Story time at Storylines

I'm heading back to Auckland next week for the fabulous Storylines festival and a few school visits.
The Storylines family day in Auckland is on Sunday 10 June at the Aotea Centre. We've got a special Swashbuckler Pirate Zone on Level 3 (sponsored by HarperCollins) and I'll be there all day. Make a hat, a flag, a parrot. Bring your writing and illustration competition entries, and I'll be judging at 2pm.
Storylines is free fun for the family all day long. Authors, illustrators, performers and storytellers celebrate the joy of books and reading - Margaret Mahy and Tessa Duder will both be there, along with international guests Shaun Tan and John Boyne, and many others.
If you're in Auckland that day, we hope to see you there.

Possessed by daemons

We've all gone a bit daemon mad, with the imminent release of the film of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (you might know it better as Northern Lights). In his imagined universes, everyone has a daemon who is their other half, like an external soul: sometimes it's their better half; sometimes a reflection of their true selves.
Here's mine.

Nice.
If only I really had one...

Mind you, before we get to see Golden Compass, there's the new Pirates of the Caribbean, and then good old Harry Potter in July (movie and final book).