Salisbury Writers' Festival 2011
First of all, a huge thank you to both the wonderful SA Writers' Centre (and Barbara Wiesner in particular) and the City of Salisbury (ditto to Nichola Kapitza and Steve Davidson) for having me at the Salisbury Writers' Festival. Another massive thank you must go to Allayne Webster, who was one of the Festival organisers and is a lovely person and kick-arse writer to boot. (YA readers, please check out her stuff; it's brilliant.)
If you're a South Australian writer, the Salisbury Writers' Festival is always a great one to check out -- it's meticulously well-run (Nichola isn't called The Time Nazi for nothing) and has a really welcoming vibe. The First Page session is also brilliant; writers get the chance to submit the first page of their manuscript to a panel of publishers.
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At the session, a handful are picked and their good and bad points are discussed. Side note: I submitted the first page of The Fortunes of Ruby White to the 2009 First Page session, and waited all day to see if it would get picked. It didn't, and I left the festival thinking I'd never get published. Four weeks later, I had a book contract. Life is a funny thing.
Anyway, the opening night was great -- despite my nerves, my opening address was received really well, and I had people come up afterwards and say the loveliest things about it, so hello ego! Plus the Mayor told Nichola that she'd be fired if she ever had to speak after me again. Um... hooray? I think!
The aftermath: relieved! L-R: my gal Karen, Mr P, your very pink author/speaker, and my gal George.
This lovely lady had not only read Ruby White but also picked some of its locations. Spoooky!
