Photos of DemiChat's friends

Ask the Author a Question by email to toni@demichat.com

'DemiChat' is on the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge List for 2012

Available from Dennis Jones & Associates, Distributors
www.in2books.com.au

The Author - Toni Brisland

Toni Brisland writes books and poems for children of all ages. ‘DemiChat and the Kent Street Mystery' is her first book to be published but more are on the way. Toni loves animals, reading, walking along deserted beaches and looking after her family. She lives in Sydney with her husband and her two Himalayan cats, Jade and Lord Flannery Persephone. Her daughter Deen lives in Los Angeles and works in television.

The Illustrator - Peter "Zane" Haywood

The Illustrator of ‘DemiChat and the Kent Street Mystery’, Peter “Zane” Haywood, is an amazing cartoonist who hand draws all of his material. Peter’s illustrations of DemiChat and Flannery appear on the Main Menu page of this website.

This is what Peter has to say: “Although ‘DemiChat and the Kent Street Mystery’ was the first children’s book that I illustrated, I did have a fairly extensive background in cartooning stretching back to the early 1980’s. 'Spacecapades' ran in D-Mag, a children’s magazine for several years. And for the past eleven seasons I’ve been writing and illustrating an Aussie rules football column for 'The Melbourne Times'.

The brief for DemiChat was pretty interesting. Come up with a black and white film noir-ish look involving gangsters and dogs and cats. I had a lot of fun with it, and I’m looking forward to any future adventures.”

You can see samples of Peter’s published work dating back to 1983 and including such things as: 'The Wombats', 'The Zoo', 'Warts’n’All', 'Ozzie-Nauts' and other Spacecapades samples at www.myspace.com Once inside the site, type in “Peter Haywood – Cartoonist” into the search engine. You can also visit http://home.iprimus.com.au/pahaywood/spacecapades

The Photographer - Bronwyn Liebke

Bronwyn Liebke is a photographer and an animal lover who resides in Sydney with her husband, Dan, their two dogs, Frank (a border collie) and Beans (a scruffle monkey – we don’t know what he is, he’s an RSPCA special!) and their very cranky cat, Allegro (an all-white moggie). Five years ago Bronwyn found her calling when she combined her two greatest passions, animals and photography, and her business “Pet Clix Animal Photography” was born!

Bron says, “Photographing animals is always joyous, always exciting, always unpredictable and almost always messy! Some of the more unusual animals I have been asked to shoot include donkeys, chooks and even bulls! I do spend a lot of time on the ground – it is not glamorous but it certainly is fun.

The greatest challenge with Toni’s cats, Jade and Flannery, was getting them both looking at the camera at the same time. I’m sure they were deliberately not doing what I wanted! Shiloh and Rosie, the beagles, could hardly contain their excitement (or keep their noses off the ground!) at our photo shoot – there were so many new smells to be followed. Chasing them around was hilarious!

Bronwyn’s website is www.petclix.com.au.

Bron loves to photograph people with their pets too, so if you’re in Sydney, she’d love to ‘shoot’ you!

Photos of Demi’s Friends

If you want to be one of Demi’s friends join Demi’s Newsletter list and/or send a drawing and a few words about yourself to toni@demichat.com

Tell Demi why you like ‘DemiChat and the Kent Street Mystery’.

If you want to send your photo, ask one of your parents to write and send Toni a permission note allowing her to use your photo in the Newsletter to toni@demichat.com

Your Drawing may appear here or in the Newsletter.

The Real DemiChat
The Real DemiChat was abandoned by her mother in Belmore Park, City of Sydney. Her eyes were hardly opened and she could only drink milk through an eye-dropper. This under-sized calico moggy was rescued by the aspiring ballerinas of the Halliday Ballet School in 1984. Toni Brisland’s daughter, Deen, seven at the time and already an animal lover, volunteered to take the kitten home. DemiChat became an integral part of the family for 16 years until she succumbed to kidney disease and lymp gland cancer. DemiChat was timid, playful, would wait at the gate for Deen to come home from school and loved to drink water from the goldfish bowl where Ernie and Bert would swim unperturbed. Her favourite food was sardines and her best friend was Pepper, an older calico cat that was also abandoned and found a home with Toni, Toni’s husband Richard and Deen.

Here are some photos of Demi’s friends, Jade, Flannery, Shiloh and Rosie, featured on the inside back cover of ‘DemiChat and the Kent Street Mystery’. These Photos were taken by Bronwyn Liebke of Pet Clix Animal Photography.


	Flannery (left) and Jade (right)

	Rosie (left) and Shiloh (right)

Book Launch 25th July 2010 - Berkelouw Books, Leichhardt

Upstairs at Berkelouw a great team made an impact when a new crime-busting duo was revealed! Author Toni Brisland introduced French feline investigator DemiChat and retired police beagle Lord Flannery with the launch of her debut novel DemiChat and the Kent Street Mystery.

Jeni Mawter, best selling children's author of the hilarious So! series and the Freewheelers series, launched the book after a classy introduction by emmcee Gail Foster. Guests included other children's and YA authors Susanne Gervay, Wendy Blaxland, Wendy Fitzgerald, Aleesah Darlison and Oliver Phommavanh. Everyone also got to meet the book's illustrator Peter "Zane" Haywood who had flown up from Melbourne for the event.

During formal proceedings Peter drew two superb illustrations of the book's main characters, DemiChat and Lord Flannery, which then became prizes in a Lucky Door draw. The first was won by Emmanuel and the second by Ann Hall, Teacher Librarian at St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School, Woy Woy South. How fortunate was that! The novel's school launch is actually at St John's on 13th August 2010!