It’s that time of year again! The Sydney Writers’ Festival! (insert excited giggle).

Australia’s largest literary festival begins on Monday 19th May and runs through till Sunday 25th May. With over 300 events, over half free, from Sydney to the Blue Mountains, the festival is one of my favourite events each year. The SWF hosts too many different events for me to mention here but just to give you an idea what may be on the program here are a few things I have attended over the last few years – readings, interviews of literary greats, debut authors and journalists, poetry and music, short stories read by some of Australia’s leading actors, naughty improv from celebrities at the Festival Club (can’t explain this one – you had to be there!), live music, writing workshops, book signings and more. Along with many other events for children, the SWF also runs the School Days program in Sydney, Parramatta Riverside Theatre and the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith. This years School Days program features award-winning Australian authors as well as author Cornelia Funke of the Inkheart trilogy.

Introduced to me by my literary minded friend Angela, my writers Festival experience began in 2010 at the beautifully restored art-deco inspired Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. The events at the Carrington are run by Varuna, The Writer’s House for the Sydney Writers Festival, and are held in the dining room of the hotel. Each year we usually arrive early and casually drape scarves and coats across a few chairs to save our seats before nicking out for tea and coffee under the scrutiny of the (mostly) elderly flock of attendees. We feel really young at this event! Don’t get me wrong though, our lack of grey hair does not stop us from enjoying this amazing literary function with its impressive line up of Australian and international authors each year as well as new authors on the literary rounds for the first time.

I am bit scared at what I will be tempted to go to this year. Before I book too much can somebody please remind that I am supposed to be ‘working’ on my writing! A few days immersing myself into the reading and writing heaven of the Writers Festival won’t hurt will it??

This years program launches on Thursday the 3rd April, with tickets on sale on Friday 4th at 9am. Go to the Sydney Writers Festival website and check out this years program, or see the full list in Saturdays Sydney Morning Herald.

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First month of Lisa & Holly’s Online Book Club

It’s the 1st of April today, so please let me know in the comments (for yourself or on behalf of your child) on my Lisa & Holly’s Online Book Club page if you are interested in joining us this month. Both books have great reviews and should be a good read.

To purchase: Apple iTunes for iBook or Amazon for Kindle, or if you would like an actual real book there are plenty of online options such as Boomerang Books,  Bookworld, or Booktopia as well as, of course, your local library or bookstore.

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Lisa’s Spec Fiction Reading Challenge

I am happy to update that I have finished reading the following books from the Aurealis Awards Finalists and can add these titles to Lisa’s Spec Fiction Reading Challenge page. Both books are great and my reviews will feature in future posts.

Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Song for a Scarlett Runner by Julie Hunt

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Aurealis Awards (see recent post ‘Welcome to my Library’ for more details)

I can’t wait for my first Aurealis Awards (Australia’s Premier Speculative Fiction Awards) on Saturday night in Canberra, and I am excited to be able to squeeze in the Conflux Writers Day which is held on the day of the awards. I am really looking forward to the day as not only does the program include pertinent talks for spec fiction writers there will also be information on building an online presence (I’m trying!), presenting your blog posts for maximum impact (could use some ideas!), planning your writing career, (what career!) along with the art of critiquing others, self editing and using Scrivener and Evernote to write stories. Should be a good day!