Okay boyos, girlies, and mumsies. We’re flying back in time like a time lord (the latest Doctor Who is such a hottie*, don’t you think?) to one of Saturday’s EWF panels, Never Surrender, with Paul Callaghan, Elizabeth Campbell, Sean Condon, and Dee White.
Angry writer Sean Condon ranted like a loon, making me laugh and cringe at the same time; poet Elizabeth Campbell recited poetry about the ‘unprofitable servant’; and game developer Paul Callaghan spoke of failing as part of the human condition—’How many words have we thrown away? …as writers we fail all the time, as people we fail all the time’. Literary Minded has already summed up their words nicely, so I won’t repeat them here.
I will, however, write about how YA novelist Dee White told us to stick up for the stories we love. During her Victorian Writers’ Centre mentorship, White was asked to redraft her manuscript: YA stories about artists were out of fashion at the time, could she frame her story in a different context? White did this, turning her protagonist into an astronomy geek. But publishers weren’t fans of the new manuscript; while it showed potential, it lacked passion. It was obvious to them that astronomy wasn’t what White wanted to write about. White’s original concept was resurrected and the novel Letters to Leonardo was the outcome.
That’s all for today. I’ll post up some photos tomorrow mayhaps.
*’hottie’ in a nerdy, SF way. It’s the bow tie and the tweed jacket, I think.
Ms Thuy Linh 