Writing a new weekend

A day off work too catch some more sessions on the second (and also last) Friday of the Fest.

First up was the very interesting Nicholas Shakespeare. I was keen to see him because I loved the film 'Dancer Upstairs' which he wrote (both the book and screenplay), had enjoyed reading 'In Tasmania' on a trip to Tassie and admired his work on Bruce Chatwin. He seems to be touched by coincidence quite often.  Case in point when he was writing his first book about a Peruvian 'freedom fighter' he wanted to write about him disappearing from public life and decided a good motivation could be that he had psoriasis.  Then he was researching for 'Dancer Upstairs'; he finds the way they discovered the real guy he based his character on was identified for certain by a tube of cream they found in his rubbish - cream for treating psoriasis. The female character was given the name Yolande, a couple of years ago when Nicholas was writing a story about the possible freeing of the freedom fighter he was given access to the 'dancer' in jail.  When they meet she tells him that her middle name was...Yolande! There were a few others and you can see the whole 'conversation' on SlowTV in a few days.

I was happy to let him know how much fun and interest his book had added to my trip around Tassie last year.  He asked which parts of Tassie I had enjoyed most and agreed Bicheno was a beautiful area.  This let on to a brief chat about needing to walk away from beauty to appreciate it. I guess that's why the concept of places like Queensland where the weather is constant leave me empty, if there is no variety or marked 'difference' how do you appreciate what is special about such places.

In the afternoon the gorgeous Jana Wendt talked about the meaning of 'work' and her book 'nice work'. Some marvellous stories about the people she met when writing her book, including an obese priest facing his last congregation, a boxer whose marriage is falling apart and a forensic specialist at the time of Black Saturday and her work in Dili. A strong but fascinating session and some good audience questions to fill it all out.

To end the day it was a real thrill to listen in on a conversation with the entertaining Steve Toltz, author of one of my favorite books, the epic and marvellous 'A Fraction of the Whole'.  Steve seems to have led an interesting and possibly 'imaginative' life.  it took him five years to right the book and was originally 1000 pages but after eight rejections he eliminated a character which pared it down to the not inconsiderable 711 pages it became. This didn't guarantee acceptance though, he went through another eight rejections before he started to get some positive enquiries. Now it sells in 20 non English speaking countries as well as Oz, NZ, UK and the US. Asked which of the book's characters he liked best he said that if each character represents a facet of an author then he has to 'like' them equally.He is secretive about his next book but doesn't think it will be as lengthy as the first. The briefest of chats with him afterwards where I commented on the range of people in the audience, a real mix of ages and 'types'.  He said he had noticed too and was thrilled by it, I guess it stops him being pigeon holed as a certain market writer. One of his comments I particularly liked was that he said it was pretty cool to be on book shop shelves next to Tolstoy!

So, only a few sessions to go.

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Beautiful Bicheno Tasmania

A thought on the political scene too.  Wilkie has done a good thing and it's now to be hoped the whole thing is over and done with on the weekend, I think at least one of the independents will make his decision known. I can't believe how badly the coalition has handled this in the last couple of days, it's as though they are losing the plot. Andrew Robb appears to be still fighting the election campaign, Joe Hockey has reverted to the Howard days and flat out lying about the budget black hole - which has simply served to convince most of us that the reason they didn't want their figures checked was because they knew there was a black hole.And the billion dollar carrot Abbott offered Wilkie was an obscenity and was like a bacchanalian frenzy and yet there is only 'surprise' when it was rejected. Then the barbs come out to bag Wilkie big time, from the same team that would have had him jailed for treason a few years back but forget also that Wilkie was once a paid up member of the Libs, then became a Green so any assumed alliance to Labor was drawing a long (albeit hopeful) bow.Anyway come Monday we will have a much missed (?) government and we can get on with it all for as long as it lasts.