavour of the covers. She said the other day – it feels like we’re proper publishers now we’ve been around long enough to re-issue books.

Next in July we go to the 18th century with Julian’s beautifyl John Nicol. Unfortunately Julian can’t be with us tonight as he is opening an exhibition so I am able talk behind his back and say how fabulous his artwork is. This book has a history of its own. It’s been four years in the making but it has been worth the wait.

Jan and Heath’s Granny has her own history which has been unfolding as we publish each new title in the series. Granny is just as gorgeous in the third volume as she was in 1 and 2. And I’m just sorry that Russell, Jan’s number 1 fan, who attended the last Granny launch isn’t here tonight.

Also in July there’s a double header from Sue Lawson. We’ve welcomed Sue over from the Dark Side. And we’re pleased that she is flourishing in the warmth and light of the black dog greenhouse – and writing lots and lots of books. Diva is a little bottler that really works well on the frontline of sales where children are buying the books for themselves. Sometimes the reprints have made Cecilia’s head spin. Allie McGregor’s True Colours is so gorgeous it will make you cry. The reviews have been dazzling and we can’t wait for Sue’s next script so we can have another good cry.

Bernadette Kelly has written us for a long time too, from back when we were packaging series for the educational market. So it has been lovely to see her step out into the limelight of trade with such success. And August sees the release of the third book in the best-selling Riding High series.

And last but not least there is Queenie. Queenie has been sweeping the Melbourne media I’d like to congratulate Corinne and Peter before I hand over to Maryann who I’m sure would like to add some words about Queenie as it is a book that she has very much been a champion of …"

And I have no record of what Maryann said.