Next!

Posted on July 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

Melbourne is indeed a city of festivals. And so it is for me as well.

Next week is my last week with the Emerging Writers’ Festival for this year, which is sad, but to keep the blues at bay (and to add to my festival experience) I’ve taken on the role of Communications Coordinator for the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. Freeplay explores the intersection between games, art, education and culture. It is a different beast to EWF, with a different audience, but there are enough similarities for me to be able to use my fresh knowledge of working with a festival to make the jump across.

I’ll be doing lots more media stuff for Freeplay – we had a publicity agency for EWF – and I’m really looking forward to pitching some ideas for interviews and feature articles.

Freeplay has a couple of new public events this year, one of which is taking a leaf out of EWF’s book (with Lisa Dempster’s blessing, of course). On the Wednesday before the festival (17 August), Freeplay is holding a pecha kucha slide night (20 slides for 20 seconds each) on the theme of ‘Games that Made Me’. Can’t tell you who’s involved yet, but there will be some interesting faces taking you on a journey through the video games that have influenced them. Another one involves lemons and wooden spoons…I’ll leave that one up to your imagination for the time being!

I have a secret plan for world domination of festivals – well, perhaps not so secret. I’ve got my heart set on working for one of the bazillion festivals in Edinburgh next year, ahead of a potential semi-permanent move to that most literary of cities. We’ll see how that pans out.

Oh, and one more thing. If you’re in Melbourne over the next three months, check out the Fringe Festival’s Crowdplay event. I went along to the rehearsal last Saturday, and it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. The endorphin rush lasted for hours afterwards!

The Freeplay Independent Games Festival will be held in Melbourne on 17 – 21 August 2011.

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Be kind. Unwind (with apologies)

Posted on June 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

Life post Emerging Writers’ Festival. What can I say? It’s been…interesting. Ok, it’s been pretty hard. I never dreamed the full reality of the rollercoaster of emotions that would hit once the festival was over.

I’m sure some of you have been through something similar before, a project that you’ve put your heart and soul into for months. Doesn’t matter how well it goes, the adrenalin will only carry you so far. Then – boom. You hit the slump once the project is completed. The urgency is gone, but so is the anticipation. The network of people you’ve had around you for months (in my case, anyway) are suddenly gone.

If I could go back a couple of months and warn myself what it would be like, I’d prepare myself for some serious ups and downs. There are some emotions I’ve experienced over the past couple of weeks that I can’t even put a name to.

The things that have kept me going have been getting back into cooking and baking, and catching up on the lives of friends I’ve horribly neglected. I’ve just become vegetarian (I promised myself I’d do it after the festival), so there have been lots of challenges there. I’ve also had the pleasure of a few days work filling in for the Media Assistant at the Malthouse Theatre (following in the footsteps of Dani from Masterchef, no less).

Next on the agenda is to plan some marketing for myself and my writing and editing work. I’ve had a couple of hints of work since the festival, but now is the time to really push forward. I know how to do this for other people, so I just have to get over a slight sense of weirdness in doing it for myself.

So, my advice to anyone going through a festival or other similarly large project – build in time afterwards to completely unwind. Be kind to yourself. Ask those around you to be kind and understand what you’re going through. Plan some pleasant distractions. Know that, for a little while, you’re going to feel like crap. And know that that is perfectly normal.

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Back to reality

Posted on June 13, 2011 | 1 Comment

Oh hello there, real world. I’d nearly forgotten what you look like, what with the Emerging Writers’ Festival and all. My but you’re pretty with all that winter sunshine you’ve been throwing around.

It really does feel like I’ve been living in an altered reality for the past month or so. Being part of a festival is an incredible experience, but it really does consume your entire life for its duration. Last Sunday night, on the dancefloor at the conclusion of our Spelling Bee, someone mentioned that it felt like the end of school camp, and it really did. An odd mix of emotions, quite bitter-sweet really. Not the least of which was having to say goodbye to our two lovely international guests Alan Bissett and Kirstin Innes, who had come all the way from Glasgow but who, so quickly, become part of the family.

I have about two weeks left of my 2011 festival experience – writing reports, crunching the numbers of ticket sales and attendance figures etc. Now I have a decision to make. Do I continue trying to make a living as a freelancer, or do I go find a full-time office job for six months to make some cash before the next EWF round begins? I’ve had two enquiries about writing and coordinating publications for different government departments which would be great, but knowing how government works they may be a while off starting. I’d love to be able to set myself up with some regular clients so that next year when I’m working two days a week at the festival I don’t have to worry so much about finding work to fill in those other three days.

The creative juices are definitely flowing right now. My fingers have been itching to do some baking and craft projects, and I began my first fiction story in ages yesterday (thanks to my partner for this – he made a random, silly comment and a gloriously odd character appeared in my head, fully formed). I’ve also just become vegetarian after contemplating it for ages, so I *need* to be more creative with my cooking to keep said non-vego partner happy (and so I don’t get bored with it).

What do you think? Stick with the freelancing or earn some proper money to get my finances back in some sort of decent shape? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for your patience with me being incommunicado for a while!

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The week before

Posted on May 16, 2011 | 2 Comments

Whenever I’ve travelled overseas in the past, it is not until I have actually arrived at my destination that I believe it is going to happen. Not even boarding a plane makes it seem real, as this has become an almost commonplace event, not unlike taking a bus.

The Emerging Writers’ Festival feels a bit like that for me right now. Last week I was excited and nervous, but this week I feel like there’s a big shield around my emotions – perhaps it’s my subconscious protecting me so that I can get through all the work that still needs to be done.

Right now I’m working on our opening and closing parties. I’ve never seen a spelling bee before, let alone produced one, so this is kinda trippy. With Josh Earl hosting and Andrew Finegan adjudicating, I’m sure it’s going to be great. Just wait till you see our word list! This will be a lovely, cruisey way to end the festival, so please do come and join us (plus it’s free).

This week we’ve got a couple of preliminary events that I’m really looking forward to. Linda Jaivin is popping into Melbourne for 24 hours to do some promotional work, and I’m so excited to have a chance to chat with her. I remember devouring her book Eat Me when it came out in 1995 – if you’ve read it, you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, well…just go and find a copy.

One of our Get into Genre: Romance panelists, Matthew Lang, is launching his new book The Secret of Talmor Manor this Friday as well. Matt’s book has all the elements I really love in a novel – mystery, paranormal activity, romance, seriously hot sex…all wrapped into one lovely package.

So much hard work has gone into this festival. I’m awed by sheer size of what Lisa Dempster has achieved, and proud to have a part in an event that unites so many wonderful literary people across Melbourne and Australia.

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Countdown has begun

Posted on April 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

Yesterday marked one month exactly till the Emerging Writers’ Festival starts. Today we launched our new website and (unofficially) the 2011 program (official launch is 5 May at the Wheeler Centre – you should come, really, it’s free!).

This for me has been equally thrilling and terrifying. The whole thing feels a lot more real now, and while part of me can’t wait for the festival to start, I also know how bloody hard it’s going to be. I helped my partner Paul at his festival Freeplay last year, and by the end of the two-day program I was pretty much curled up in the corner crying from exhaustion. So I think I’m going to need to be put into an induced coma for a week after our festival to recover!

It has been so great seeing all our festival artists tweeting at each other today about catching up at the festival, like Lou Sanz and Benjamin Law setting up drinking dates and Andrew McDonald (one of Cleo’s Bachelors of the Year, no less!) tweeting about the Young Adult panel he’s hosting. I had a phone call last week from Linda Jaivin who is part of our Dirty Words event, and had a hard time keeping the ‘OMG I love your work!’ out of my voice.

Now I just have to cook massive batches of food to put in the freezer so that I don’t eat fish and chips for the entire festival!

Image of Lou Sanz by Jessie Borrelle for the Emerging Writers’ Festival

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Missing in action

Posted on April 4, 2011 | 1 Comment

Dear blog readers

My humble apologies for neglecting you – I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I last posted. This is why I’m not a mother: if other people’s projects need attention, my own get left by the wayside.

To be fair, I have had a couple of weeks of full employment – yay me. I’ve just finished my first proper project as a freelancer, working with the Victorian government’s Bushfire Recovery Services Unit on a publication documenting the recovery efforts following the 2009 bushfires that decimated parts of Victoria. This wasn’t a dry government-speak report, it was a collection of stories from people on the ground; the case workers helping people receive grants, the housing workers finding temporary and then more permanent accommodation for people who had lost everything, and stories from the residents themselves. It was a great experience editing this publication, and I’m proud to have had a part in it (even if it was only small).

Alongside that, preparations for the Emerging Writers’ Festival are coming along at a rate of knots. We only have six and a half weeks till the festival, and believe me, that is an incredibly scary thought.

I’m producing a couple of events at the festival, including a series of panels on genre writing. After some deliberation, we settled on romance, crime, speculative fiction and young adult. We’ve got some amazing writers lined up for the panels, including Kerry Greenwood, whose Phryne Fisher books I have adored for years. The romance panel has a really interesting mix of writers (including a guy!) as well, and I’m really keen to see how it turns out. That panel will be my first experience of hosting…so any hints you have on combating nerves would be much appreciated!

Keep your eyes peeled – we’re officially launching the program on 5 May, but there’ll be lots more snippets leaked before then. If you’re in (or can come to) Melbourne between 26 May and 5 June, I promise you’ll be in for a treat with the festival.

Meanwhile, my life as a freelancer enters the search mode again. If you know anyone who needs help with editing, writing, proof-reading or communications advice, point them my way.

So long for now, and thanks for reading :)

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Twitter is just for narcissists, right?

Posted on March 8, 2011 | 4 Comments

To all those Twitter detractors out there, I’m blowing you a big, fat raspberry right now.

Over the last little while I’ve been thinking about travelling back to the UK and Ireland, specifically to check out Edinburgh and Dublin’s City of Literature i and literary scenes. I tweeted at Edinburgh City of Lit (@EdinCityofLit) to prepare for my arrival as a bit of a joke, and received this reply:

@meredith_te thanks for giving us fair warning – will refurbish libraries, re-do museum, buy in barrage balloons etc. All do-able by 2012

That was last Thursday. Tonight I got to meet Anna from the Edinburgh City of Literature Trust (who wrote the tweet) in person, as quite coincidentally, she arrived in Melbourne just days after our little exchange.

Earlier tonight I saw a tweet from @DublinCityofLit and decided to see if they would engage with me. Their reply wasn’t quite as cheeky as Edinburgh’s, but a connection has been made, and I’m bloody well going to make it over there to meet them in person too. By the way, their upcoming event Dublin Swell looks amazing – if you happen to be in the vicinity on 18 March, check it out.

Used properly, Twitter is one of the most fantastic tools we’ve been given in a long time. Those that think otherwise are either very short-sighted or simply haven’t tried hard enough.

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