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11/11/2004: "Yay! Pop Fiction was launched!!! Wednesday 3rd of November 2004 at Experimedia, State Library of Victoria."

Pop Fiction is truly grateful for Experimedia hosting the launch plus 4 Pop Fiction events occurring each school term in 2005.

What is Experimedia?
It’s a wicked new space at the State Library of Victoria. Imagine the library of the future: groovy modern lounge-style furniture, heaps of plasma screens, a cinema screen plus lots of computers everywhere.

So, what happened at the launch?!?
The invitation said ‘launch starts at 6.30pm sharp’ and believe me! guests started to arrive at 6.15…...

Click on 'MORE' to check out more photos and read about how much noise was made!!
If YOU went to the launch, click on 'COMMENT' and tell us about it!

6.15pm: With guests arriving early, we opened the doors and I hung out at the entrance and said hello to everyone as they came in. At least 50% of the guests were people I had never met before. Pop Fiction loves new faces so guests were warmly welcomed!
For familiar faces: “Wicked, thanks for coming.”
For new faces: “Hi, I’m Sarah. Who are you!?!”…
By 6.30, at least 150 people had arrived and about 10 people had attempted to sneak in from the library’s ‘loans area’.As cool and casual as these ‘sneaky’ people appeared, their lack of eye contact as they passed through the doors was a total give away. Sprung bad! and asked to kindly leave by the sweet-faced and 'perfect Colgate' smiling, Miss Downey.
By 7.00pm over 200 guests had arrived and were chatting, eating and drinking. Check out these pics! TLCgirls, PrincesHillStudents.

Full steam ahead and on with the launch…..........

I jumped up to the microphone
Introduced myself
Welcomed everyone
Assured all would be explained in the multimedia performance on the big screen
i.e. What is Pop Fiction? How do you make Pop Fiction? Who can make Pop Fiction?
Then, in a 30-second nutshell, I explained where Pop Fiction came from coz that’s not covered in the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance and lots of journalists had asked me that question in the weeks leading up to the launch. (If you’d like to know, go to 'bumble.com.au>>Pop Fiction FAQs>>Where did Pop Fiction come from?')
Then I welcomed and introduced important people who contributed significantly to Pop Fiction during 2000-2004. Such as Alex Bailey (creator of the Dreamweaver version of bumble.com.au prior to the current Flash version), Dave Jones (awesome Flash animator and creator of the current Flash site), Al Macinnes (creator of the Veronica Bee animation as featured in the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance), Monique Schafter (voice artist and voice of Veronica Bee as featured in Al’s 'Veronica Bee' animation), Siobhan Maiden (doco filmmaker who captured young people making Pop Fiction as featured in the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance), Chris Baikie (Pop Fiction photographer plus helps out with everything!!!) and Anna Helme (audio visual artist and creator of the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance). Here's a pic of Anna and me: AnnaHelmeAndSarah.
Then a big and extra special thanks to the State Library, the team @ Experimedia and Pop Fiction’s promotional partners (VATE, ATOM and Carlton Library).

My aim was to say all of the above within 3 minutesthus avoiding chit chat. Aim accomplished!and straight over to the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance on the big screen........
(If you weren’t at the launch, Pop Fiction is touring the Multimedia Performance around Australia so we hope to share it with you soon. Go to 'Contact' and send as an email to let us know where you live. We promise that if you take the time to contact us we'll come to your school and/or local library soon.)
The Multimedia Performance screened for 24 minutes.
After that…....
I jumped up to the microphone
Thanked students from Princes Hill Secondary College and Anna Vaxalis (Year 7 Coordinator) for participating in the first Pop Fiction event (You can check out their artwork in ‘The Hive’)
Thanked young readers from Carlton Library and Shirley Prescott (Librarian) for reading a draft of ‘To love Veronica Bee’, prior to its publication, and giving me valuable feedback to make the book better suited to what young people want.
Then introduced 'The Hybernators' - a Melbourne punk rock band and creator of Pop Fiction music as featured in the ‘Honey Pot’.

Big drum roll! I clipped the microphone into the mic stand and left the stage coz The Hybernators were about to play live at the State Library…………
Yikes!:blushDon’t you just love when things don't go to plan?!?
I jumped back up to the microphone!
“OK, we’re going to wing this. This is ‘rock and roll’ and we’re still waiting on the guitarist to arrive. In the meantime, everyone’s invited to cruise around Experimedia and check out the Pop Fiction multimedia featured on the plasma screens and computers. Plus, Anna Helme has set up a space over there (big wave from Anna) for people to jam out on the keyboards and create their own 'live Pop Fiction audio/visual performance'.”

No probs. Heaps of books were sold and signed. Jack, the guitarist, arrived within 5 minutes and The Hybernators played ‘Yarra Valley High Rocks’!

(Check out The Hybernators' animated music video clip in the 'Honey Pot>>Animation>>Chris Baikie 2'). Listen to the song 'Yarra Valley High Rocks!':YarraValleyHighRocks.MP3 (3555k file)
A live band was a great way to end the night with a big bang!. The librarians at the library's ‘loans area’ got totally excited by the noise and came rushing into Experimedia. I doubt an official complaint was registered the next day, but this is 'Pop Fiction' and fiction is all about conflict>>resolution>>drama. Thus, I tried to persuade the 'sound man' to unplug the mic at song #2, especially when The Hybernatos were meant to play only 1 song! But the band loudly decided to 'rock on' and play three! No probs, the young people were totally into it! Usually, if a band plays at a pub, the audience will stand back a couple of metres. Forget that: heaps of young people were sitting no less than a metre away from the band and totally getting in to it. So much for shhhh in the library.

At 8.30 the launch was over and the 2005 Pop Fiction Youth e-Literature Event was officially launched.

I hadn’t eaten much that day coz I was too busy or chatting on my mobile and food really wasn’t much on my mind. So me, Chris and a couple of mates (who'd travelled from interstate to come to the launch) went back to my house and ate Burritos! Yum! We love Burritos!

I've received heaps of phone calls and sms'ssssss frm people saying the launch was "a lot more than they expected", "so that's what you do!", "where do you find the time to do that?" and "I thought you just write fiction!?!".

As always, a great ending to a fun night. Let's not mention how Anna's studio was busted into 2 nights later and all her computer equipment was stolen!! That is so crap!!! Don't steal coz it's not your stuff to take!!

thanks everyone for coming to the launch
Xo the Sare Bear

Replies: 6 Comments

on Wednesday, March 30th, Richard said

Just wanted to say thanks to Sarah and Chris and everyone who got down to the launch we had a blast doing the song " Yarra Valley High Rocks" Hope all you young guys and girls had fun. We will be organising some underage shows soon so you guys can come and see us again.
Cheers Richard Keenan and The Hybernators
" Stay Eyeballed & Crazy"

on Saturday, March 19th, morgana said

I am at the state library with the work to do Veronica Bee. Yey me. Anways, I am happy to say that the work done by all the people here on 'To Love Veronica Bee' is amazing. I thoughroly enjoyed watching, listening and seeing everything. Our school is one of the groups to do pop fiction and they did a good job as did everyone else.Go V.B.
Chat to ya lata.
TTFN (ta ta for now)
Morgana

on Wednesday, February 16th, Robert said

When I went to the launch of the pop fiction novel 'To Love Veronica Bee', I saw just how different pop fiction was when compared to regular novels. With pop fictin, it is much easier to relate to the cheracters, the locals, the atmospheres & the experiances shared between the book & the reader.

on Wednesday, February 9th, Melanie said

At the launch of the book, 'To love Veronica Bee' I witnessed a documentry which helped me get a better insight of what Pop fiction was all about. Pop fiction is about taking ideas from a book and turning them into creative ideas such as animations, films, artwork and music. I thought that it looked very interesting and i liked watching the other examples that we were shown. I think that it is a good idea and helps you interact more with the book and get a better insight.

on Wednesday, February 9th, Elle said

Pop Fiction 2005 had its first launch in November 2004. I was fortunate enough to go along and have a look at what it's all about. Pop fiction has been inspired by the author of 'To Love Veronica Bee' Sarah Boland. When I was there I got to see all the artwork that had already been created by enthusiastic students of Princes Secondary. I also met the artist Chris he was really cool, who made an animation about singing and dancing rocks! Who'd have thought you could make an interesting visual out of rocks!? At the Launch there was a viewing of all the yr 7 students' artwork, I also got to see other animations that had been done specially for Pop Fiction.

on Wednesday, January 5th, Nat! said

To Love Veronica Bee

To love Veronica Bee is the newest book in the newest category of books: Pop Fiction. Books that are in this category are made especially to interest teenage kids. They include thinks like on-line games, animation, artwork, multimedia music and more! Some of the students and teachers from Latrobe went to the opening night of this book on the 3rd of November to see what it was all about. What we did find was a bunch of cool activities and games you could participate in all to do with the book. Then we watched a slide show that showed what other kids had done with the book. They had made singing rocks, dances, games, artwork and songs! The night was full of fun and a very great insight of what we may be able to do next year. The website on this book, where you can see and experience some of the things we did is www.bumble.com.au