You know I love a festival! And free bookmarks!

At the end of July, I’ll attend the Apollo Bay Wordfest for the 3rd year, really looking forward to that. Last month, I was able to attend a brand new festival that I really hope continues as it is even closer to home, IN Torquay!

Simon (DBM Signs and husband extraordinaire) was one of the sponsors for the Festival so I was lucky that they allowed me to come along and see all the presentations and panels for FREE! That was a wonderful bonus for me; as always, I wished I could be in more than one session at once; you can’t win them all, BUT, I got something out of every session I went to, and Simon went to a couple that I got to learn about vicariously through him; he even bought me some books that I’ve since devoured.

Thanks to the wonders of Borrow Box through the Geelong Regional Library, I’ve also been able to listen to several more books, and read a couple of ebooks we didn’t buy. What a great time of year to snuggle on the couch in the sun and read; yes it is my Summer holiday, but as I’m spending it in the depths of a Victorian Winter, it’s the perfect time to catch up on the TBR pile!

Since the festival, I’ve finished reading and listening to books by authors I knew of previously, like Mark Smith and JP Pomare and authors I was introduced to at the festival; like Troy Hunter and Sarah Bailey. The festival had a great variety of presenters and I learned something, and was entertained, at each of the SEVEN sessions I attended.

During the sessions, I pondered “Where is the Home of my Heart” while listening to Alli Sinclair. I was reminded why YA Lit is such a niche market, (not genre) as I listened to Miranda Luby, Troy Hunter and Karen Comer discuss their work and why they do what they do; Karen Comer loves the “intensity of feelings for that age group; ain’t that the truth says this mother of two daughters. I was compelled to google “existential grief” after Miranda Luby mentioned it 4 times. Other post panel googling involved refreshers on topics as varied as Carl Jung and Myers Briggs as well as learning about “The Future Project” out of Norway for the first time.

I’m was introduced to a new podcast and am now listening to “He Read She Read” with JP Pomare and Sarah Bailey thanks to attending their live podcast.

I’ve read my first romcom in years due to my husband loving up Steph Vizard’s session, it was sweet of him to buy The Love Contract for me, AND we even watched a romcom that night that Steph had recommended “Voicemails for Isabelle”. Move over British Crime Dramas…RomCom is angling for your top spot!

I was reacquainted with the work of Mark Smith who I’d met at last year’s Apollo Bay Wordfest; Mark wants to “demystify the experience of being in wild places” and I loved the discussion of that concept with his panel mates Tanya Scott and Luke Johnson. As far as advice for emerging writers, Mark commented that “the cleaner you can make the manuscript, the more likely it is to stand up.” Spoken like a true (former) teacher. That panel was really well facilitated by Andie Hamblin who asked the panel “How consciously do you build setting rather than have it just serve as a backdrop?” in regard to world building.

I really appreciated how many volunteers there were to help, and what a great venue it was and can’t wait for this to be part of my regular Winter schedule. Well done Team Surcoast Writers Fest!