It was another one of those sleep deprived nights as I got up early for the three hour drive to Brisbane on Saturday morning for the Brisbane Writers Festival. With Brittany from Nice Girls Read Books, I had my first attempt at driving in the middle of the city. Fun. We made it home in one piece and that’s the main thing. We’d been waiting for a month or so for Maggie Stiefvater’s workshop. It was a ticketed event limited to 16 people, and not everyone turned up, so it was an intimate setting. The two hour workshop flew by extremely quick. It was really relaxed with Maggie throwing back and forth around the small meeting room, letting each of us talk about what we’d been working on and asking her anything we liked.
I took down a lot of notes as she discussed a heap of things from plotting to characters and the elusive gimme points. It was a lot of fun. She had so much energy bursting from her that it felt nothing like a lecture. It was just her and us. She had her boarding pass with her which she’d used to scribble all over with a sharpie, full of various discussion topics. She talked about writing as a roadtrip where you know your destination but if you come across somewhere random like Little Norway along the way, you just have to check it out, even it turns out to be something completely worth avoiding.
Melissa from Spellbound By Books was also at the workshop too, so we got to meet up with her again. She’s become our Brisbane blogger friend that we keep catching up with. It was weird, but when we walked into the State Library, even though it was packed, we stumbled right into her. It happened twice too, after lunch as well. We should probably exchange numbers instead of relying on coincidence. Before Maggie had to leave, she stuck around after the allotted time and signed everyone’s books. I’d brought eight with me since I have both UK paperbacks and US hardcovers of the Wolves Of Mercy Falls series. She even signed the front of the cardboard box that houses the hardcovers so I can display her signature without having to flip open the books.
After Maggie, the three of us got tickets and went into Super Natural Superstars panel. Australian authors Marianne de Pierres and Trent Jamieson were there doing a Q&A. They talked about Spec Fic and crossing over between genres. They also discussed things like the Australian book industry and developing a network of people for researching and critiquing. The main point seemed to be that you need to be willing to ask others, as they’re usually happy to help. Marianne said that you need to get the people around you to realise that writing is a part of your life and you take it seriously. Because if you really want to write, you’ll find the time.
After it ended, we dashed out of the room and got to the very of the signing line downstairs. Marianne was so easy to talk to, and has a very distinctive Australian accent. She reminds me of someone but I’m struggling to figure out who. She hopped out from behind the desk for each of us so we could take our photos, which was awesome of her. I can’t wait to finish off Burn Bright now!
