Events! Events! Meg Rosoff at the Wheelers Centre and NEXUS Festival of Animation, Comics & Graphic Novels!

Melbourne peeps, listen up!

Wish I'd known about this sooner, but it's not too late for you!

Meg Rosoff, award winning YA author of How I Live Now, Just in Case and What I Was will be at The Wheeler Centre in the city on Wednesday (TOMORROW NIGHT). And it's a free event. I mean, why aren't you going? :)

Check out The Wheeler Centre site for more deets. 

ALSO, I just found about this great sounding festival. If you're around and interested in graphics you should totes check it out!

NEXUS is a festival of animation, comics, graphic novels and moving image, at NMIT Fairfield Campus 10-12 May.  There will be exhibitions, masterclasses, screenings, a book fair, panel discussions, seminars and innovative performances.

GUESTS INCLUDE:

ANTHONY LUCAS              Animator
                                      Jaspar Morello

TOM TAYLOR                   Comic, Screen & Theatre Writer
                                      LucasFilm

DAVID RUSSELL                Storyboard Artist
                                      Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

EDDIE WHITE                    Film Writer & Director
                                       The Cat Piano

COLIN WILSON                 Comic Artist
                                       Blueberry, 2000AD

ISABEL PEPPARD               Animator
                                       Mary and Max

SUTU                               Interactive Comic Producer
                                       www.nawlz.com

BRUCE MUTARD                Graphic Novelist
                                       The Sacrifice

Lots to learn here, don't you think?

 

For full details and to register to events, please see http://nexusfestival.blogspot.com

NMIT
Fairfield campus

Yarra Bend Rd Fairfield

That's all for now, 

I have an exciting new blog series coming up soon so stay tuned for that!

YA Mini Festival: Steph Bowe Keynote Speech summary

Yesterday thanks to Express Media there was a YA Mini-Festival held at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne which was a fabulous, informative day.

The keynote speech was given by Steph Bowe (author of Girl Saves Boy), a workshop about structure with Lili Wilkinson (author of Pink, Scatterheart and others) and voice and character with Penni Russon (author of the Little Bird, Dear Swoosie and more) followed by an industry panel with all three authors.

For a young lady of sixteen, I have to say, Steph Bowe conducts herself with such maturity beyond her years. She is softly spoken, speaks eloquently and answers questions thoughtfully. It's just an observation, but one I'm finding is shared by others.

What Steph had to say

She writes because she can't stand NOT writing. She goes a bit crazy if she doesn't do it.

She believes that to be an author, you can't get by just on talent. Writing takes practice and perseverance.

Teens often get a bad rap, they're called bad writers. But Steph believes this is probably because they haven't been around as long. They haven't had the same amount of time as adult writers to practice and hone their craft. (Sarah - valid point)

Older people may have had more time than teens, but if they don't practice writing, just being older doesn't make them better writers.

YA is being embraced by more adults now than it has previously and a lot of us are reading it, it's being embraced more openly than it used to be, it's not as looked down upon as "just writing for teenagers" anymore. (Sarah - this is a fantastic thing)

And yes, lots of adults are reading YA, but we as YA writers should remember that audiences are still predominantly teens.

Steph believes that some parents are embracing YA (Sarah - not only because the writing is so good) but because it's something they can do and share and discuss with their teen. Steph believes this is an excellent way to get your parents to pay for books. :)

So there you go, much less eloquent than how Steph put it, but she made some interesting points, don't you think? I also loved how Steph said that "As Generation Y...or X...I don't know...it doesn't matter, (anyway) Google and I are like besties."

Ah, yes. Google is a friend to all.

Still to come: Lili Wilkinson talks book structure, Penni Russon talks voice and character and all three just talk books!