shirley’s adventures in melbourne land (@ the MWF)

I am in Melbourne, land of the little alleyway and the grafitti!

Helping to spearhead the School’s Program part of the Melbourne Writer’s Festival 2010 @ Federation Square. My first time as a new author, my second time to this interesting city.

First thing on a Monday I crash the green room of Miss Steph Bowe.

Steph does a “Virgin Voices” session, talking about her debut novel “Girl Saves Boy” to a sold-out crowd. I had to sneak in via her entourage. The stage is so cute, with comfy chairs, a pot plant and books. Steph is articulate and natural. I don’t know how Steph’s chair, Cordelia Rice does it. Cordelia should be a sixty minutes reporter, she asks so many questions I wanted to ask myself.  The audience, almost all of them teenagers themselves, are rapt with sixteen-year old Steph.

What do you think Steph? My favourite teenager of the year blogs her pov here.

While I hang around as Steph does some signings, who sits down at the signing table, but Melina Marchetta! I act like a thirteen-year-old fangirl and get my book signed and a photo. Melina treats me like I am an author proper and gives me her card with puppies on it. Awesome!

A familiar face pops up in the Steph’s queue and why, it is no one other than Megan Burke, blogger of a Literary Life. I hug Megan cos I’m not much of a handshake girl. Plus because Megan looked super cute and huggable. And cos you can never get enough crossover, here’s Megan’s impression of meeting me.

Off to the black dog books headquaters aka “the kennel” to meet the black doggies who I have emailed and spoke to so much and never seen in the flesh. My editor Melissa Keil is impossibly pretty in real life and Andrew Kelly looks so cool. Jess Tran has great dress sense. Everyone is so beautiful, my literary family!

Day 2 and I go to watch “Sophie’s New World” presented by Jostein Gaarder. He is so cute, such a joy to behold.

He gets asked – due to the destruction of the planet – whether the world would be better off without humans and he answers that humans are capable of great harm, but we must ensure humans live on because there are also such beautiful things we do too, worth saving. I flash back to reading Sophie’s World for the first time and how that made my heart feel and I decide I agree – a world without people like Jostein Gaarder is not worth living in. I almost cry.

Today I also get adopted by two Melbourne Girls, Kitty and Jo cos I am all alone and must have looked lost. Kitty is Bagel Girl (owner of Huff Bagelry) and Jo is a magician among many things! I follow them around for the day and I go to watch “1000 Pencils: from Kinglake to Kabul” – stories linking Australia and Afghanistan through shared tragedy. I almost cry again when a teenage girl recounts her experience of Black Saturday. She speaks beautifully, but in my mind I am shocked to think “she is a survivor” even though she doesn’t say it. And this makes me feel emotionally connected to her and teary!

Tuesday night and beautiful Melissa Keil takes me for a quiet chat and a drink (or two or three) at the bar Berlin where we move from VIP area to Bunk Bed Berlin to Posh Berlin. I avoid the “blood and sand” cocktail cos a Shirley Marr drinking game would include having a shot anytime someone mentions “blood”. I get back to my hotel, kinda vomit a bit and try to sleep my nerves off. I think “this is a bit rock n roll”

Wednesday, 1 Sept first day of spring is my day! What a shame all the black dog authors – me, Karen Tayleur and Carole Wilkinson are on at the same time. The Kennel is divided. They must decide who to go watch. I get Melissa of course.

Onto the stage I get with my chair, beautiful Bel Schenk. The lights are hot.

I try to remember Ananda Braxton-Smith (author of Merrow) advice to “sparkle Shirley”, but I am glad I don’t literally sparkle under the lights (Edward-wise).

I hope I did well! I am my worse critic and today I have to admit to myself that yes I am like my character Eliza, even though I vehemently deny this. I say stupid things even though I should know better, but I can’t keep my mouth shut! But this is just Shirley right? Can we love her anyway?

What do you think? Blogger My Girl Friday (Steph, I’ve decided all Stephs are awesome) is in the audience and she gives her view! (check it out).

Who do I spot in the audience, but Sam Whitehouse (one time black doggie staffer), who have come so far with her kind, generous mother to see me.

I am delighted. I give Sam some chocolate cos I promised and invite the both of them to roll with the entourage.

No rest for the wicked and I have another session straight after. A discussion panel called “Colonising the Internet” chaired by James West, journalist and author of Beijing Blur. James looks totally hot, and today as I write this, thinking back on the topics of moderation and self-expression – I think, what the hell, I don’t think I’ll censor that! Despite me not being in his age group or in any single group of his interest, he stares at my legs and tells me he likes my red stockings. I am strangely charmed.

I’ve read Beijing Blur and in it is a character called “Scottish Jenny”. Now I get an inkling it might be MWF coordinator Jenny Niven who is both Scottish and a Jenny.

I ask James and… yes it is. I squee and do a dance. How cool. I must get a photo with “Scottish Jenny” – she is both a real person and also a book character (where she falls off a bike) – that is so cool!

This panel goes well. It also features Steph Bowe (high five Steph). There is heaps of laughter. The whole Kennel, plus Karen Tayleur have come to see me. I speak my mind and naturally, I am awkward, ridiculous and weird. But I like how Steph relaxes in this sesh. Steph banters with me when she says she can get away with being emo online because she’s a teen. I lament I am way too old, oldest person on the panel. I should be kicked into Gen X really…. but I hope it’s because Steph feels comfortable with me and trusts me. If so, I feel happy and honoured.

My Girl Friday is also the intrepid reporter at this sesh and here’s her lowdown from the audience POV.

Me and Steph do a signing and I love how me and Steph can kinda joke around like we’re real friends, I like to think we can be friends.

I do some signings “don’t steal garden gnomes” cos that’s Steph’s plotline, but I point out that her signing “don’t become a murderer” is not such a good idea….

The entire black dog book team head off for a celebratory lunch at Chocolate Buddha. A sushi platter comes out with a candle wrapped in radish. There is debate on whether the candle is edible. Those that have watched too much Master Chef insist it must be edible. I spend some good time staring at Lili Wilkinson in some sort of dumb trance. I am enchanted!

Me and Ananda attempt a co-authored novel on the back of the restaurant menu. We decide we are not the next literary power coupling. Melissa folds it up and pockets it.

Thursday approaches fast enough and I am there back at the Festival Club waiting to see Ananda Braxton-Smith talk about her first full length novel Merrow. I am with Ananda’s editor Sophie Splatt and bdb publicist Gitsi. Melissa unforts has to mind the kennel.

Wow! Ananda is stunning! She tells us that the landscape shapes her characters and that Aunty Ushag rose out of rock and Neen rose up from the sand and that is what made them. Tears come to my eyes.

Ananda speaks with such passion and conviction and her chair, the amazing Mary, is just as passionate back with her questions. I felt like I took a trip down a rabbit hole to somewhere personal and beautiful that is Ananda’s heart.

There is a boy in the audience with a pair of folded wings on his black blazer and another boy with a black trenchcoat. Cool.

The signing is too much for me. I have been in Melbourne for four full-on days. I want Ananda to take me home to her trees and mountain ash.

I follow Ananda to see Carole Wilkinson and David Metzenthen present “Epic Journeys”. I sit among the public school kids and I feel at home. David is hilarious and speaks about his love for adventure and he sees his life through “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, while Carole say she loves to travel inside her mind. If she wasn’t a writer, she’d still want to be a lab assistant “cutting up cat’s brains”.

For lunch I catch up with Dr. Brian, blogger of fitzroyalty, who used to live in Perth, but left us behind for the social media life of the East. Now Dr. Brian doesn’t know it, but I borrowed his title and first name for Fury. As I said in my Virgin Voices, a large slice of the characters in it have real names (some first, some first AND last), but as of right now, none of those people have read my book (heheheh).

Afterwards I go back to Fed Square to meet Megan Burke and who do I see but Ananda! There is a sense of sadness in the air, the Schools Program for MWF is all but over and the Readings Bookshop is slowly being packed up in boxes.

Megs rocks up. We hang out for a while. We’re all super friendly by now. Then Ananda has to go to another gig, which entails sitting in the backseat of the transport with Frank Moorhouse. I get invited. I politely decline the possible-Ananda-and-Frank-sandwich.

Megan and I decide to go to get drinks at The Festival Club, but as long as I have been here, the Festival Club has never been open for drinks, even though I have two free drinks vouchers. When the employee in front of us can’t get into the place herself, we decide to head elsewhere.

With a pot of tea, an iced chocolate, raspberry & frangipani tart and a snug corner up at the ACMI cafe, we sit down for a chat. Megan interests me straight away because she orders Sprites and iced chocolates instead of coffee and tea. I find this young and sweet. We are both of the same chirpy persuasion and in the end I think we both wear ourselves out! We are amazed at how long we have talk (more than 2 hours) because it is darkening when we step outside.

Among many other interesting things (like crazy blogging crossovers), we talk about self-image. As we both have had professional photos taken, we discuss wanting to look and feel beautiful as ourselves without resorting to airbrushing (none of our photos have been) and also is marketing a book as “YA-adult crossover” a cop out? I am astounded by Megan’s almost limitless knowledge and passion of YA. It gives me much respect to know Megan has such integrity toward her blogging. Megan also reveals to me details about her status as an emerging novelist and without exposing any details, I wish to say that I am excited. We also talk about her passion for Melbourne and its writers community.

crossover alert: read Megan’s account of our meeting!

Which makes me miss Perth a little. I kinda like the ennui that comes with living in Perth, telling someone you’re a writer and people not caring! In fact, it’s strange but I can kinda feel the blue of Perth calling to me right now… To me Perth can be summed up in one colour: blue. Our river is blue (that’s opposed to brown – I am so sorry), our sky is blue and there, my heart is constantly in blue. I guess that’s why I made Eliza’s colour blue

Oh! I am sad now.

to be continued…..

why, here’s Part 2!