Wow, just checked stats and found I have had VISITORS – quietly alarmed as this blog is very new. Nevertheless, welcome one and all, please excuse the packing boxes dotted around, I hope to be settled in soon.
Belatedly reporting on the extraordinary phenomenon that was the QWC/Orbit manuscript development program. Part of me is still walking along the beach on Bribie Island, dreaming up solutions to make my manuscript perfect. I was amazed that my novel Kindred Spirit was selected; conversation with other participants revealed I wasn’t the only one, and I was happy to learn this is apparently also common amongst much more experienced and well-known writers, too. Good to feel part of the gang…
Thanks especially to the amazing Kate Eltham (CEO, Queensland Writers Centre) and the wonderful Julie Beveridge; also to Bernadette Foley and Deonie Fiford from Orbit/Hachette Livre for their insights, support, honesty and encouragement – and of course to both organisations for making the program possible.
Thanks too to wonderful author Marianne de Pierres whose perspicacity and good humour were matched only by her generosity, warmth and skill at badminton. And of course thanks to Tara Wynne from Curtis Brown Australia and Ron Serdiuk from Pulp Fiction Press – I’m sorry you guys couldn’t share our island paradise for longer, it was a blast!
And finally, thanks to my fellow participants (working title Orbiteers, until we go through a democratic process to finalise our name). You guys rock!
Back row: Author Marianne de Pierres, Terence Hornby, Susan L Cullen, Jeremy Gordon, Graham Storrs, Joanne Clay, J-A Brock
Front row: Fiona Sawyer, me, QWC’s Kate Eltham, Joanne Anderton, Luke Keioskie
