Sydney Writers Festival 2009 Weekend!
Last weekend (May 23rd + 24th), about 30 Obernetters gathered in Sydney for the Sydney Writers' Festival 2009 - to attend the Isobelle Carmody / Garth Nix panel on Sunday.
With a hoard of interstaters staying in Darling Harbour and most people in Sydney for two full days, much fun was had by all!
This post is to document the parts of the meet that everyone may be interested in - specifically, our encounters with our beloved author :)
Part 1Saturday, 23rd May - SummaryBasically...I pulled a sneak attack on everyone who had met us in Sydney on the Saturday morning. I
said I had an appointment in the Apple Store. I had
actually arranged a secret meet up with Isobelle, as a surprise for anyone who'd come to socialise on the Saturday morning. So myself, Tanya, MK and Firefall headed to the Apple Store on George street - while everyone else waited for us at Max Brenners, thinking that I was getting my iPhone fixed.
Isobelle came back to the cafe with us - surprised everyone - then proceeded to spend the next 3 hours with us (from 11, until about 2:30pm), answering questions, sharing information and just having a general chat.
News revealed!- The Sending will be launched some time between February and March, 2010. Yes, that's next year, folks!
- The Sending Launch will take place in Melbourne, and - while this is still subject to change - Isobelle is wanting to host it as a Masked Moonfair!!
- The reason for the theme - because there is a Masked Ball in The Sending (go here for speculation!)
- She has also currently been writing a short story for another Jack Dann anthology (similar to Dreaming Down Under and Dreaming Again) - in which she has written a story from Another Obernewtyn Chronicles Character's Perspective.
- The New Talent (that she revealed Xmas in the Obernet Chatbox - see here for full details - ) is NOT teleportation!
- She won't tell us who killed Alexi ;) (again, see here for details)!
- Once The Sending is finished, she will be working on completing The Firecat's Dream (The Gateway Trilogy), and then Darkbane.
You can find a transcript of (some!) of our catch up with Isobelle,
here.
There was a ton more information, about books and themes and such, and far too much for us to remember and document! I'm sure other people who were there will want to put in their recount of events for everyone here too.
But I just want to say - thank you again, Isobelle - it was an amazing surprise for everyone and it was so lovely of you to take time out of your schedule to catch up with us all!
hopefully this piccie is small enough that nobody minds being in it. If you want your face removed (and replaced by a smiley :) ), just PM me.We were a mob. There's no getting around it XD
About 30 of us ended up showing up for the Panel, which discussed how to write Fantasy for Young Adults. The panel included Isobelle Carmody, and Garth Nix.
Obernet queued for about an hour before hand, and were the first into the auditorium - promptly taking up the first three rows (hence - MOB).
It was a very interesting Panel, which I'm sure other people will remember more than I do - and then after that came the book signings. We caught up with Isobelle again, got some photos and gave her some gifts (a signed 'scroll' from all the members who'd been at the meet, and a copy of a book we'd been talking to her about the day before), before she had to dash off to the airport for 5pm. Before she left, she came out and handed me a birthday card |:( that all the sneaky Obernetters had arranged the day before.
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So, there's a very, very brief summary of the weekend. Like I said before, I don't want to hog the space here, so anyone else feel free to post up their recount of events on either day. If I've forgotten anything major, either edit this post, or PM me the details.
