Fearless Women in fiction and reality

Greetings from the Canberra Bowling Club, where I am attending an author talk by Catherine McCullagh. The event is hosted by Fearless Women for book week. Catherine writes alternate history novels about strong women around WWII. 

I am not sure why I am here. I received an invitation via LinkedIn, but not sure who from. While a fan of alternate history war stories but who knows that?

The last time I was perplexed at an author talk they became a best seller. 

It was an entertaining and informative talk on how to write and some book excerpts. I suggested crowdsourcing details from fans as John Birmingham did for the Axis of Time aeries.

Is Australian Fiction Viable?

Alana Woods legal thriller "Automaton" is set in Australia, with 49 references to Canberra. Her second book, Imbroglio, does not mention Canberra, but is set in Australia (21 references). There is mention of the Defence Department, ASIO and the National Crime Authority.

When working on policy at HQ Australian Defence Force, I was once criticized by a US journalist who said that if I could not even spell "Defense" properly, I should not be writing policy. I wonder if for an international audience, it would be better if Alana set the novels in the USA, or in an anonymous city.

Alana is also the author of the non-fiction "25 essential writing tips: guide to writing good fiction". In this she points out that modern readers are impatient with long descriptions of location.

Kerouac and Burroughs on Instructional Technology

I was surprised to find Beat Generation authors Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs expressing a view on instructional technology for delivering open university courses in 1945. This is in Chapter 7 of their early, and not very good, semi-autobiographical novel: "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks". One of the characters expresses the view that recordings of university lectures will be broadcast by radio 24 hours a day, allowing access for anyone. The narrator of the story expresses skepticism over this idea.

Sydney Writers’ Festival

The 2012 Sydney Writers’ Festival is being held at Piers 2/3 and 4/5, Walsh Bay, Sydney. The easiest way to get to the festival is to walk from Circular Quay along the foreshore, past The Rocks and under the south pylon of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The two finger wharfs are joined by a link building with cafes and restaurants (there are more places to eat in the wharfs). The prime spot is a deck chair half way between the two piers, overlooking the "green room", where you can do some celebrity spotting.

There are volunteers roaming the area handing out programs. Many of the events are free. There is also a bookstore to browse and writers to talk to. I talked to Indira Naidoo about her book "The Edible Balcony", unlike other authors she was also handing out samples of the tasty pesto made with ingredients grown on her balcony (more in the Blog, "Saucy Onion").

The reason for visiting the writer festival today, apart from soaking up the atmosphere, was to attend "Old Scrags and Other Sheilas", featuring authors Susan Johnson, Kerry Greenwood and P.A. O’Reilly, with Kerryn Goldsworthy chairing. The authors discussed their female characters, particularly Loretta Boskovic in The Fine Colour of Rust (P.A. O’Reilly’s ) and Kerry Greenwood's Phyrne Fisher. They discussed the problem of being a female author who gets pushed into either having to write male characters or being pushed into "chick lit".

Kerry Greenwood mentioned that a new series of the TV adaption of Phyrne Fisher is to be made, that the actor selected for the role deliberately had an older appearance. She also commented that the Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST: a term from the X-Files), with Detective Inspector 'Jack' Robinson will be maintained. Kerry Greenwood will be appearing at the Sydney Writers’ Festival again, tomorrow, Sunday, May 20 2012 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM. As well as hare Phryne Fisher Series, Kerry Greenwood's Books include the Corinna Chapman Mysteries and Delphic Women.