It's incredible really, how much I learned in such a short space of time. We flew in to Brisbane on Friday night, negotiated the roads with the phone's navigator on the blink (4G, my backside!) and attended the conference on Saturday before flying out again at 5.30pm.
In the morning, we listened to Isobelle Carmody speak for a short time about sensory writing before doing what all good teachers should: involving her students in hands-on writing activities. She passed around some mysterious bags of scented goodies and we wrote down the descriptive words that came to mind. We also had to jump out of our comfort zones and feel each other's faces, describing the contours, textures, etc. It turned out I was paired up with Isobelle's daughter, who was lovely.
With another YA author, Kaz Delaney, we explored the social media world (oh my freakin' God, there are so many sites out there that I didn't know about!) and how an author should be a brand, or a product - more so than her books. So, JB Thomas is a brand!
Paul Griffin, a YA author based in the US, (who writes incredible realistic fiction targeted towards at-risk youth) spoke about the importance of distribution. The question was: where does your book fit in? Schools? Libraries? Commercial fiction shelves of bookstores?
This was just in the morning - so much good stuff crammed in before we had our paper bag lunches (nice) and the afternoon's sessions, which were just as interesting.
I would strongly recommend that new authors attend these conferences. They're a great way to keep learning.
- JB xxx
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