Eumundi Writers Festival 4-6 September is directed at authors which makes it a positive networking opportunity and there are a raft of informative sessions and opportunities to read excerpts from published or unpublished work.

I led a Book Promotions session with writer, comedian and ABC presenter Sheridan Stewart and award-winning book editor Jacqueline Blanchard who works for UQP. In an hour’s session we were only able to skim the surface of this huge topic. I reckon there could be an entire Festival devoted to it. 

Jacqueline was positive on the life of a book beyond the first six hectic promotional weeks post publication. In her view, books live on much longer in terms of interest and that writers also need to think about longer term strategies. This has encouraged me to talk about Big Music, my debut novel, whenever I talk at an event with the result that there’d renewed interest in it. 

I also interviewed Laura Jean McKay whose novel The Animals in That Country has won many awards. It’s an original, imaginative interrogation of the relationship between humans and animals through a dystopian story. A pandemic enables humans to hear animals talk and their comments are disturbing and not easily understood. Central characters are a dingo and an alcoholic grandmother in this science fiction story far, far removed from Walt Disney anthropomorphism.