Friday

We managed to leave so that we would make it to Ulumbarra Theater by 10 o'clock, but then detoured via Coles to buy bananas. On arrival of the Theater, we somehow entered back stage where we were scolded and directed out to the public area. We were late again.
Ulumbarra is the first significant building in this area to be given a Dja Dja Wurrung name meaning 'gather together' and 'meeting place', apparently reflecting the the original Indigenous use of the place. The building has a 160 year history as a prison where three people were hung from the neck till they died within its walls. And now, in its newest reincarnation as a state-of-the-art 1,000 seat theater, Sarah Mayor Cox and our teacher Dr Due Gillet interviewed a panel of children's authors game show style. Of the six authors in the 'Welcome & Opening Session', John Marsden and Alice Pung were definitely the stand-out speakers. The questions were intended to inform us about these authors as people, and Alice Pung put a lot of thought into her softly spoken answers. Her sweetness won the audience.

The next session called 'Crossing Over', we were fortunate enough to have Alice and John again, this time speaking about their writing and the target audience change in both their most recent work. 'Laurinda' is a fictional novel based on much of Alice's real life experiences growing up as a Chinese immigrant in a poor town and receiving a scholarship to attend a prestigious private school. She really looked into the ideas of class and ethnicity and how they play a role in the opportunities that people receive in life, and her characters experience growing up between cultures. Alice in her modesty, always managed to steer the conversation back to John's new book 'South of Darkness'.
John gave the audience tips and hints for creative writing and budding authors. His tip of the day was; "Give the writer the ending they want, and if you don't, you'd better be damn sure that you're giving them a better one, because otherwise they'll be angry at you."

Despite the fact that the next session was also in the Ulumbarra Theater, I still managed to be half an hour late- don't ask. And so I don’t know much about the true story of some ladies transition into a man, F 2 M by Hazel Edwards, but I did learn a bit about the extent of research that goes into writing a successful novel. Hazel worked very closely with her transgender character to achieve (what I can only assume as I have not read it), an accurate voice for our hero. Hazel brags that in the past she has been to Antarctica in the name of research. These lengths must be necessary for authenticity, though I do wonder if the sales cover these costs, and more so in the case of F 2 M, which unfortunately interests a limited niche group, which was emulated in the relative lack of audience. Despite this, I have been inspired again, research sounds rad.

John Marsden spoke again in the ‘Tomorrow When the Stories Began’ session. I didn’t dare go and pee between sessions in case I missed the start, and I braved the throng of students to sit towards the front of the theater. A few more John Marsden words of wisdom:
“We write and create because we want to be admired.”
“The more you write the better you get.”
“Don’t edit as you go”, this piece of advice is good for me, I have the same problem that I never get anywhere because I’m constantly editing.
“Dialogue is a good way to break up a story or give it energy, but too much is not good.”
“We’re all born at a station called ignorance, but we don’t have to stay there. That would be bad, a crime. We can take the journey to wisdom, enlightenment or awareness. Though we’ll never reach total awareness. That real-life journey should be in the fiction.”
“We can break grammatical rules, because if we know the rules, we’re above them.” (The title ‘Tomorrow When the War Began’ is grammatically incorrect.)
“The thing about Einstein is he thought outside the box.” “Yeah, but he knew what was in the box.” (Quoting someone else).

When John talked about the ending of his Tomorrow When the War Began series, I stuck my fingers in my ears because I've only read the first four books.

Finally, I attended the G 'n' Tea Show (Poetry Special). 

"You guys were buying bananas this morning in Coles" a man with curly grey hair and glasses said to me and Josh. He was Bruce, one of the poets in the session. John and Bronwyn made three poets. They spoke about the importance of poetry for society, their favorite poets, and their own work. 

John's poetry made us laugh.

Bronwyn made us shiver.

Bruce made us cry.