Sunday 24 July 2011

Bryon Bay Writers' festival





On the 7th August I will be appearing at the Byron Bay Writers' festival- exciting.

I will read some of my poems and talk about children's poetry. Candida Baker is the festival director and once many years ago Candida was involved in a writing contest in The Age.

In fact Candida was the judge of a small competition to write like Georgette Heyer- has anyone read Georgette Heyer?  I loved her books- occasionally I do back and read one of her novels and revel in the language and Regency world.

It was a time in my life when I had been desperately holding back the urge, the compulsion to write- when my busy family and farm demanded much.  But I knew I could do this.  So I mentally set myself a rule of my own.  If you win this competition, then Lorraine, I give you permission to take writing seriously and set a little bit of time aside to do this...

One Wednesday weeks later I opened The Age and there, yes, there was my name listed as one of the three winners!   Yahoo! 
And the prize( oh how I would have loved some money) was nine copies of the newly reprinted classics of Georgette Heyer( and these are the volumes I now dip into.)

Would any readers like me to print this winning paragraph next time?  Let me know.

I now laugh at such ridiculous high stakes to give myself permission to follow a passion over which I have little control.  But now that Candida and I are hopefully going to meet at Byron Bay, I know that threads do begin to weave into a pattern- eventually.  And I also know that I'd love to write an historical romance in Georgette Heyer style- how different to poetry...


5 comments:

Rochelle said...

Enjoyed reading this post mum!

Karen said...

Hi Lorraine,
Enjoyed reading about your competition win and the connection with BBF.
Wish you every success with the Byron Bay festival :))
cheers, Karen T:))

Janeen said...

You betcha Regency boots, I'd love to read your winning paragraph!
Thank you, dear lady. Janeen xxx

Life's a poem said...

Rochelle, Karen and Janeen,

I wil put on my Regency boots and include this story- but once i've arrived in Byron Bay!
Thanks for asking.

tjoyy said...

so funny! did you get to meet her?