Brisbane Writers Festival - September 7 - 11th

I have attended the Brisbane Writers Festival now for the past eight years or so and I am never disappointed. I am looking forward to clocking up another year, to stroll around Brisbane's beautiful icon, The State Library and its gardens to check out this year's line up of talented authors.

For those of you still coming down from MasterChef, the menu of authors and sessions is already out. I am an early bird and have studied the gourmet selections and have booked in my workshops and the sessions I wish to attend. You can tell I am writing this at lunch time and have food on my mind. I'm sure those of you who enjoy your culinary delights would be interested to know that some foodie authors will be in attendance. Click on the link to find out more.

http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/default.asp?pageID=73&CatID=51

This year again, I will be accompanying a school group of enthusiastic readers and writers. My colleagues and I always get excited at this time of year. We love going on outings with our students, especially with the line up of talented children's authors to select from. This year sees Emily Rodda, James Joy, James Phelan, Belinda Jeffrey, Tristan Bancks and Wendy Orr, to name but a few. If these names don't whet your appetite...well...what can I say?

I'm booked into Wendy Orr's session and looking forward to sharpening my skills for writing for young readers. Click on the link to discover more.

http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/default.asp?pageID=73&CatID=47

Another workshop I'm excited to be attending is Writing Romance that Sells with popular panelists, Christina Brooke and Anna Campbell. Hopefully their hints and tips will help steam up pages of my novel in progress.

There are many & varied workshops this year to choose from, but to find one that suits you...Click on the link.

http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/default.asp?pageID=73&CatID=66

I know I am excited to be attending what's become my annual pilgrimage. Maybe I'll see some of you while I'm there.

So, for a festival of storytelling...here is the official Brisbane Writers Festival website to check out all the action for yourself.

http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/

till next time...
happy reading & writing

The Word Writers Fair - Weekend of 12 November 2011

If you are a writer who enjoys networking and attending writing fairs, then this is something for you.

The Word Writers Fair is coming to Brisbane...
To find out more, please click on the link.

http://thewordwriters.com/

Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte by Laura Joh Rowland

For those readers who enjoyed last month's book, 'The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte, here is a link to Laura Joh Rowland's latest book about Charlotte's adventures.

http://www.laurajohrowland.com/

Click on: The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte and it will take you to Rowland's latest book. I know some of our readers were a little disheartened by the ending in Rowland's first book about Charlotte's adventures. Many readers were disappointed that the good Miss Charlotte did not end up with her man...well, maybe she does???

Check it out...and find out.

Until next time,
happy reading...

August Book Club - 'The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë' by Laura Joh Rowland

It took some of our readers a little time to warm to the idea that the

Charlotte Brontë who wrote Jane Eyre and lived the life of a parson's daughter could in fact be the adventurous heroine from Laura Joh Rowland's novel, 'The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë. But once we got our heads around the concept Rowland was trying to sell us, most enjoyed the read.

Rowland has toyed with the Brontë family and created a whole new world of fictionalised high adventure and espionage based on research she did on Charlotte Brontë some years ago.

Did it work? Well, we'll have to let you be the judge on that score. Everyone has their own take on the classics and let's just say that most of our readers enjoyed the story, although it did have many flaws throughout. But, if you skip over these and don't think too hard about them and simply read the book as a high adventure tale, then we are sure you will enjoy the story as much as some of us did. We found that the further along in the story we journeyed the better it became. Rowland made good use of tension throughout and kept our hearts pounding in places.

We did wonder if Charlotte and her family would actually ever put themselves in such perilous situations, but for the sake of the story, we decided not to challenge this too much.

Overall, we recommend this book. It is a good read. The storyline is interesting and creative and everything linked up. Charlotte manages to involve herself and interacts with some big names throughout story and the tale is very entertaining. It is not your run of the mill, modern day espionage story and Rowland does a great job authenticating the language used throughout. We all agreed the author did a great job and believed that Charlotte could have been the narrator of the story.

If you are interested in this author, please click on the link and find out more.


http://www.laurajohrowland.com/

We hope you have found this information useful.
So, until next time,
happy reading...