Mark Day, journo with "The Australian", (in fact, nearly a 50-year veteran according to his blog) gets stuck into the teenagers of today for what appears to be no apparent reason - someone on a skateboard cut him off perhaps. Lili Wilkinson didn't take too kindly to his sentiments and wrote and told him so. Day was always asking for it with statements like: "...in the face of evidence that young people are not reading." Which face is that Mark?
Sheryl Clark went along to the Crime and Justice Festival held in Abbotsford in July. She was at the same Stuart McBride session (the interview with Lucy Sussex) as myself. Sheryl thought some of Lucy's questions were disjointed. The problem was that McBride was very slow to start off and seemed to jump around a bit - I actually whispered that to my wife at the time. Once he settled down to a narrative style rather than static answers the interview seemed to flow pretty well. It's a common problem.
Angela Savage was also at the festival, but in a moderator capacity. I'm sorry I missed the Disher panels, but real life, in the form of my son's basketball, intervened.
Kim Wilkins is rather upset at a note in "The Australian" which disparaged an Agent and an Author. I remember reading the comment at the time and thinking it seemed a little funny. I couldn't understand why an agent would say that about their author. Anyway, Wilkins has the full story plus quotes.
"Adelaide from Adelaide" is in Edinburgh with her children and pondering the problems of being a writer and a mother. I suspect the answer lies in treating the writing like a job: you leave the home behind in the morning and return in the evening. The intervening hours are just plain "work", boredom and all.
