Writers at the Convent - #4 Matthew Reilly

I thought I should hurry up and finish my posts on the Writers Festival before I couldn’t remember the details. The last session I went to was one for the boys – adventure/thriller writer, Matthew Reilly. Matthew is very popular with young men and teenage boys and the audience reflected this. It was the only session where males outnumbered females, and the average age was below 30! If you’ve read any of Matthew’s books you will know that they are fast paced, full of interesting weapons (James Bond, eat your heart out), quite a bit of head chopping and shoot them up scenes but, thankfully for us mums whose teenage sons are reading him, no sex. As Matthew says violence is big in his books, because if you are going to die, then you should die with a bang!

Matthew Reilly self published his first book, “Contest”, when he was 19 and studying for a law degree. He managed to sell 700 of them by door knocking booksellers and if you have one of these first copies with the blue cover, hold on to it – it’s worth quite a lot according to Matthew. Eventually picked up by an agent, he is now a worldwide bestselling author in his early thirties so can still relate to the audience he is writing for. The style of book he is writing is a reflection of what he liked to read as a teenager - Tom Clancy, John Grisham (the early stuff), Michael Crichton, etc. Who can forget “The Pelican Brief” or “Jurassic Park?  Matthew’s objective is to write a novel which you can’t put down and makes no apology of the fast pace and cliff hanger chapter ends of his novels as he believes that if you want readers to read energetically then that’s how you have to write them. When asked about whether it was necessary for scenes to be believable, he made an interesting comment that readers will let you get away with most things if you let the reader figure it out, and I have to agree that this makes his novels more readable.

Writers at the Convent - #3. Destinctive Debuts

My third session of the day was entitled "Destinctive Debuts" and the six authors who participated were a diverse mix.

"Do you want Sex with that?" by Claire Halliday

This book is part memoir, part investigation and considers the place of sex in Australian life.  What make's Claire's book different is that it considers the issues regarding sex in our society with reference to her own experiences.  The excerpt that she read from her book outlined, in uncomfortable detail, her own  negative experiences of sex as a young adult, and it made me shuffle in my seat not knowing where to look.  How sad her reading was.  Is this all our young girls have to look forward to?  I didn't really get a feel for her book from the reading, but have read reviews of it since. I am sure it would be very informative but I think that I want to keep my illusions about what happens out there a little bit longer.  "Too much information"  - as the saying goes.

"The Legacy" by Kirsten Tranter

Set in the world of art in New York, this mystery/thriller follows Julia's quest to find her friend, Ingrid, after she disappeared on September 11, 2001 - yes, 9/11.  As one review I have read said, 9/11 was a day when almost anything could happen.   Did Ingrid disappear or did something more sinister happen?  Although set in New York, the main characters are Australian, and the book is written by an Australian now living in New York.  To me this meant that the writing style had a bluntness to it, more in common with Australian fiction than that the American mystery/thriller writers that I am more accustomed to.  The book has had good reviews so I think I will put it on my "to-read" list for the future.

"Cooee" by Vivienne Kelly

Vivienne selected a scene from her book where the main character, Isobel, is having lunch with her reluctant son, Dominic, who resents that his mother left him when he was ten and just wants to get the lunch over with.  From the audience's response, I think a few could relate to the sense of defeat that Isobel felt as she tries to establish a relationship with her adult son.  I found the reading funny in a dark sort of way, but the book was not something that I will rush out and buy in the near future as I feel uncomfortable with this sort of humour and found the scene quite depressing.  If anyone has read this book, please let me know whether you liked it.

Writers at the Convent - #2. Stephanie Dowrick

Continuing on from my last post, I went to three other sessions at the Writers at the Convent Festival.  After lunch was the an interesting session with Stephanie Dowrick, author of books dealing with "personal, social, and ethical development" such as "Choosing Happiness"  (for more on Stephanie see her website at http://www.stephaniedowrick.com/.

Why Stephanie you might ask?  The "Mind, Body, Soul" genre is one of the fastest growing genres in book sales in the US and I'm sure that is so for Australia also.  Why are we looking for answers on happiness, intimacy, solitude, and forgiveness (all the subjects of some of Stephanie's bestselling books)?  I wanted to hear more from someone who is working in this genre everyday.  Stephanie's latest book "In the Company of Rilke" started life as a Phd thesis, and looks at the work of the 20th century German poet, Rainer Rilke.

Why Rilke?  Rilke lived during a time when the world was changing rapidly, becoming more mechanistic.  He wrote poetry about how we experience life - how my life connects with yours.  Rilke's poetry conveyed the message of not struggling to have answers, and to live the questions, at odds with the society in which he was living.  Stephanie could see parallels in society today, and talked about the idea of "surrendered living" to "awaken to whatever it is with freshness, and not be burdened by our preconceptions".  Putting it in my own context, I likened it to current parenting styles where "control" over outcomes has been the goal in recent years.  (That's the subject for another post).

Stephanie admitted that this book is very different from her previous books and thus would have a smaller audience, but she really wanted to make people less afraid of poetry, so that they might give it a go.  While much of what she said reflected the spirituality of her role as an interfaith minister, I did find much to ponder as I left the room.

Writers at the Convent - #1 Paris

I had a lovely afternoon on Saturday listening to a range of people talk about the books they had written.  I realised how much I like knowing what was in the author's head when they were writing the book or getting a feel for the type of person the author is.  It was the first time I had been to Melbourne's Abbotsford Convent and the surroundings are beautiful.  There are a few places to eat with umbrellas and tables outside and I was greatly tempted at 5 p.m. to sit down and order a glass of wine, open up one of the books I had bought and take in the view - but my husband and I are having an alcohol free month for February after the excesses of Christmas holiday period. Never mind, maybe next time.

My first session was with Shannon Bennett and Elizabeth Bard featuring food and Paris.  Shannon's book, "Shannon Bennett's Paris" is a mine of information about dining, accommodation, and foodie places to go in Paris, with a focus on Michelin starred restaurants, luxury accommodation, markets, bistros, and patisseries for the sweet treat.  For those of us not contemplating a trip in the near future, there are Parisian recipes to try at home.  Now you might think that you will never dine at a Michelin starred restaurant, but many of the empty nesters in the audience had not only dined at Shannon's Vue de Monde restaurant in Melbourne, but were looking for tips as to where to go in Paris for a similar experience.  Shannon made the comment that with the advent of celebrity chefs and sophisticated cooking shows on TV, we have become more aware of fine dining as a source of entertainment, not just food and thus are prepared to spend more when we go out.  He impressed the audience to think of going to a restaurant in Paris as going to the theatre, where the surroundings and the presentation of the meal at the table are as important as the food.

Writers at the Convent

On Friday I gave myself an early Valentine's Day present - I booked myself some sessions at the "Writer's at the Convent Festival" which is put on by Readers Feast, a bookshop in Melbourne city.  I'm sure my lovely husband would have done it for me if he knew about it, but as he didn't, I decided to take the initiative and do it for him!  This is an annual event, which runs from the evening of Friday 12th February this year until Sunday 14th.  From the media press release:

This year’s Reader’s Feast ◊ Writers at the Convent, Melbourne’s summer celebration of reading, writing, books and ideas will feature the now traditional diverse range of topics, including a look at when Melbourne was Australia's capital, the passion of football supporters, parenting, Jewish emancipation, parlour games, Weary Dunlop, Paris, sex, food, fire, crime and economics. Writers from the US, UK and New Zealand will join local luminaries.

I'll hear from Shannon Bennett and Elizabeth Bard on Paris, the subject of their books Shannon Bennett's Paris, and Lunch in Paris respectively.  Paris is a place I have visited twice under different circumstances, the first time with my husband as a young married couple where we did all those adult things such as sitting at an outside table in a cafe in Montmartre with a glass of beer watching the artists in the square, and dining at a small restaurant and laughing over trying to understand the menu with my limited french.  The second time with children, the the highlights were the Eiffel Tower, the merry go round at the base of the hill to the Sacre Coeur, the children's science museum, and, of course, Euro Disney.  I think I will enjoy hearing Shannon and Elizabeth's views of this legendary city.