APRIL ROUND UP

April was fabulous, I got lots done, work was crazy busy, and I had fun.

 

The month started with the wonderful Newcastle Writers Festival, which was also the end of my little staycation.

 

I finally framed some of my art and hung them in my place!

Work was full of training, me working with our new trainee, all of us doing this marvellous strength training and various side projects relating to it. I did plenty of stock work, we had great school holiday programs, and all the usual stuff! We also headed out for a team dinner at Parry Street Garage, excellent meal! I am lucky to have such a great job, I really know it. I have moments of frustration, but that’s because I love what I do and want perfection and wonderful and to get that you need to trample through mud to get that. But you know, mostly my time at work, makes me smile and feel content and for that I am grateful.

I finally succumbed to the NBN, which after some initial annoyance is working wonderfully and as part of the deal got Foxtel installed. Trialling it for free for a few months, so loving having access to some things, especially Game of Thrones live! This was rather time consuming and annoying to get moving, but glad I kept pushing through as it is great, saving me money, and adding a little extra couch surfing to my life, lol!

 

I spent a late Saturday walking around the beaches in Newcastle and witnesses the most spectacular sunset at Nobbys. I really cherish living in an amazing town where I can do such things, be with my own thoughts, take some photos, daydream, and be me.

 

I got to meet National Treasure, Tom Keneally and his lovely daughter at the latest Share the Story with Carol Duncan at Belmont Library.

 

I saw the latest David Williamson play at The Civic with M and P, which was good but not great.

Of course Prince died and my inner world was rocked once again, come on universe no more unnecessary deaths for a while please!

 

I spent time with the wonderful A and also the gorgeous J, I think you guys – separately – save me and make me a better person!

 

We celebrated my sister’s birthday with a family gathering and a great Italian meal at El Nonnos.

 

I looked after myself with a flushot, hair and beautician appointments, and purchasing some essential oils at a lovely afternoon workshop with my wonderful friends A and B.

 

And ended the month with my gals, A, J, and L, eating, drinking, chatting, and laughing at our French Night!

As always there was markets and sunsets and bookclub and my reviews on books, cds, dvds etc.

 

 

NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

Newcastle Writers Festival is possibly my favourite weekend of the year. I always organise to have nothing stop me from seeing everything I wish and then some. As a Librarian, reading and writing are my everything, and really have been my entire life. If you took that away from my I am unsure I would be able to put one foot in front of the other anymore. To escape into another world, learn something new, or just wonder at the brilliance of someone who can string some words together in a way that makes your heart skip a beat...that is the beauty of reading.

 

My preference is Non-Fiction or The Truth. I love factual writing, or opinionated writing, I may not always agree with what some people write, but I am interested in reading it anyway. I also dabble a little with writing myself, as you see here. It is mostly review or memoir style writing and that is what I am most comfortable with. I do not proclaim to be a writer, but I do love to write...I’ve already got a day job.

 

This is why I love taking the time for real writers. They have so much to give us, so many ideas, so many thoughts, hearing the inspiration or story behind their own creativity thrills me every time.

 

After a few days of a festival as full and as varied as this one, you are exhausted, but also uplifted in a way that is very difficult to describe. And it is not just from the sessions you attend but the buzz of being there too.

 

I try to mix the sessions I attend up with local and small or helpful writing sessions, and the bigger, more glamorous names. Sometimes it is difficult to choose from the program as there are sessions running simultaneously and you just cannot clone yourself!

 

This year I caught up with locals talking about Grieve, Shakespeare, Local History, Memoirs, and how to write. They all were fabulous to listen to, and gave me numerous ideas to assist with my own writing. This is key to such a festival.

 

The superstars were of politics: Stan Grant, Kerry O’Brien, David Marr, and Tony Windsor...in a world where I am interested in the truth, how we are governed and what people think of this is as truthful as it gets. Richard Glover and Nigel Milsom showed me much beauty can come out of great pain. I am thankful to have shed a tear at their truth.

 

But mostly it was the unexpected that I loved at this festival.

 

The unexpected is when you are taking notes at a session about X and you go off on a tangent and make notes about Y and Z instead, because a little snippet of what someone said took your brain off on a tangent or a drift that you cannot escape. Your mind becomes heightened and you see things far more vividly. I took some great photos over the weekend, my eye for beauty was sharper than usual. This is because you are narrowed or focused on particular things over this short period of time in a way you just normally are not.

 

The unexpected comes from conversations with people you meet. These can be people you don’t know, or people you run into that you know or have not seen in a long time. You’ll chat about this and that, all festival related, a glow comes over everyone, you are all basking in the pleasure of really using your brain in ways you love, and your heart is beating faster than normal, and you are full of positivity and love and ideas and everything. Connections are closer and tighter because you mostly walk about and attend sessions on your own in a little bubble of thoughts and creativity, so when someone pokes that bubble you explode with all that and more. It is a thing of beauty, never do I see and talk to so many wonderfully happy people.

 

This is the intangible thing about festivals, the added extras, the feelings that are hard to express, you leave feeling utterly exhausted, yet so full of joy and information and creativity you could burst. You have experienced many little epiphanies, cultured a few great ideas, feel more creative than you have in ages, but mostly need a long nap.

I drove away from Newcastle Writers Festival on Sunday afternoon feeling all of that and more, I felt great but also a little sad it was over and a little sad for those who didn’t get the opportunity to experience such wonder, or who may never get that opportunity. It you haven’t attended Newcastle Writers Festival, you simply must, it will be on next year from 7-9 April and half the sessions are free. There is no excuse not to attend.

 

Finally I give my thanks to the brilliant Rosemarie Milsom and her lovely little team of helpers and her army of volunteers, what a wonderful service you all assist with! Thank You!!!

 

You can read more about my experiences here:

 

Newcastle Writers Festival, Day One

 

Newcastle Writers Festival, Opening Night

 

Newcastle Writers Festival, Day Two

 

Newcastle Writers Festival, Day Three

NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL: Day Three

Tony Windsor and David Marr

Sunday began at The Playhouse with Tony Windsor and David Marr. What a great way to start the day with a packed audience eager to here from the gentleman of politics.

Tony was everything you expected him to be, kind, considerate, honest, forthright and also funny. David Marr was perfect and affable, quick witted and intelligent. What a pair. So much information flew back and forth it is difficult to remember it all, suffice to say Tony had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. He spoke about many politicians and always with considered kindness, but the one he spoke of with the most fondness with Julia Gillard, which was heartening to know. He thought she the most calm politician he has ever come across and that she was also genuinely friendly.

He felt people like Abbott and Turnbull were more interested in being PM than actually why they were there and what they wanted to do, which is not a good thing. 

Climate change is the reason he is back. He feels his constituents deserve better and he is hopeful he can assist them and the country.

We lined up to get our books signed after the session, and he was kind and took time with everyone to say hello and chat. What a sheer pleasure and how nice is it to know there are politicians with integrity out there.

We'll Always Have Paris

This was a delightful session with writers, Jean Kent, Patti Miller, and Marion Halligan and hosted by Caroline Baum.

All the writers have lived in and written about Paris so they had many wonderful tales to tell. Caroline is half Parisian and also knew they city well. They spoke about many things such as homelessness, food, tourism, and the whole appeal of the city.

They spoke about the fact that most people arrive in Paris with a preconceived notion of the city, from film, books, posters, history. It is the one city that you feel you can know and love without ever having visited. I know I felt that way before I visited Paris. They spoke about how even so, the city will still exceed expectations, which is so very true.

Some who have been going there for years have noticed a change in the city with tourism, others not so much. They spoke about the little villages within the arrondissements, their love of the chemists that are everywhere (this is true, you cannot walk a few block without seeing the neon green cross that marks a chemist in Paris).

They spoke about living in small apartments as part of writers workshops, and making the apartments their own, finding the perfect Boulangeries in their area, or the right food at the supermarket or market. Patti told a lovely story of how she joined a choir in Paris, despite not knowing much French or even being able to sing that well.

The whole session was a delight that took me back to my time in Paris, which is always a great thing.

The Story of a Painting: Nigel Milsom and Charles Waterstreet

After catching up with friends for lunch I headed to the Art Gallery for this sold out event. There was much anticipation in the room as the guest sat down.

After some hilarious back and forth, Nigel told the shocking story of how the painting almost missed being entered in the competition. He had finished it the night before entry and had laid it down to lacquer it and leave it overnight. But woke to the sound of dripping in his shed and the rain had entered a leak in the roof and there was the portrait with a large puddle of water in the middle.

His initial response was that is that, his chance was gone, but he knew he would disappoint Charlie, so he wiped it off, got out his hair dryer, and re-laquered it. The truck picked it up later that afternoon and it arrived at the NSW Art Gallery with 2 minutes to spare!

Charles obviously didn't know this story and was shocked to hear it, but pleased it turned out ok.

The dynamics between the two very good friends was obvious, a deep mutual love in the very best of a bromance. Their story of intertwine goes back to their childhoods with Nigel's Dad catching fish for Charles' Dad's pub. Nigel is very quiet and introspective while Charles is uniquely out there, loud and a huge ego that even he will attest to.

Nigel said Charles was an unusual creature, why wouldn't you want to paint him, but we all knew it went deeper than that. Charles said it was an honour at all times to represent Nigel, who had had a terrible run with the justice system and it was a gift and his duty to see Nigel through.

Nigel spoke about how he has to paint, painting is his holiday, he shocked almost everyone when he said he wasn't entering the Archibald this year. 

Nigel also spoke about why the hands were so distinctive on the painting, because he used them in court, throwing things around and such.

Charles was over the top and wild, whilst Nigel was softly spoken and quietish, yet they were like the perfect duo. It was an extreme pleasure to be in the company.

The best examples of their personalities and friendship came after the painting won the Archibald and Charles suggested they run off a few hundred lithographs and charge heaps. Nigel's response of horror was that he was not Ken Done!

Touche!

Making Your Writing Pop

This was the final session of the day with Jessie Ansons, Maree Gallop, Anna Lundmark, and Diana Threlfo. The form part of a writing group who meet fortnightly to help each other with their work.

They had many great ideas from what not to do, to tips and tricks. They approached the session with a lovely mix of humour and discipline!

And it left us all keen to get home and start writing from all the inspiration we had taken in all weekend.

NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL: Day Two

Saturday is the big day of the festival, and I was in there at 9am to grab a Gozleme breakfast at the Olive Tree Markets. But once it hit 10am, it was on!

Writing about loss

Panel discussing Hunter Writers Centre's Grieve Writing Project. The project began as a Hunter initiative but with finding became a National competition. 500 words for Prose or 36 lines of Poetry.

The word Grieve is interesting within the project. You are being asked to Grieve as you write. Everyone has a story. And each story is varied. Threads of hope weaved throughout the stories. Everyone's voice is authentic.

The panel included palliative care workers, a mother who wrote of her son's suicide, and a detective who worked many suicide cases. He wants to make that person's life honorable.

Giving language to grief is very important . Acknowledging it can help heal the person and the community. Call it what it is.

Write with your heart and don't stop. Edit with your head later. Form a relationship with your grief. Give it a name. Write as if no one will actually see it.

 

This Writing Life, Camel Bird with Michael Sala.

Carmel is so prolific that it takes Michael a good 10 minutes to introduce her. So much so that Carmel said she felt quite tired hearing it all.

Michael asks Carmel how she begins a story or her writing process. She describes imagery or the thing that is out of place can often be inspirational in terms of starting a story.

Throughout the chat little snippets of wisdom appear to assist with the writing process.

Always be ready for inspiration to hit you.

At the heart of writing there is a sense of play.

Jump in and play around in it then step back and see what you've done.

Go with your own instinct in how you work. You're an individual.

She then read her short story Monkey Business.

Then they spoke about using SM as authors. Carmel is an early adopter and a fan.

The story if it is strong enough will lodge itself and dwell with the reader. But just keep writing for you

 

The Aftermath: memoir writing, what happens when the private becomes public.

Michael Sala, Kate Holden, Rebecca Starford, with Magdalena Ball

Michael doesn't shy away from his truth.
Rebecca says it all exists on the page, separate to her.
Kate says other people are more cool about it than she is.

When is it best to write your truth? When you are ready you'll know. However a greater degree of reflection, the distance of time and the further you are away from the situation/time will help.

So it depends of the actuality of your truth now. And memory is unreliable.

Kate quotes Helen Garner, If you're going to be hard on others, be hard on yourself.

And they all day if you're not upsetting ppl then your bks are not that interesting.

 

Talking to my Country
Stan Grant with Jill Emberson

The piece Stan wrote about Adam Goodes was written just on a year ago. He had only been back in the country 2.5 years. He was driven to write it and his wife suggested he do it and send it to The Guardian.

His life has been fundamentally changed by this moment and speaking up about it. He didn't anticipate it and is still working through how to handle it.

Jill mentions how subtle it all is.

Stan says words matter. There is a rhythm and musicality to how words are put together. You must choose your words carefully especially when expressing complex ideas. He is also aware that words can be turned against you and one false move can be fatal.

Talking to my Country means talking to his land, the physical country. We connect - no matter who we are or where we've come from - through our country.

What's different now? Nothing really and he's mindful of those that came before him, saying similar things at a far riskier time. He's very aware of standing on the shoulders of giants.

Key theme of the day, we need to think of this as an Australian issue not an Indigenous issue.

Such a gently spoken, articulate, intelligent man, this was by far my favourite session of the day. You felt humbled to be in his presence listening to his thoughts and ideas.

Beyond the Spin: dissecting our political leaders with Kerry O'Brien, David Marr, Paddy Manning and hosted by Steve Lewis

 

O'Brien gave an overview of Keating.
Marr on Shorten.
Manning on Turnbull

Great discussion on the lack of forward thinking of Turnbull. O'Brien felt the same about Rudd. They both were so keen to gain leadership it would appear they didn't think about anything to do once they got there, minimal policies and nothing to really make the job their own.

O'Brien feels the barnyard media is to blame for the barnyard politics abs vice versa. Though he didn't want to piss on all his colleagues.

Huge rant on the state of democracy and worry for future Australians and democracy from O'Brien.

So much more amazing thoughts and other insights it was hard to keep up, but a thoroughly entertaining session by some of the great minds in political media.

Who's got the weirdest parents with Richard Glover

There really is no way to describe this session, if you have read Richard's memoir as I have you will understand. This man has had the most bizarre and traumatic upbringing but somehow has escaped untouched, well mostly. His session was more like a stand up/best of the book, which was entertaining and had me in tears from laughter and melancholy in equal parts.

He is the most delightful, adorable, sweet, and smart man.

Basically his memoir - besides being a healing process for himself - is to show people that no matter what you go through with your family you can come out the other side ok and you just learn to find the love elsewhere.

 

Such a great day, the first three sessions were very helpful to me in terms of my own writing and a particular project I embarked on a few months back. Listening to the writers talk about their situations and how they tackled writing about them was assurance to me that I am on the right track with my own memoir from a less than pleasant part of my own life.

The final three were extreme entertainment with intellectual and exciting thoughts and ideas that really got my mind buzzing. Such a pleasure, I came home totally exhausted but feeling very creative and full of ideas and hope.

NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL: Opening Night

Opening Night of Newcastle Writers Festival is always a great evening out. You can feel the excitement and buzz of everyone ready to take on the next two days. It is a feeling of anticipation and wonder.

This year Opening Night was held for the first time at The Civic Theatre and what a splendid venue it is for such an important evening.

James Valentine hosted the evening again and gave a great speech about reading and how wonderful it is to be a reader in this golden age of books. So true, for years people have been asking me about the future of books like they are dodo birds. I have never bought the theory that the book is dead, not because of fear but because I never actually saw it. I know personally my own to read list grows exponentially each year so things are indeed quite peachy!

Rosemarie Milsom, without whom there would be no festival, gave her best ever speech. She spoke with passion about the festival's fourth year, those that tirelessly assist her and seeing her own family grow with the festival and it was a thing of beauty. Words make a book, and books make a festival, so Rosemarie's words made it all so personal and touching, that you just knew the following days would be spectacular.

The entertainment for the evening was John Doyle and Tim Flannery, riffing off each other in a way true long time mates can. Doyle was a laconic and dry as ever, and Flannery earnest and full to the brim of geeky and important information about this land of ours, the creatures on it, and what we are doing to it. The talk was funny, informational, intelligent, and political. Everything you want from an evening such as this. I personally could have listened to them chat all night.

Then night ended and I drove home full of excitement and wonder, thinking about the next two very full days that lay ahead!

NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL: Day one

What a lovely morning it was in Newcastle for Day 1 of the Newcastle Writers Festival.

 

The first session of NWF16 was an interesting if at times dry session on Shakespeare. Called What's Special About Shakespeare and featuring Professor Hugh Craig, the deputy head of the Faculty of Education and Arts at the University of Newcastle.

He wanted to show how exceptional Shakespeare was, if we had to prove it to martians that had just landed. His main theory on Shakespeare was his large vocabulary, and he had the numbers to back his theory.

 

An educated person uses 3000-4000 words, back in the day Milton, the poet about 8000 and Shakespeare himself around 15000, which is an utterly exceptional vocabulary.  In fact it is more like 25000. Craig then went on not to talk about many of the magnificent phrases and words Shakespeare invented but to show how he used basic words, eg To be or not to be. Perfect grammar, simple words, and huge philosophical resonance.

He referenced many post modern takes on Shakespeare, including the famous What would Cordelia do, eg if Cordelia was Desdemona, she would never have denied losing that handkerchief and therefore would not get herself into the drama she did by lying. This brought about much amusement within the room.

 

His other theory was Richard III is the ultimate normal character! Despite being a rogue and all round bad boy, his actual language matched that of other leading characters. His attitude and madness adds to the complexity of the character and makes him full and well rounded. All these things adding to Shakespeare’s specialness.

 

And so to be a good writer, much like Shakespeare, one should use the word My Lord more often (this phrase is used heavily within Shakespeare), avoid the word only (he doesn’t use it much) and place the word gentle (a firm favourite) here and there and ensure your characters talk of basic and normal things, no matter how deranged or complex they may be.

 

Session two was a Book Launch and Discussion on King Edward Park, Newcastle NSW: A History by Robert Evans.

Robert Evans was unfortunately unwell and unable to attend but Dr Ann Hardy who had assisted on the research of the book was there to talk about it. 

There are only a few Indigenous stories linked to King Edward Park in the early days. One is regarding Newcastle South Beach and falling rocks (nothing changes!), and how there were stories of the indigenous people walking swiftly along that route and holding their breath if they heard the noise of possible rocks. The other story is about the hill where the obelisk now stands, this was where Newcastle and Lake Macquarie tribes would come to fight it out.

 

King Edward Park was established in 1850/1860 and was always government land, and eventually was put aside for the public. Although some councilors of the time felt the public were undeserving of such a cultural place. (again, some things never change). Newcastle was very much influences by miners and mining at the time and for many years thereafter and anything cultural was very much the minority and frowned upon.

 

Having said that once the park was established, it was well used for sports, promenades, a meeting and social place, and somewhere to laze about. There were struggles in getting well designed gardens in the 1880s and furthermore in the 1930s.

Session three featured Ann Beaumont and Gionni Di Gravio, and Ann’s biography of Edward Charles Close, founder of Morpeth.

Ann had researched Close before when doing history on the Maitland area and decided to work on his biography.

 

She detailed her research, explaining the online searching and libraries were a tremendous support in terms of information, but the best way of researching was to go to the source, so she has spent a bit of time travelling to places Close grew up, lived, and worked in. This is very detailed research, takes time, and also depends on the kindness of others along with serendipitous pieces of information.

Telling a biography of someone long gone is difficult and you have to bring that person to life.

She followed his early life in Bengal, India as the son of a silk trader, then his life throughout Europe as a engineer, until he arrived in Australia and found work up the coast in NSW through to Maitland and the Green Hills area. He asked Macquarie for some land near to that area to live on and that became in time Morpeth.