Browsing Tag

Chris Hammer

Festival bliss

15 May 2023

I bloody love festivals. Spending time with other writers – chatting with them onstage and off – is such a buzz. I always come away invigorated and buoyed up. I’m with my people – those who understand all the craziness of the publishing industry – and it is pure bliss. So I was absolutely delighted to be a part of the inaugural Sorrento Writers Festival, conveniently located in my ‘backyard’.

And what a festival it was. The unpredictable Naarm/Melbourne weather decided to play nice and we had glorious sunshine and big blue skies. The venues were all walking distance from each other, and every session that I attended was packed. It seems the peninsula has an avid reading population, though many came from further afield. The line-up of authors was ridiculously good – Christos Tsiolkas, Sarah Winman, Tom Keneally, Jane Harper, Marcia Langton, Craig Silvey and Chloe Hooper, to name but a few.

 

I moderated two panels and had the most fun. First up was Rijn Collins, who I have stalked on Instagram for some time, and Chris Hammer, an old Canberra mate. One of my favourite moments was when I asked Rijn about her writing rituals and she said, ‘Mine are very boring,’ then proceeded to describe how she wrote Fed to Red Birds with a tiny snake curled up inside her bra. So boring, right?

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Another fave was when I asked Chris about his highest high as a writer and he was brought to tears describing the bidding war for his debut novel, Scrublands, that changed his life. Afterwards he told me that he’s told that story plenty of times before and doesn’t know why in that moment it moved him so. I think the problem may be me, because on my second panel there were tears too. But when there is laughter and tears and all the feels I consider my job as moderator done!

Hilde Hinton, me, Pip Drysdale, Ramona Koval and Pirooz Jafari

My Sunday panel was the stellar line-up of Ramona Koval, Pip Drysdale, Pirooz Jafari and Hilde Hinton. It was a big panel to manage, but there was so much laughter and so many fascinating insights. I loved discovering that Hilde has to build Lego before a writing session (my son would approve) and that Pip has to effectively write in a cell – a place without windows or views, which right now is her garage. As a panellist and person, Ramona exudes such light and joy, and my fangirling rose another notch. Pirooz was such a wise and gracious presence and I loved that he was unable to name a lowest low as a writer – I ask this question on my podcast and he’s the first writer to ever say that there are no lows, only good things. It makes sense that having grown up in Iran, witnessing every human rights violation imaginable, publishing ‘lows’ mean nothing. It was a moment that put things into perspective for all of us.

Afterwards, Ramona Koval said the loveliest and most generous things about my skill as a moderator and I almost died on the spot. Having interviewed practically every author on the planet, praise could not come from a higher source! Totally made my festival.

Of the panels that I attended as audience member, my highlight was hearing Thomas Mayo recite the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It was such a potent and powerful experience, and an absolute privilege to be in the room. No photo I’m afraid because I was utterly spellbound.

 

I also popped into the gorgeous Antipodes bookshop to sign copies of Seree’s Story, and again into the onsite festival bookshop run by Avenue Bookshop to sign The Breaking (pictured with the wonderful Emily Westmoreland who also happens to be the genius behind Willy Lit Fest). Plus there were general author hangs to be enjoyed (clearly we were having a terrible time).

 

I’m delighted that the Sorrento Writers Festival will return next year, but in the meantime I’m looking forward to the aforementioned Willy Lit Fest where I will be in-conversation with the incredible Amelia Mellor, author of the bestselling The Grandest Bookshop in the World and The Booksellers Apprentice. And looking further ahead I’m doing a bunch of things at Write Around the Murray. It’ll be my first time there and I have heard only the very best things about that festival. Stay tuned!

All the happenings

8 July 2022

It almost feels like we’re back to normal with events again, and it was so lovely to recently head over to gorgeous Western Australia for the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival. I took a week beforehand to travel the coast from Bremer Bay to Margaret River and, my goodness, it is stunning! I knew that the beaches were all white sand and turquoise water but I didn’t realise that they were next-level stunning. World class, in fact. If anyone wants to hand me the job of WA publicist, I’m up for it! The weather was warm and we swam and hiked and explored and generally had the most glorious time.

 

I finished up with a weekend at the festival where I interviewed a bunch of lovely people for my Secrets from the Green Room podcast as part of a special partnership with the festival. It was so great to be hanging with my literary tribe again! The first ep with Claire G. Coleman is up now and – like all our guests – she speaks with brutal honesty about the writing and publishing process.

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Following her will be an ep with brother and sister duo Brooke Davis, of the international smash Lost and Found, and Rhett Davis, who won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for Hovering. It was such a delight being around these two lovely and very funny humans and witnessing their sibling bond. They both rated the green room soup as the best ever, and they weren’t the only ones to rave about it on the podcast. (Frankly, you may begin to think we have all gone a bit mad on soup, of all things.)

 

Third in line will be New York Times bestselling author Natasha Lester who I finally met after many years of online chat. We got very silly on the blue velvet couch in the green room and generally had a grand time. She is gorgeous inside and out, and I loved chatting with her both on and off the podcast.

Finally, I spoke with Australian literary royalty Craig Silvey of Jasper Jones and Honeybee fame. Because of a mix-up, we had to change the time of the interview to after the festival close on the final day. This meant we were the last ones left inside the locked building, bar the janitor. It felt like the beginning of a crime novel, but thankfully Craig did not murder me in the green room with a microphone stand. Stay tuned for these eps!

There have been more events since I’ve returned to Canberra. I had the absolute pleasure of being in-conversation with Ashley Goldberg about his debut novel, Abomination, at The Book Cow. Ashley took my editing course at the University of Canberra many years ago, so it is especially wonderful to see him publish his first book, and for it to be garnering such great reviews.

 

Ashley’s novel explores new territory for me as a reader. Abomination delves into the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Melbourne through the lives of two friends – atheist and secular Ezra and rabbi Yonatan – who are reunited by the sexual abuse trial of a former teacher. Neither of the students were violated by this teacher, and along the book pivots around this case,  it is really about the crises of identity that these two men are experiencing in different ways. The book explores identity, faith, family, love, belonging and what it means to be a good person. It’s such a thought-provoking and beautifully written book. I recommend you get yourself a copy!

Launching the Harry Hartog Tuggeranong store

During our chat Ashley revealed that he originally submitted his manuscript to the Penguin Literary Prize but it was not even longlisted. But guess who ended up publishing it? Penguin, of course, after his agent sent it through the usual channels. Publishing is full of weird stories like this – timing and luck is just as crucial as talent.

Last month I was also delighted to launch the beautiful new Harry Hartog store in Tuggeranong with crime author extraordinaire Chris Hammer and bookselling legends Robert and David Berkelouw. This bookshop is now my local – hurrah for that! A couple of weeks later, as part of their grand opening celebrations, I did a storytime event with my two latest picture books, Seree’s Story and Where the Heart Is. Meeting young readers has to be one of the best parts of this job, and I must give a special shout out to Yusuf from Bonython Primary who is on his way to becoming a published author.

A week later I passed the store and literally found my story. My novel, The Breaking, featured in a particularly gorgeous window display. Always a thrill! #findyourstory

 

Coming up I’ll be at the Canberra Writers Festival on 13 August. It’s great to be back out in the world talking books!

Secrets from the Green Room

22 October 2020

Mega exciting news! This year I’ve been busily planning a new writing podcast with my co-host Craig Cormick, called Secrets from the Green Room. Craig and I have known each other for more than 20 years. I first met him in my second year studying creative writing when he happened to be my tutor, and since then we’ve made books together, been in a writing group together, and now we’re hosting a podcast together. And boy is it a lot of work starting a podcast! I knew it would be, and yet…

Our tagline is ‘The author stories you won’t hear anywhere else’ because the podcast is taking green room chat live. When writers get together — be it in green rooms or bars or cafes — they talk frankly about the pleasures and pitfalls of writing and publishing in ways that they usually don’t when put on a stage at a festival. So Secrets from the Green Room is going to take you backstage, with thanks to our sponsor and supporter, the ACT Writers Centre.

Season 1 features James Bradley, Holden Sheppard, Karen Viggers, Chris Hammer, Anna Spargo-Ryan, and more. We talk about everything from rejected manuscripts that never made it to publication (Anna Spargo-Ryan), how the publisher you choose can have a big impact on sales — and no, it’s not necessarily about big versus small publishers (Chris Hammer), the perceived glamour of an author’s life versus the reality (Karen Viggers), being snubbed by literary big shots in the green room (Holden Sheppard) and so many other things besides.

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Ep 1 is now live! It features my interview with Anna Spargo-Ryan. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed talking to her about how she grew up with her own publishing house (sort of!), the manuscripts that never made it to publication, how she accidentally pitched a book on Twitter that led to a heated auction, what said heated auction involved (hint: a lot of emotional paralysis on the couch), the worst rejection of her writing life and a whole lot more.

You can find us on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen (obviously we’d love you to subscribe) and all the socials: Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (obviously we’d love you to follow). And you can drop us a line via our website. Hope you can join us for the ride!