Romancing the Stars: Shining a Light on Children’s Book Creators – Toowoomba
Date: Saturday 8th August 2026
Venue: The Lighthouse, 126 Margaret Street, Toowoomba
Time: 1:00pm – 4:15pm
Cost: $28 for Book Links members | $35 for non-members
(Have your 2026 membership discount code ready to apply at the end of the booking process)
Bookings close Thursday 1st August at noon.
Romancing the Stars: Shining a Light on Children’s Book Creators is an intimate meet-and-connect event that celebrates local authors and illustrators through short, personal conversations, bringing readers face-to-face with the magic behind the books.
Each creator will give a short introduction to their latest publication in a small intimate circle, before rotating on to the next group.
You have a chance to get inside information about the creation of the books, ask the stars questions, and make contact with potential presenters for your school or library.
Meet and Connect with 16 Stars.
Buy the latest books from the pop-up bookshop The Sweet Plot Bookshop.
Enjoy great food and drinks.
Enter raffle and win books in the quiz competition.
Digital PD certificates provided after the event.
Starring:
MC: Yvonne Mes.
Picture Books Authors, Illustrators: Deborah Frenkel, Jen Horn, Bethany Loveridge, Rory H. Mather, Alison McLennan, Dimity Powell, Danny Snell, R.A. Stephens, Kristen Willis.
Graphic Novels, Younger Readers, Young Adult Authors: Sarah Armstrong, Peter Carnavas, Jess Galatola, Jason Gent, Gus Gordon, Nette Hilton, Di Taylor.
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Yvonne Mes
Yvonne Mes is an author and illustrator who writes stories for children and young people with curious minds. As an early childhood professional with a Bachelor of Children’s Services with many years’ experience, she loves sharing books, stories and art with children in places big and small, of diverse cultures and abilities and of all ages. Her books are published in Australia, China and New Zealand.
Yvonne is a frequent speaker at schools, literary festivals and events. She is the coordinator of Write Links, the Brisbane based group for children’s authors and illustrators. She buys more books than she can read, comes up with more ideas than she can write or illustrate, and has more children than she can manage. But she does try very hard, and best of all, she is NEVER bored. Yvonne is the recipient of the 2024 Book Links Mentorship.
Her most recent book is The Opal Dinosaur, Illustrated by Sylvia Morris (CSIRO 2024)
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Deborah Frenkel
Deborah Frenkel is an awarded writer of picture books and an as-yet-unawarded starer-outer-er of windows. Her recent books include The Thing About Dads, Halloween on High Street and How to Get Home, as well as 2025’s CBCA Picture Book of the Year and National Simultaneous Storytime title The Truck Cat (illustrated by Danny Snell). She lives on Bunurong land, in Melbourne’s inner west, with her family and an enormous tuxedo cat who loves staring out of windows, too.
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Jen Horn
Jennifer Horn is a Brisbane-based children’s illustrator and writer. Her fairytale debut picture book The Precious Plum was shortlisted for the 2022 Little Pink Dog’s Authorstrator Prize. As a child, Jen used to ask her Grandma to pause the VHS so she could copy the animations on the screen. Despite this obvious sign, it took Jen quite a while to land on illustration as her career, winding through chapters in architecture, youth support and backpacker work all over Europe. She even ran away with the circus to join a folk punk band for a few years. Now, juggling two young kids, she is consistently illustrating for traditional publishers as well as indie authors.
Her most recently illustrated books are Juniper’s Painting written by Catherine Bauer (September 2025, Wombat Books), and Skippy Blackfeet written by Rebecca Fraser (May 2025, Wombat Books).
Connect with Jen on Insta: @eskyjen
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Bethany Loveridge
Bethany Loveridge is a passionate educator and children’s author-illustrator who has always loved storytelling and the natural world. Her past jobs include youth worker, film, TV and visual art teacher, curriculum specialist and museum nerd (not the official title). Bethany writes for children of all ages. Published in September 2025, Harper Wells: Renegade Timeline Officer was Bethany’s debut novel and the first in an adventurous historical-fantasy trilogy. She also has an illustrated junior fiction series, a graphic novel, and two picture books scheduled for release in 2026. Bethany is the state director of the Queensland branch of SCBWI Australia East, co-founder of Perentie Press (who publish children’s graphic novels), and enjoys supporting Queensland’s burgeoning children’s literature community.
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Rory H. Mather
Rory H. Mather is a best-selling author of picture books, lover of rhymes, eater of donuts, husband, father and Toowoomba local. He specialises in writing books for reluctant readers because once upon a time he was one. Earlier in 2026 he released the hilarious Banjo the Hot Cross Bun and was awarded a CBCA Notable for his book Laugh in the Bath.
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Alison McLennan
Alison McLennan is a Brisbane-based children’s author, professional voiceover artist, singer, actor and mother of two. Her picture books include Hotel For Bees (State Library of Old), Growing Pains (EK Books), Great and Small (Storytorch Press), Birdie Lights Up the World (EK Books) and How to Get Rid of a Princess (Hardie Grant). Her novels include Calamity Jones: A Flamingo For Christmas (Five Mile) and A Flood in the Village (Library For All). Alison loves Book Week more than Christmas and enjoys sharing her love of writing, reading and stories.
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Dimity Powell
Dimity Powell loves filling every spare moment with words. She’s the former Managing Editor for Kids’ Book Review and writes and reviews exclusively for children with over 30 internationally published stories and digital narratives including the award winning, This Is My Dad (2022), At The End of Holyrood Lane (2018) and the critically acclaimed, The Fix-It Man (2017). The Boy Who Lost His Laugh is her fourth picture book with EK Books, (March 2026). Dimity believes in the transformative power of storytelling, the restorative power of chocolate ice-cream and superheroes because she lives near one on the Gold Coast, Australia.
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Danny Snell
As a child Danny Snell was a reluctant reader, so it was pictures rather than words that drew him to the wonder of books. Danny went on to study graphic design and illustration at the University of South Australia and he now works as a picture book illustrator and occasional author. His books have won a number of awards including the CBCA Picture Book of the year in 2025 for The Truck Cat. Danny lives in Adelaide with his partner, his two daughters and a sleepy old cat. And yes, he loves to read.
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R.A. Stephens
Rochelle Stephens writes under R. A. Stephens. She is published in both educational and trade markets. Her Riz Chester series included The Fingerprint Code which was shortlisted in the Speech pathology awards (2024). She has completed her Masters in Editing and Publishing with a thesis exploring middle fiction for teens. Rochelle started the Rhiza Shorts list of teen stories for young adults who are busy or reluctant readers in 2025 and has two titles with the list so far, No Dress, No Idea and Six Take One. She also loves mixing Maths into picture books with Apples Not Orples released in 2024 and her new maths based picture book, Connected, released in April 2026.
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Kristen Willis
Kristen Willis is an award-winning Australian children’s picture book illustrator whose childhood was fuelled by biscotti, sugar cane, and family stories. A second-generation Australian Italian, she uses illustration to hold and honour memory, weaving cultural narrative with warmth and imagination.
Traditionally trained as a fine artist and graphic designer, Kristen blends pigments and pixels as a picture book illustrator. She was recently shortlisted for the CBCA Awards for her debut picture book Peek-a-Boo Lottie and is currently juggling exciting book projects with various publishers, alongside developing her own author-illustrator graphic novel. She is also in her element creating opportunities and industry events for emerging and established kidlit illustrators as the @SCBWI-Qld Illustrator Co-ordinator.
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Sarah Armstrong
Sarah Armstrong is an award-winning journalist and the author of three acclaimed novels for adults, including the Miles Franklin-shortlisted ‘Salt Rain’. Her novels for children include the CBCA Notable Book ‘Big Magic’, its sequel ‘Magic Awry’ and the CBCA Notable Book ‘Run’ – a survival-thriller with heart, set in the wild Australian bush. Her next survival novel ’The Wave’ is out mid-August. Sarah lives with her partner and daughter in the northern NSW town of Mullumbimby.
Connect with Sarah on instagram: @saraharmstrongwriter
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Peter Carnavas
Peter Carnavas writes and illustrates books for children. His work has been published widely across the world and won many awards, including the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. His latest book is Kid, a novel about a small goat’s journey up a mountain to find his family. Peter lives in Brisbane with his family and a small dog called Florence.
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Jess Galatola
Jess Galatola is a teacher, author, mother, and big believer in all things magic. She lives in Brisbane, by the bay, where she enjoys spending sunny days with her family. Her debut picture book, Some Families Change, won a Silver ABLE Book Award in 2024. Jess has several new projects on the horizon, including a new picture book and a graphic novel set for release in 2026. Jess’s background in Drama and English curriculum has made her a passionate advocate of early literacy and storytelling. She creates stories that speak to young readers, to help them understand their place in the world. Jess loves working with students of all ages to bring stories and imagination to life.
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Jason Gent
Jason Gent is a Meanjin based writer. He studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. During this time Jason had a short play performed by RMIT Union Arts, and helped to create a small press label, Rant, which released two anthologies. He has had a number of short stories published in Australian literary and poetry magazines. Jason is a member of Write Links. In 2021, Jason was shortlisted for the Glendower Awards for an Emerging Queensland Writer as part of the Queensland Literary Awards, for his YA verse novel, On The Exhale.
Connect with Jason on Insta: @Jason_gent_author
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Gus Gordon
Gus Gordon is an internationally acclaimed illustrator and author. He has illustrated and written nearly 100 books for children. His books, including Wendy, Herman and Rosie (2013 CBCA Honour book), Somewhere Else (2017 Speech Pathology book of the year), The Last Peach and Finding François have sold in over 20 countries worldwide and have received wide international recognition. He has twice been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Gus’s first graphic novel, Into the Bewilderness was recently released simultaneously in the US and Australia. Gus lives in Brisbane, Australia. Gus is represented by Charlie Olsen of InkWell Management in New York. He also loves cheese, and things that go with cheese.
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Nette Hilton
Nette Hilton is a published author of children and young adult literature since 1988. Recently Nette published ‘Princess Peony, Adventures 1 & 2’ (Walker Books 2019, 2020) and ‘Introducing D’Lila LaRue’ (Walker Books 2021). Nette has been a judge for children’s books with NSW Premier’s Awards, CBCA BOTY awards, The Literature Board and Dorothea Mackellar National Poetry Awards. Nette has also been supported by the Literature Board for my manuscript entitled ‘Red Clay, White Clay’. Her publishing stalled thanks to COVID and March 2022 floods in Cabarita Beach which destroyed her home. She lived in a caravan in her daughter’s backyard for two years and now resides in Toowoomba. Nette continues to work on several new texts including a novel which is a sequel to ‘Without a Word’ (2nd Prize, Scarlett Stiletto Awards, 2025) celebrating a dog detective, a picture book ‘Ilsa and The Kitchen Faerie and How She Saved the World’ and ‘The Incredible Memory of Elspeth Giggle’ which is in its second edit guided by Cathie Tasker (editor).
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Di Taylor
Di Taylor is the author of Anna’s War, a young adult historical novel set in German-occupied southern Holland during the final eighteen months of World War II. Passionate about historical fiction, Di believes it brings to life the experiences of ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times. Anna’s War is inspired by the true wartime experiences of three children—two of whom are now her elderly parents-in-law.
Beyond fiction, Di is also a keen travel writer. Her popular blogs chronicle long-distance walks across the UK and Europe. Her most widely read series follows her 2,000-kilometre trek from Land’s End to John o’Groats—a four-month journey that wore out six pairs of socks. Di lives in the small country town of Kilcoy.
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The Sweet Plot Bookshop
The Sweet Plot Bookshop is located at U 1/10481 New England Hwy, Highfields, Queensland 4352.
