A week in the sun can do a lot to a person. You can either get incredibly bored, or if you have a good book and a comfortable spot in the shade you can enjoy yourself. For me, last week involved the latter, I was flying home from England and stopped-over in Vietnam on the way. Lucky me!
Unfortunately, the book I read was so good it also made me feel bad… as a writer. This often happens when we writers read good books:
“I’ll never write anything as good as this!”
[Then again, see previous post on what I actually expect of myself as a writer these days.]
So I returned to Sydney feeling a little glum. Luckily, three things were waiting to cheer me up.
- On Saturday morning I had my writers’ group, the award-winning Northern Beaches Writers’ Group, and they always cheer me up!
- On Saturday afternoon I got to attend the NSW Writers’ Centre’s Speculative Fiction Festival, which was amazing – especially because it was here in Sydney!
- On Saturday evening, I was able to catch up with a bunch of my author buddies, who are so inspiring they can’t help but lift your writing spirits!
This year’s Speculative Fiction Festival was organised by the multi-talented Cat Sparks, who is also extraordinary with a camera. She took a load of photos at the festival, which you can view here:
Terry Dowling, Kaaron Warren, Rob Hood & Louise Katz
I went to the ‘Frankenstein Legacy’ panel with Kaaron Warren, Robert Hood, Terry Dowling and Louise Katz, where they discussed the Frankenstein films as well as the book by Mary Shelley.
Incidentally the Shelleys (Mary herself, her romantic poet husband Percy and her feminist mother Mary Wollstonecraft) all resided and are buried in my hometown of Bournemouth.
After Rob gave a comprehensive overview of the films, and Terry admired Mary’s inventiveness (“She had no predecessors”), Kaaron pointed out that the emotional aspects of Frankenstein are often forgotten.
This resonated with me, as one of my favourite aspects of the book is the anguish Dr Frankenstein feels once he finally realises what he’s done. As with children and monsters alike, Kaaron went on to say, “You mould them into what they are, and that’s terrifying.”
Waiting for burgers at dinnertime with Trudi Canavan.
Next I had a kaffeeklatsche with Trudi Canavan.
Trudi told how she started out as a published author, pitching a single book that turned into a trilogy and having to re-edit the lot. She described her life as 90% hermit and 10% social animal, which sounds like my life too! I then asked her for some advice for writers, and she said to:
- Look after your body
- Have fun with your writing
- Expose yourself to real life through work and/or family
Great advice, Trudi!
When it comes to writing, she also said she likes to cover three main elements with her plots:
- a threat
- a romance
- a mystery
The conversation then naturally turned to magic, of which she said: “I love imagining anything impossible. But I would hate for magic to be real, as humans have a way of turning anything to evil.”
Too true, Trudi!
Lastly, there was a ‘What’s Hot & What’s Not’ panel of publishers, with representatives from Momentum, HarperCollins, Fablecroft, Pantera Press, Ticonderoga and Bloomsbury. It’s always good to know what’s happening in the Australian publishing scene and from listening to the panel it seems like there are opportunities out there for every writer – through traditional publishers or through self-publishing (hey, did you know I can now help you layout out and publish your own book?). The specific interests of each publisher are on their websites (see above links).
After ‘Drinks on the Verandah’, there was then dinner with friends. Thanks to Alan Baxter for taking some photos (below)! I had a burger and chips, with champagne of course, and at the end of this delightfully long writery day I feel invigorated once more. Thank you Saturday!
