Byron Bay Writers Festival Day 2

Day 2 and we were relieved to wake up to blue sky and sunshine.

I began the day by dropping into the Kids Tent and watched Danny Katz and Mitch Vane in action. Danny read from their new book 'The Little Lunch Games' while Mitch illustrated the story on butcher paper. Kids in the audience were then invited to draw their own characters.

Next I noticed the line-up for a fix, as the caffeine addicts stood patiently waiting to get their morning hit. (I'm a reformed caffeine addict although my poison was Coca-Cola)

I attended a session called First Writes: the Path to Publication. In this session Annette Hughes said 'the hardest thing about memoir is there's no end, you're not dead yet' which is how I felt when I was writing the pizza delivery girl tales - trying to work out where it should end! (these publicaion sessions always get me in because I'm still on that first path).

Afterwards I talked to Lollie Barr, who wrote the young adult novel The Mag Hags. and whose by-line I see every week in the paper.

And I couldn't resist asking Aussie Idol Damien Leith for a photo opportunity as I'm a sucker for an Irish accent.

Morris Gleitzman always draws a crowd and the queue in the background of this photo are his young fans eager for an autograph. Perhaps you don't have to be an Aussie Idol after all?

Next session I attended was 'Talking the Talk: Getting the dialogue right' with Max Barry, Virginia Duigan, Michael Gow and Judy Nunn. Max said 'You are writing a story that is taking place in the mind of the readers' summing up that we need to give our readers space to bring their own experiences to the story.

I bought Max's book Company following the session and told him I was nominated him for Foxy Author of the Week on my friend Natalie's blog. So - of course, had to get a photo with Foxy Max!

Next, I dropped by the kids tents again to see the talented and very young William Kostakis exercising excellent crowd control on the youngsters.

It seems that William has been writing about the same character (Courtney) since 6th grade. That's a long long obsession. You can read the results in his young adult novel Loathing Lola.

The next session was We'll Always Have Paris: celebrity versus literary publishing with the heads of Penguin Australia, Pan MacMillan along with the editor of Wet Ink magazine. I introduced myself to Phillip Edmunds as my story Beyond Happily Ever After will be published in Wet Ink next month.

Back at the cabin after a long and full day, we debated a mystery. How did our cabin key end up on our doormat? Well, it seems that the bush turkey was the culprit.

Saturday night dinner options were difficult and after much searching we ended up with two tables at opposite ends of the balcony at Hogs Breath Cafe. After a group near one vacated, we managed to make it one large table and ended up having an interesting conversation about men. But mostly we were exhausted...ready to retire and prepare for another exciting day at the Byron Bay Writers Festival.

Replenishing the well of creativity

I'm in Nanowrimo recovery mode now. I haven't written for a week although I'm likely to return to it within the next day or so.

So to replenish my well of creativity, I have been reading. First up, The Mag Hags, a young adult novel by Lollie Barr.

This transported me back to my days of school, feeling on the outer of the in crowd, but never actually wanting to be one of them, and finding my way through adolescence. I used to do a lot of writing then, but when I reached uni I stopped creative and journal writing and became an essay factory instead.

Over the last few days, I have read Alice in La La Land by Sophie Lee.

I wasn't expecting much of this novel as Sophie is foremost known as an actor, and this is her debut novel. I picked it up more out of curiosity than anything else as I had met Sophie a long time ago in a former life as a box office manager and she was supposed to be at the last Byron Bay Writers Festival but pulled out when one of her children fell ill. . But Sophie can write, and she hooked me into Alice's life and attempts at an acting career in Los Angeles. She expressed a lot about acting and the continuous cycle of rejection and its effect on self esteem which I recognised when I tried to move from amateur acting into auditions for several drama schools at the end of my high school life. I'm so glad that I came to my senses and did not pursue that particular dream.

Also watching movies and television. Firstly, Death at a Funeral at the cinema. A very rare and funny treat, but what else can I expect from Frank Oz? I watched the first episode of Dexter - I think I will be enjoying this one, caught a repeat of the pilot episode of Six Feet Under - that was such a good show! And today I watched 4 episodes of American Gothic - not sure how I missed that one on TV.

In between, I've almost completed my christmas shopping ready for a trip to Newcastle for an extended family Christmas party next weekend. I haven't made it to one of these for many years because I live hundreds of miles away, so it should be fun to catch up with all the various aunts, uncles, niece, nephews, cousins etc.

So the creative well is filling again, and I'm making a list of writing tasks I need to fill in the next twelve months or so.

1. Finish Beyond Happily Ever After first draft (poor Cinderella is still on her honeymoon, and it certainly doesn't feel like one)

2. Finish editing/rewriting Diary of the Future and submit!

3. Finish first draft of I'm with the Band.

4. Finish editing/rewriting Making the Cut. And this will mean making the cut myself of around 8,000 words.

5. Keep creating new collage poems for anthology next year.

6. Short story for writers group competition.

7. Create chickollage website - I have the domain but I haven't created the site yet.

8. Add more products to Chickollage Cafepress shop.

9. Add more products to zazzle shop - this one has only just started.

10. Establish critique partnership (must send in RWA application form)

As usual the plate is full, but I wouldn't want it any other way.