The Sydney Writer’s Festival has now finished however what a fabulous event! An ecletic group of authors and commentators gathered for the two week ‘gig’ which celebrated the very best of all things bookish. By the queues many a reader was eager to listen to their favourite authors talk about their latest releases, discuss world events or provide social commentary on a range of issues. Throw in Sydney Harbour as a backdrop to the wharf venue and the Rocks area for some pm entertainment and you can just imagine the crowds and the buzz!

First off for me was the Stella Women Writer’s Prize launch luncheon. It was a pleasure to be invited and to listen to authors such as Di Morrisey and Tara Moss talk briefly about their work and give their support to the Stella which is hoped to be launched next year. The Stella was devised to address the gender imbalance and negative attitudes in women’s writing with many a female writer still writing under male pen names or using their initials in the hopes of being taken a little more seriously. How better an example can you have than the poorly coined chook lit phrase for rural literature. As Di Morrisey pointed out, once a genre  achieves a little success many can’t wait to put you down. Contrary to media and popular opinion the chook lit term is laughed at by many a writer and it doesn’t appeal to book club members either – Food for thought. If you write rural literature you fall into one of two general categories; rural romance or rural fiction. So let’s spread the word.

 Over the last few days I’ve listened to Kate Grenville talk all things historical with the culmination of her trilogy on the life and times of settlement in Australia with Sarah Thornhill. Michael Robotham talked about his early investigative days and the truth that lies at the heart of many of his crime novels, John Bell delved into Shakespeare and finally the Art Gallery of NSW provided plenty of reseach material for my next book. Whew! It was a busy few days. This week is National Library week and Simultaneous Storytelling on wednesday. Thousands of people across the country will be reading The Cranky Bear at 11am to promote literacy and reading skills in Australia. What a great time to be celebrating the National Year of Reading.