I read ‘The Spare Room’ in two hours last Friday night, a loan from the much loved Gen. I borrowed ‘Bel Canto’ because a friend of mine has been begging me to read it and ‘Stardust’ because I’m on a bit of a Neil Gaiman binge. The books behind are what we’ve got on our…
Something exists called the 2009 Australian Publishers Association Members Directory. A copy arrived for me the other week because I am a member of the APA, and I turned to my page: There I am with Murdoch Books and Museum Victoria. I can assure you most other major players and well-respected publishers are in there…
I spent Sunday afternoon on my table selling Surprise! in amongst a diverse and fascinating range of literary journals, zines, and small publishers. I was sharing my space with Helen and we both looked after each other’s things while the other occasionally ducked off for food, and so I didn’t get as much of a…
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Karen Andrews and welcome to our session ‘The Revolution will be Downloaded’. As we begin, we’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where we sit today, the tribes of the Kulin Nation. Many of us here will know that recently Ashton Kutcher was in a great…
I’m home, everyone. What a weekend. I don’t think I slept more than a few consecutive hours each night. I’ll write about it in stages over this week, as I am quite tired. It was an exciting Friday afternoon. Some of you may know that central Melbourne was partially evacuated due to a chemical leak. That…
In a few short hours I will be bidding my family adieu for the Emerging Writers’ Festival. What am I doing again, you ask? Here’s a reminder: The revolution will be downloaded Saturday 30th May 3 to 4pm Melbourne Town Hall In this age of electronic enlightenment there are so many ways for writers to…
I have quite an imagination at times. Not as much as I’d like, though. I would like to be one of those people who has a television in the house but never turns it on, leaving their ‘down-time’ to other mentally stimulating practices like reading and doing crossword puzzles. But, no, I like plonking myself…
Do you remember my grandfather who I asked to keep in your thoughts three weeks ago as he’d just had investigative surgery into potential prostate cancer? Well this 81 year old man was helping his neighbour brand cattle during the week (as you do when you’ve been ill) and a black and white heifer turned on…
I’ve been lucky enough to have had Surprise! positively reviewed over the past several weeks. Let me show you where: * By Susan and Meredith at Reading Upside Down and * Adele at Persnickety Snark and * Nicole at Planning With Kids I can’t tell you how much these please me and how from these reports people have…
