Echuca International Women's Day

Yesterday I drove up to Echuca for an International Women’s Day event organised by the Campaspe library. What a beautiful setting! The library has a wall of windows opening out to a stand of gum-trees that the Heidelberg artists would be proud to paint.
Thanks to Jenny Mustey and her friendly band of library staff who organised an event that proved to be very popular, with eighty plus readers to listen to the speakers. I enjoyed it immensely (except for the fact that I had to speak after Dianne whose topic was ‘sex in the novel.’) You can’t win them all!
My fellow speakers were Fleur Ferris and Dianne Dempsey.
Fleur is the author of YA novel ‘Risk’ and she will release another book ‘Black’ later this year. Parents who want to warn their children regarding internet predators, should give them the novel ‘Risk’ to read. Fleur is an ex-police-woman and ambulance officer so she knows what she’s talking about.
Dianne Dempsey is a journalist and literary critic whose novel ‘Girls in Our Town’ was inspired by the Bob Hudson song of the same name. It’s a coming of age story, set in a country town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. This is particularly hard for Sheba, who is different in so many ways. She has an immature and irresponsible mother, a young sister who is being bullied, and is scarred both mentally and physically in an accident that killed her best friend. She is also intelligent and ambitious in a place where these traits are looked on with suspicion. A wonderful evocation of the song.
After the speeches, there was an interesting Q&A session followed by supper and book signing. I must thank Kristine and Daryl from the Collins bookstore for setting up for the sales of books. I hope those who bought my books enjoy reading them. It was great to meet so many readers.
I also met a volunteer with an interesting job. She takes books to those who can’t get to the library and reads widely so that she can cater for all her clients. What a great service to offer people who otherwise would miss out on the pleasure of reading.
I said in my speech that to those who say with some arrogance that they never read novels, I can only reply ‘poor you.’ There were a large number of women (and a couple of men) in Echuca who know exactly what I mean.
 
Yesterday I drove up to Echuca for an International Women’s Day event organised by the Campaspe library. What a beautiful setting! The library has a wall of windows opening out to a stand of gum-trees that the Heidelberg artists would be proud to paint.
Thanks to Jenny Mustey and her friendly band of library staff who organised an event that proved to be very popular, with eighty plus readers to listen to the speakers. I enjoyed it immensely (except for the fact that I had to speak after Dianne whose topic was ‘sex in the novel.’) You can’t win them all!
My fellow speakers were Fleur Ferris and Dianne Dempsey.
Fleur is the author of YA novel ‘Risk’ and she will release another book ‘Black’ later this year. Parents who want to warn their children regarding internet predators, should give them the novel ‘Risk’ to read. Fleur is an ex-police-woman and ambulance officer so she knows what she’s talking about.
Dianne Dempsey is a journalist and literary critic whose novel ‘Girls in Our Town’ was inspired by the Bob Hudson song of the same name. It’s a coming of age story, set in a country town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. This is particularly hard for Sheba, who is different in so many ways. She has an immature and irresponsible mother, a young sister who is being bullied, and is scarred both mentally and physically in an accident that killed her best friend. She is also intelligent and ambitious in a place where these traits are looked on with suspicion. A wonderful evocation of the song.
After the speeches, there was an interesting Q&A session followed by supper and book signing. I must thank Kristine and Daryl from the Collins bookstore for setting up for the sales of books. I hope those who bought my books enjoy reading them. It was great to meet so many readers.
I also met a volunteer with an interesting job. She takes books to those who can’t get to the library and reads widely so that she can cater for all her clients. What a great service to offer people who otherwise would miss out on the pleasure of reading.
I said in my speech that to those who say with some arrogance that they never read novels, I can only reply ‘poor you.’ There were a large number of women (and a couple of men) in Echuca who know exactly what I mean.