1. Guess who's going to be part of the Brisbane Writers Festival this year? Me! I am very excited. I have a session in the online literature festival for grades 8-10 on Thursday September 5 at 11am. (You can book here.) (Yes it is still three months off the kids' program has been announced now so I couldn't not tell you.)
2. The State Library of Queensland is spectacularly excellent. For instance, on Saturday afternoon, I went there for a reading event run by the Queensland Writers Centre and had a rather lovely time and drank rather a lot of tea. (It was a special 'young writers' event, which is always wonderful.)
Also, the SLQ's Young Writers Award is currently open for entries! So if you're a Queenslander, writer and aged between eighteen and twenty-five, you should have a look at this (Submit a short story of 2,500 words or less! $2000 first prize!).
3. I really like this state. I think people underestimate Queensland. There are lots of wonderful arts initiatives and festivals and things for youth, at least in this corner. I find it is a nice place to be a YA writer. There is less noise and less of a scene to get caught up in, but still enough going on and enough of a writing community about that you don't feel cut off from everything. I am going to go write a proper blog post now. (And I should probably work on that novel. Damn you, internet. So very distracting.)
