Perth Writers Festival Program 2012

It's that time of year again, the Perth Writers Festival, part of the Perth International Arts Festival, is back in town. This year, there are a couple of YA authors, among many others, descending on The University of Western Australia.

The Writers Festival takes place across the last weekend of February, Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th.

Some of the events you may be interested in are:

Publishing Seminar: The Whole Shebang
Guest speakers include industry professionals; editors, publishers, publicists and legal representatives
Thursday 23rd Feb 2012
9am-4:15pm
$75

It's All Speculation
Guest speakers Carole Wilkinson, Lara Morgan and Lauren Beukes
Friday 24th Feb 2012
5-6pm
Free

Blogging the Revolution
Guest speakers Marieke Hardy, John Birmingham and Paul French
Friday 24th Feb 2012
7-8pm
Tickets $22

Writing For Young People
Speaker AJ Betts
Saturday 25th Feb 2012
10am-1pm
$65

Tapping Into The Zeitgeist

Guest speakers Chetan Bhagat, David Levithan, James Roy and AJ Betts
Saturday 25th Feb 2012
11am-12pm
$13

Creating the Extraordinary from the Ordinary
Speaker Lara Morgan
Sunday 26th Feb 2012
2-5pm
$65

Want to Write Like A Pro?
Guest Speaker James Roy
Sunday 26th Feb 2012
2:30-3:15pm
$12

David Levithan, AJ Betts, Lara Morgan

There are many more events for all ages over the weekend. Follow this link to the Writers Festival webpage where you can browse the online program, download a PDF or request a hard-copy.

Tickets can be bought from the PWF website now or from the Octagon Theatre at UWA (24th/25th/26th Feb only). Slightly cheaper prices are available for students.

I've got my tickets, go get yours!

**I will also take this moment to voice my sheer frustration/annoyance that David Levithan is only scheduled to do one talk (a combined talk might I add) the whole time he is in Perth! A writer this awesome should be the highlight of festival! If anyone hears of any other events while he is in Perth, please let me know!

Equinox Blog Tour - Lara Morgan Interview and Giveaway!

The Tales Compendium is one of many stops for YA author Lara Morgan as she takes part in a blog tour launching Equinox, the 2nd book in her Rosie Black Chronicles series.

Today Lara has stopped by to answer some questions about what the writing experience has been like while writing Rosie Black.

Can you tell us a little about The Rosie Black Chronicles...
It’s a dystopian series set five hundred years in the future centred around the life of sixteen year old Rosie Black and her battles against a powerful corporation called Helios. Rosie’s mother is dead, killed by an incurable disease named the MalX, and her father has never recovered from her loss. Rosie’s only other family is her Aunt Essie, a tough ex-soldier who is now a spaceship pilot. When Helios comes into Rosie’s life she must join forces with a boy named Pip, who she’s not sure she can trust, and a mysterious man named Riley who seems to have myriad hidden agendas. Together they must face up to the might of a corporation who will kill anyone who stands in their path to global domination. To bring them down, Rosie must fight to discover the truth behind the terrible secrets they hide and along the way discover love, loss and betrayal.

Can you describe the series in three words?

Dystopian romantic adventure.

Where did the idea for the series come from?
I’ve long had an interest in what climate change is doing to our planet and how it will affect us, so I wanted to write a series set in a future where much of what may happen has come to pass – such as rising sea levels, climate refugees, water shortages and a strictly regulated society. But I also wanted to write something that had the adventure and romance I love from some of my favourite classic movies like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, so The Rosie Black Chronicles was the result of that.

Do you have a set number of books you are planning or are you just going to see where the story takes you?
At the moment I’m contracted to produce three which will complete the story arc I started in the first book, Genesis, but you never know what can happen in the future. I do have ideas but I can’t divulge them here. *smiles and winks*

What is a typical day like for you?
I wish I could say I sat at my desk at 8am and worked like a demon all day, taking only short virtuous breaks, Unfortunately that’s not what happens. A typical day is probably get up, make tea, drink tea, go through emails and get distracted for an hour with replying then going on Twitter which leads to blogs, which leads to…..you see where this is going? Then I force myself away from that, often unplugging the internet connection so I can’t go online, and get down to the work for the day. At the moment it’s writing the third book in the Rosie series so it’s writing in creative bursts of mad typing for maybe an hour then staring at my notes. I do set myself a minimum word limit of 2000 words per day though so I’m not allowed to finish until I achieve that. And there’s a lot of tea drinking amongst all that. Generally I will be at my desk from nine am to about four or later depending on if I’ve reached my word count. Sometimes I’ll work until well after dark. Aah the glamorous life!

Do you have any must-haves while writing? eg: coffee, chocolate, music?
A cup of tea. I have to have a fresh one made and sitting on my desk so I can hang onto it and stare at what I wrote yesterday before I start. Sometimes I play music but not when I’m writing a first draft, only in the editing stage. And it has to fit the kind of scene I’m working on. I make play lists for certain kinds of books. When I was working on Equinox I listened to Pink, Embassy, Susan Enan and The Vampire Diaries soundtrack just to name.

What is the hardest thing about writing a series?
Getting all the details right so the plot lines run smoothly through all the books. I’m the kind of writer who has to finish one book to really know what is going to happen in the next one – which makes things difficult when you have plot threads running through the entire series. I do have sketch outlines of how I think things will end up but usually things change a lot from the start of writing to the end so it’s very fluid and I end up doing things differently to how I might have started out. It’s annoying but it’s just what works for me. I find if I make too detailed a plot outline at the beginning I get bored when I’m writing because I know too well what’s coming next and I’ll change things anyway, so it’s just the way I have to do things. I guess I like a challenge!

If you were not a writer, what would you like to be doing?
I always thought it would be fun to be one of those people who roam around the world doing critiques on fancy hotels. You know, the secret hotel detectives who report on the comfy factor of the beds and how good room service is. I could cope with that, especially if the hotels were on Greek islands or Tahiti. Does that even exist as a job? Maybe I should write a book about someone who does that, imagine the research I could do!

GETTING TO KNOW LARA MORGAN

~10 quick questions~

What is your favourite...
Season – Spring, warm enough for picnics, cool enough at night for snuggling
Place – that’s too hard! Greece.
Sound – rain on the roof
Food – pasta
Movie – argh! Too many to choose from…. Casablanca
Band/Artist – right now, Diana Krall, it will be different tomorrow
Smell – the sharpness of fresh ink and paper in a new book
Word – tabula rasa (or does that count as two?)
Animal – my dog, though he is no longer with me
Book – The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin

A big thankyou to Lara Morgan for stopping by on her blog tour!

Win
To win a free copy of Equinox, simply leave a comment below with your name, email address and what you think would be a cool name for book three in the series (this is just for fun!).

Sorry but entries are only open to Australian postal addresses. Entries close December 1st 2011 (a week after the final blog tour stop).

Lara and Rosie Online

For all things Rosie Black, visit Lara's blog and don't forget to head over to Facebook and 'Like' the Rosie Black Fan Page!


Blog Tour
Lara's next stops on her tour will be over at The Paperback Heart and Burn Bright on Thursday (November 17th).

To see the full lists of blogs taking part, click here.