I’ll be there! Speaking! Eruditely! With Margo Lanagan and Lucy Christopher and Hilary Rogers.

The session is called Her Dark Materials (sexy title, hey what?), it’s on Sunday the 20th May at the Bangarra Theatre from 11.30am to 12.30pm.

For more details, click here. Thus endeth the upcoming events posts.

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PS This has a weird life-revisiting-itself feel, because 3 years ago I went to the SWF just before Raw Blue was published, and I sat in on one of Margo’s events and then hung around afterwards to tell her how much I loved Singing My Sister Down, then I met my publisher, Laura Harris, for the first time, and Melina Marchetta, and Bernard Zuel (the music reviewer in Raw Blue, and in real life, too). And then I caught a bus home, feeling a bit down because I didn’t think I fit in. Overstimulated, probably. People have since told me that they always feel like that at writers’ festivals.  This year, I’ll just be feeling lucky to be there.

Actually, while I’m going on upcoming events, I should also say that thanks to the wonderful people at Taree Library and the lovely Nicky from Manning Valley Books, I’ll be up in Taree on the 8th of May, to talk about Night Beach.

The session will be held at Taree Library, at 4pm, so please ring the library directly if you want to book a place on 02 6592 5290.

I love that part of the world, and I’ve got a couple of mates lined up to surf Saltwater with me, so I’ll be sure to be smiley. Come and say hello, get your book signed and stamped, or just hang out.

Okay, having sat on the details of Geelong’s Wordage festival for two weeks, it’s finally occurred to me I should share them. Me and Doug Macleod and Gab Williams will be there next week – 18th and 19th of April. The festival is being presented by the Geelong Regional Library and the Centre for Youth Literature.

The festival is mainly aimed at students in years 7 to 9. Apart from the school program, there is one event open to all:

Click here to register your interest.

In terms of the school program, there are two panel sessions on the 18th:

Morning Session:10:00am – 11:30am

Afternoon Session: 1:00pm – 2:30pm

And the 19th is all about student writing workshops. We’ll each be running 2 writing workshops, and there will be other workshops run by: Bernard Caleo, Sue Lawson and Adele Walsh.

For more details on the school program, you can contact Maryanne Hyde on: 03 5272 6021

(I have been doing edits for too long. As I typed that header, I thought to myself, “Repetition. Get rid of either ‘look’ or ‘looking’. You can’t have both.”)

…………..

I’m going to be in Geelong with their owners soon – Gab Williams and Doug MacLeod. We’ll be at Wordage, a festival.

This is an UPCOMING EVENTS post in case you’re wondering why I’m telling you this. So consider yourself updated. I will let you know more details when I get more details. Really, the details I’m sweating on are how I might be able to swing an extra day down there so I can go to Torquay. I know. My heart bleeds for me, too. If you’re overseas and you want to know what Torquay is, it’s a town near Bells Beach which is “allegedly” where Bodhi died in Point Break. Obviously a pilgrimage I must make (although I have actually been there a couple of times, but whatever).

But are you having a nice Friday? Song for the day is old school Danger Mouse. If you need a laugh you should check out Doug Macleod’s blog site. He has nude CBCA ladies on it, and a lot of daleks.

16 – 18 March, 2011

Somerset Celebration of Literature

Details to come. In the meantime, you can find more on the festival by clicking here …

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27 – 28 May, 2011

Reading Matters Conference

Friday 27th: 10.15am Monsters Ink (Panel session with Ananda Braxton-Smith, Karen Healey and Brenton McKenna)

Saturday 28th: 11.20am Dangerous Arrangements (Panel session with Jane Burke and Denis Wright)

For more details on the conference, please click here …

Linds at Bibliophile Brouhaha recently posted a review for Raw Blue that left me floored (in a really good way). You can check it out here … This review also clarified something for me; an issue that I have struggled with since the book was first published. That being – how much detail to go into when asked to describe the book. Linds very articulately deals with this issue in her review, saying:

Carly is a survivor of rape. I don’t feel it’s possible to adequately talk about the book unless that fact is present. The fear, shame, rage and bravery Carly shows is directly related to the crime committed against her.

Bibliophile Brouhaha is fairly new on the blog scene but contains one of the most energetic round ups of what’s going on in the world of Young Adult literature and the general publishing world that I have come across. Check it out.

I was also stoked to see a review for Raw Blue up over at Spellbound By Books. I’ve been lucky enough to hang out at this blog on two occasions, once in an interview with Melissa, (which you can check out here …) and once to give my top five unsettling reads (see here …)

And great to see a review of Saltwater Vampires up at Escape in a Book. It’s lovely to know that your stories get to travel …

Finally, I just realised I had forgotten to mention this (in case you are lying awake at night wondering about it) – I will be appearing at the Somerset Writers’ Festival in March next year … Will post more details soon.

That’s probably all from me for a wee while, so Happy Christmas and Merry New Year, take fun and have care!!

Excitement! Excitement!

The program for the 2011 Reading Matters Conference has just been announced (to be held on the 27th and 28th of May). I’ll be appearing along with:

Cassandra Clare (US)
Markus Zusak
Melina Marchetta
Rebecca Stead (US)
Karen Healey
Ananda Braxton-Smith
Ron Brooks
Brenton McKenna
Leanne Hall
Lucy Christopher (tbc)
Delphine de Vigan (tbc) (France)
Kate Burridge
Zoe Sadokierski
Denis Wright (NZ)
Cath Crowley
Jane Burke
Laura Buzo
Oliver Phommavanh
Richard Newsome

The program has just been announced and you can take a look at here …

I will also be doing a workshop for students on Thursday the 26th of May, and further details are here …

Hey Writers,

I’ll be taking part in a Writing Race hosted by the Australian Writer’s Marketplace (www.AWMonline.com.au) on Tuesday, 26 October, 2010. The Race starts at 8pm AEST (so, if you’re observing daylight savings like me, it’ll be 9pm) and goes for one hour.

The idea is that you work on your chosen project for that time, after first touching base to talk about your goals for the hour, and then letting us know how you did at the end. Along the way, I’ll be sharing some thoughts on what works for me writing-wise, and answering any questions that people have.

All writers, at all levels, are welcome. The only thing is you need to be a subscriber to join in (see the AWM website for more details).

I’m looking forward to it. Hope to see you there!

I’ll be appearing at the Voices on the Coast youth literature festival on Monday 7 June at the University of the Sunshine Coast. The festival line-up looks amazing. Visit the festival’s website for information on how to purchase tickets and venue information. You can check out the full program here.

Monday 7 June

9.15 to 10.00am: I’ll be doing an author talk on Raw Blue - where the ideas for the book came from, the characters, what my writing process was like. I’ll also talk about Saltwater Vampires (due out in September 2010).

10.30 to 11.15am: Writing workshop for secondary students (sold out)

12.00 to 12.45pm: Writing workshop for older secondary students and adults (sold out)

Hope to see you there!

Happy days! I scored an invite to the Voices on the Coast Youth Literature Festival (big thank you to the very nice Kelly Dunham, festival organiser). I’ll be doing a talk about Raw Blue and a couple of writing workshops. The festival runs from 7 – 12 June and tickets go on sale 12 April. More details when they arrive via the details department …