Another year, another jam-packed fun filled weekend of authors, books, panels and, coffee has come and gone again. Why does the good stuff always have to end? *sigh*
Saturday was an early start (earlier than I’m use to for a Saturday) for the keynote address: Words of Wonder with Ita Buttrose, who I think, is one of Australia’s most influential women. More than 100 people turned up to hear her speak, and it was well worth the early start to the weekend. Ita spoke about her new book ‘A Guide to Australian Etiquette’ and had said “The two most forgotten words are ‘thank you’.”
I couldn’t have agreed with her more. Both of my kids have more manners than some adults I know. Over all, there was a lot of laughter.
After the keynote address, we had a little time to spare before the first panel was to start so we browsed the weekend farmer’s market and grabbed a coffee (first one for the day) and then had a hard time trying to decided which book(s) we should get our hands on. Really, it was a very tough decision. I would have loved to have walked away with them all.
Anyway, first panel: Choose your genre: crime, mystery, thriller or literary fiction? With authors Kirsten Tranter, Shamini Flint and Georgia Richter was a last minute decision to attend, and I’m so glad I did. Shamini Flint was hilarious, and Kirsten Tranter inspired me.
We braked for lunch, thank goodness. I was starving and just had to get my hands on another coffee, because next up it was: Finding your writer’s voice with Juliet Marillier, author of the Seer of Sevenwaters series (which I have only just started reading). Juliet gave us some great exercises. We found it hard to stay on subject, and found other things to discuss among our little groups. I had fun and, learned a lot to help me develop my writer’s voice.
When I came home that afternoon all I wanted to do was sit down and write like a mad woman, but my head was so full of information I flaked out and took a nap.
But wait, there’s more...
Sunday, a beautiful sunny day, one more panel.
Out of this world with Juliet Marillier and Lara Morgan, author of the Rosie Black Chronicles (and if you haven’t read it yet, you should). Juliet and Lara talked about the inspiration behind their novels. It was fascinating. But alas, that was the last panel I was to attend for the weekend and dragged myself home feeling more inspired than ever to write (which I did this time. I didn’t fall asleep).
Fantastic weekend and I look forward to next year’s festival which I’m sure will be bigger and better.
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