Breakout 5: Ally Blake – How to hook your reader

How critical is your first page, really? If it doesn’t grab the reader / editor / agent on the first page, you are done. Step 1:  Opening line Memorable Poetic Gets a laugh It out to connect, entice, tickle reader’s curiosity Make it impossible for a reader t put your book down Your opening line […]

Mary-Jo Putney: the noble art of storytelling

The internet has allowed anyone who wants to to be published, but doesn’t mean they have readers. Plenty of workshops on how to write, but not many on how to tell stories. Yet stories have power and is what attracts readers – which is why newspaper articles often lead in with a recap or a […]

Breakout 4: World building panel

Mel Scott (moderator), Keri Arthur, Denise Rossetti, Alison Goodman, C. S. Pacat CS Pacal Writes fantasy with gay princes Keri Arthur Dark urban fantasy Alison Goodman Fantasy, sci fi, crime Wearing steampunk shoes Denise Rossetti Sword and sorcery fantasy Science fiction Erotica World building is important, and needs to be consistent

Publishers’ Moderated Panel

Pippa Roscoe – Harlequin UK Moving into London Bridge Megan Farrell – Tulin Publishing Digital first, selected print Women’s fiction, romance, chicklit Marty Green – Pantera Press Boutique Sydney based publishing house Focus on authors not individual books – full career Lex – Penguin / Random House Works across multiple lines Sue Brockhoff – Harlequin […]

Opening Plenary 2: Mary-Jo Putney – Keynote address

Known for writing on controversial subjects.  In 2014 got the Nora Roberts lifetime achievement award. Writing conventions – a group of introverts pretending to be extroverts for a weekend who collapse in a heap when they get home. Thanks to conferences and the internet, writing is not the isolated experience it once was. Creativity and […]

Opening Plenary 1: Anita Heiss – Taking Your Niche to the Top

Anita Heiss is an academic, who started writing women’s fiction with indigenous heroines.  She has been accused of dumbing down her work, betraying readers of her academic works. However wanted to write stories for indigenous women that reflected life her experience – telling stories. She has been described as inventing Koori chick lit / choc […]

Breakout 3: Scrivener Workshop – Alison Stuart

Author Alison Stuart, runs Scrivener workshops for beginners. Scrivener is NOT a word processing program, it is a type of project management software to organise your writing and notes. How to create a new document: Select: New project Type of project eg fiction Type of fiction eg Novel / short story

Breakout 2: Alison Goodman: Scene diagnosis

Alison Goodman is an Australian writer of Young Adult fiction, including YA historical supernatural fiction set in the Regency period. Her seminar looked at four different diagnositic tools that can be used to analyse a scene to work out if it works, and what can be improved. Useful tools to take your scenes to the […]

Breakout 1: Chris Corbett – How stories work

Chris Corbett has written over forty hours of television – including episodes of MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES, STINGERS, THE DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES, BLUE HEELERS, THE SECRET LIFE OF US, MCLEOD’S DAUGHTERS and ALL SAINTS. He also wrote and produced the short films FENCES and THE APPLICANT which have screened at various festivals around the world including Tropfest and […]