Countdown

Only two more sleeps before full MWF program hits the streets, newspaper, Internet.... my screen! Expect rich pickings again this year... have already sampled several events in recent years... including The Whole Shebang, Getting Started, First Draft - Now What? and literary walking tour of old bookshops in the CBD precinct... followed by devine chocolate afternoon tea! Of course, listening to Bernhard Schlink deliver his keynote address - Guilt about the past - was an unsurpassed privilege at the 2009 festival.  Witnessing Steven Amsterdam receive The Age Fiction Award and The Age Book of the Year - Things we didn't see coming - in the same year added that extra dimension of hope for emerging writers such as myself! I recall in particular, his grateful acknowledgement of publisher, Sleepers, for having picked him up after around 17 rejections... so Operation Enduring Hope is picking up an accelerated pace as we head into this year's festival, on the prowl for exciting opportunities to boost my own writing and publishing journey.