Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer @ Melbourne Town Hall

The cold and drizzly weather could do nothing to dampen our rising spirits as Liv and I took the train into the city for this rare literary event. Jodi Picoult and daughter Samantha sharing the stage at Melbourne Town Hall to chat about their latest novel, Between the Lines. Not a small achievement, considering the idea for this intriguing tale was hatched by sixteen year-old Sammy when she was still a high school junior, then spending a couple of summers under her mother's tutelage to advance the story and hone her own writing craft. Between the Lines is a clever weave of fairytale and reality that explores what really happens to the characters who inhabit the books we read when we put them down. What do they do in there, while we're busy with our own lives instead of theirs? Do they have nothing to do but sit and wait for our return? Or are they busy too, getting on with their own lives in between acts?