Arana Hills Library hosted a panel of speakers on Friday night 22 October to an enthusiastic audience many of whom are writers themselves.
The evening started with wine and cheese nibbles in a very hospitable setting. Quite a large audience had arrived for the evening and more chairs had to be brought in. There is no shortage of local interest in writing & hearing how to get published. The authors’ books were also on sale and the authors were available to sign them.
The Panel Chaired by Bernie Dowling of Quest Newspapers and Bent Books consisted of MK Hume (Marilyn) Rhylle Winn Julie Nickerson and Dan of Boolarong (publisher).
Each published author shared fascinating and informative facts about their journey which would be very helpful to any writer wanting to get published.
MK Hume was a senior English literature teacher until she retired. For years she had ideas for writing factual books about the history of Arthur (King Arthur) – her Master’s studies had been their original source. She is now 63 and said that 3 years ago she hadn’t even envisaged being an author. Now she is not only highly published and acclaimed she even gets the feeling that she’s making a difference in the world. Her newest book is called: Prophecy. She attributes the fascination with 5th century English history with the way she addresses the code of Arthur – the search to live his life by the code:
[ul]a line in the sand
honour
duty
courage
what makes a man
what makes a woman
decency
civilization[/ul]
Something we can learn from right here in Kedron Brook valley!
Rhylle Winn started writing after he got a brain tumour and a new neighbour – Colin Thiele. He has written 15 books since around a format of stories about local ordinary people’s real lives. Pub yarns. He says: “You don’t know who’s sitting beside you – there’s some great yarns around.”
Julie Nickerson has published a story for girls in the Aussie Nibbles style through Penguin. Only 6 a year are published and it is an achievement to be one of them.
Boolarong publishes about 27 books a year. About 9500 titles are published in Australia every year (15% fiction 35% non-fiction 50% educational). The whole Australian market is a $3 billion market. Angus & Robertsons & Dymocks have half the market. Dan’s advice is that if you can’t sell 100-200 books in your local area where you are known you’re unlikely to sell outside. In your local area it is easy to get a promotion at the library and in the local press and on the local radio.
We need to be speaking out to people who award things like the QLD Literary Awards to ensure they go to local authors here (not out-of-state authors).
During question time a very heated discussion took off on the topic of how we are educating children. It started with a question from Terry Shaw. Terry had spent most of his working life as a sub-editor & journalist with The Courier Mail. He reported there was a noticeable drop in literacy in people who apply to be journalists. He also told a story about a PhD thesis he was asked to check and it was full of grammatical errors. “Don’t worry about that” he was told. “The University of Queensland doesn’t worry about grammar!” He is definite that education has ‘stuffed up’ in the last 20 years. He told about neuroscientists now saying that the way kids are being taught doesn’t line up with the development of the brain. Apparently rote-learning is what a child’s brain development requires. The book he referred to is : Dr Peter Snow: The Human Psyche in Love War and Enlightenment. See www.charlierose.com
The whole panel and most of the audience were in enthusiastic agreement that education is serving our kids very badly. Shakespeare had 16000 words in his vocabulary but we are dumbing our kids down.
Without verbal and written literacy how can we be citizens able to express our views and take an active part in civic life?
Someone mentioned that Geoff Wilson MP had today been handing out a prize at Patricks Rd State School as one of the best schools in Brisbane (coming out of the Premier’s Literary Award). There should be more focus on enjoying reading though not all prize-based.
The evening went from 6pm to about 9.30pm and it would have to be described as a terrific success. It is inspiring to have this quality of speakers addressing a large audience locally and the quality of discussion on important issues such as literacy education.