What a Weird night...

Last night we welcomed a book into the world, dousing its head in Prosecco and christening it: WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS (actually, we christened it before that, but for the sake of the metaphor...)

Editor Non (looking like a massive quimboid), Illustrator Vicky & Author Tash

I won't bother with a write-up of the event itself - there are some fantastic ones already live complete with a reading from Nastasha Desborough (the author) on Teen Librarian, or for a thorough overview not only of night, but also Catnip and the list (as well as some truly beautiful photos) head over to Achuka.

There was a lovely mix of people there - smooth-voiced Radio people (as promised on the invitation), family, friends, industry types and bloggers and it was lovely to see a lot of hard work turn into a fantastic evening. Thank you all very much for coming, those who could make it - had you not, it would just have been me (Non), Liz and Tash drinking our way through the bar tab and cackling at our favourite bits of the book. (Not that different from the editorial meetings, then...)

We also ran a wee twitter game yesterday, encouraging people to share their stories of teenage weirdness using #teenweirdo - we printed these on sheets that were spread about the room and then, at the end of the night, we picked a guest of honour (Ella, AN ACTUAL TEENAGER) to pick three winners:

Look what you've won, you weirdos!

"I was annoyed that everyone else had an allergy and I didn't, so I pretended I was allergic to oranges - until someone pointed out that I drank orange juice, at which point I claimed I was only allergic to the peel." @Char_Ronald

"At youth club I persuaded everyone that there was a mummified cat in the loft that we had to find and “release”" @KatyjaMoran

"I used to spend lunchtimes trying to hypnotise myself" @BBookLBook

There are more hilarious stories of teen weirdness on twitter, some gathered from the Catnip team as well as the Bounce bunch, so feel free to check out #teenweirdo - if you feel compelled to contribute, we might do another giveaway next week...

In the meantime, you can find out more at www.natashadesborough.co.uk  and if you feel so compelled, why not hunt down copies of WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS in the wild, capture them and drag them home for devouring? You will not be disappointed.

New blog post! New book! New Author!

Non Pratt at Catnip Books has signed Anne Booth's GIRL WITH A WHITE DOG, a novel that "will change hearts and minds".

Catnip has UK and Commonwealth rights through Anne Clark of the Anne Clark Literary Agency, and will publish in March 2014.

Girl with a White Dog is the story of Jessie, who desperately wishes for a dog. But when her gran gets a white Alsatian puppy, a mystery starts to unfold. At school Jessie is studying the Nazis' rise to power, and she starts to make connections, uncovering something long-buried, troubling and somehow linked to another girl, and another white dog . . .

Pratt said: "Jessie's voice is entirely authentic as a child on the cusp of realising how the world works. Anne's passion for her characters and the themes that inspired her to write this book bubbles fiercely under the surface of a beautifully told story - one with the power to move me, and the sales team, to tears."