Name Dropping

It’s been a time and half, really, over the last week or so. First was the Sydney Writers’ Festival with all of its well-earned hooplah.  I met Garth Nix, Morris Gleitzman, Belinda Jeffrey, Judith Ridge, Bernard Beckett, Sean Williams, Deb Abela, Jacquie Harvey and Richard Newsome, as well as visiting four schools and doing a handful of media interviews. This was all on top of my formal commitment to the festival, presenting at the official Secondary Schools’ days to audiences of hundreds of enthused, interested young people.

Today I’m getting ready for the Woodend Literary Festival, where I’ll be appearing with Lili Wilkinson and David Metzenthen before heading out to schools tomorrow.

In between these fun-filled events, I managed to get invited to a birthday dinner for my friend and esteemed colleague, Paul Collins. Naturally Meredith Costain was there, but joining us were Leigh Hobbs, Dmetri Kakmi and David Miller.

Meeting other writers is one of the most unexpected and most rewarding parts of having the job I do.  Spending my time with like-minded people, talking about books, reading and writing is my idea of heaven. It reinforces what an individual pursuit writing is, as we all do it differently. Oh, of course we use the same basic tools, but the approaches are  varied and as idiosyncratic, just as people are.

It also reminds me that I have the best job in the world.