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How do you feeling about our crazy life?

Ask the PUG!!!!!!

Can any more events, parties, book fairs, get togethers …. be squished into the 4 weeks before December’s Christmas!!!!!!

It’s on … we’re heading for the turkey and an almighty crash!

Diary of November 2013:-

-  Celebrations of Hazel Edwards receiving an Order of Australia – YEAH!

- MC for SCBWI’s INSIDE STORY with our loved authors & illustrators at The Children’s Book Beecroft telling the inside story of creating their books including Deborah Abela, Tony Flowers, Yvette Poshoglian, Jan Latta, Christopher Cheng and more.

- Lunch with assistant editor of School Magazine - LOVE Sue Murray - a talented playwright as well as editor

-  Sharon Rundle editor and friend and I went off to the launch of  ’A Country Too Far’  at Glee Books- caught up with professor Elizabeth Webby and Tom Keneally, Rosie Scott and others.

-  brilliant theatre at the opening at The Ensemble of ‘Rapture Blister Burn’

- catching up with my favourite actor Tim McGarry to talk about the I AM JACK USA tour for 2014

- Society of Women Writers’ at the State Library – lunch and collect a prize for ‘Ships in the Field’ – lovely

- Christmas celebrations at the CBCA lunch Northern Branch – catching up with children’s laureate Alison Lester and fabulous illustrator Sarah Davis

-Unleased Writers Festival in Sydney – loved speaking about the journey of writing with the audience

- post Unleashed Festival shared the book industry over dinner with publisher Paul Collins and author James Roy

- I’m the prize on e-bay for the UNLEASHED FESTIVAL!  Talented author Mo Johnson won me – well a mini mentorship!

- Caught up with Sue Meyer at the Francis Keevil Gallery to se Sue’s beautiful art

- lunching with the fabulous authors Meredith Costain & Louise Park for Christmas cheer

- dinner with my wonderful publisher Lisa Berryman from HarperCollins to share news and my new book JACK 4 – yet untitled!

- coffee with Jesse Blackadder – love her last book STAY the last dog in Antartica -at The Hughenden  who’s down in Sydney for a minute meeting her publishers

- my darling friend Kim’s 40th birthday

- the Australian Publisher Association party – sooo good and caught up with the HarperCollins team there.

- speaking at my old school Daceyville’s Creative Writing Festival – aaahhhhh – memories

- Books in Homes committee meeting selecting books for indigenous & disadvantaged kids – great charity

- launching Margaret Roc’s ‘Jellybean Goes to School’ at the Lindfield Learning Hub – lots of jellybeans and love Margaret

- the SCBWI BOOK FAIR at The Hughenden with some of our best ever authors like Sopgie Masson. kate Forsyth, Belinda Murrell, Deborah Abela and the lsit goes on.

- at the BOOK FAIR supporting ROOM TO READ www.roomtoread.org – loved seeing Jennie Orchard, Wendy Rapee, Cathy and Margaret and the Room to Read team.

- MC for Susan Wyndham’s talk on her book she edited and contributed to   ’My Mother. my Father’ (Allen & Unwin) with authors Margaret Rice and Gerard Windsor – such great wrietrs  at The Hughenden. Buy the book for Christmas.

Phew – that’s November!

The post Writers Go Crazy in November as XMAS starts %@# appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.

Inner city Sydney bookshop, Glebe Books was packed at the launch of   ‘A Country Too Far’  (Penguin) – a collection of  writings on asylum seekers by some of Australia’s most renowned authors – edited by Tom Keneally and Rosie Scott.

I sat between Professor Elizabeth Webby, who is at the heart of Australian literature, and Sharon Rundle editor of the anthology ‘Alien Shores’ published by Brass Monkey. I had the privilege of contributing a story to ‘Alien Shores’  which also welcomes discussion and debate.

Rosie Scott and Tom Keneally were moving as they spoke about A COUNTRY TOO FAR:-

Elliot Pearlman writes: -’It took me almost six years  to research and write… The Street Sweeper’, a novel that deals with … racism.’

‘Tom Keneally writes: One hundred and seventy thousand displaced persons came to Australia between 1947 and 1952, bearing their United Nations Displaced Persons/Refuge identity cards.’

Geraldine Brooks writes: ‘I am pretty sure that for  much of his life my father was an illegal immigrant.’

Bella Vendramini.writes: ‘I was seventeen years old when I got locked up in a Spanish jail.’

It’ll make you think, cry, hope, feel in this powerful and moving anthology which opens debate about escape from terror to find a safe place.

The post Thomas Keneally, Rosie Scott, Debra Adelaide, Elliot Pearlman ~ launches ‘A Country Too Far’ appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.

Shelley Phillips was my psychology lecturer at the University of  New South Wales & encouraged me to write books that reach young people.

Professor of Literature, Elizabeth Webby published my first short story in Southerly, the literary journal of Sydney University.

Dr Hilarie Lindsay was my first writing mentor as President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers

These remarkable women are pioneers in Australian literature and also became my friends.

Dr Shelley Phillips wrote the significant feminist book, ‘Beyond the myths – mother-daughter relationships’. She passed away not long ago but has left a legacy to many women.

Today I had the privilege of having lunch at The Hughenden with her daughter Dr Catherine Phillips who is a scientist and photographer. It was lovely sharing memories.