Sydney Writers' Centre blog

How to get your 15 minutes of fame

The Emerging Writers’ Festival is calling on new published authors to present their wares to readers, and perhaps take part in their festival program – and to do it in only 15 minutes.

If you’re in Melbourne (or can get there) this is a great opportunity. The Festival is committed to promoting emerging writers by bringing authors, publishers, editors and readers together for a series of panel sessions and forums. This years’ festival will be held on Friday 22 May to Sunday 31 May. For festival details visit www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au.

The ‘15 Minutes of Fame’ sessions will be held between Monday 25 and Thursday 28 May at the City Library. If you’ve published a book in the last 18 months it would be well worth applying – just send your one page submission to info@emergingwritersfestival.org.au by Monday 2 March.

Books to Movies

While I always try to read the book before watching the movie, I did make one exception this year for Slumdog Millionaire (though, to be perfectly honest, I initially wasn’t aware it was based on a book – Q & A by Vikas Swarup). But in keeping with my not-so-strict rule, I’ve just started reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in preparation for a Saturday on the couch with a good DVD. The Reader is also definitely on my must-see list, though it’s been a long time since I read the book by Bernhard Schlink so I may have to revisit it soon.

One of my favourite book to movie adaptations is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I read the books when I was 14 and, for me, the movies bought these epic novels to life and far exceeded my expectations. And, in my opinion, one of the worst movie adaptations was The Beach. The book by Alex Garland is wonderful, but the film (ironically directed by Danny Boyle – this year’s winner of the Best Director Oscar) was a huge disappointment.

Airborne winner!

We are so thrilled today with the news that previous Creative Writing student, Kylie Williams, has been selected as one of 28 writers to take part in James Patterson’s chain thriller Airborne.

The 28 winners will be writing a chapter each of James’ next novel – he will write the first and last chapters. Chapters will be released a day at a time from Friday 20 March so be sure to keep up to date at http://www.borders.com.au/chain-thriller/home.asp.

Kylie took our Online Creative Writing course this year with Cathie Tasker. Here’s what she had to say:

“I just wanted to send Cathie, Valerie and the team a VERY BIG THANK YOU for coaching me in the online Creative Writing course.

The information I received during the course has been invaluable and gave me the tools I needed to become one of the 28 winning co-writers of James Patterson’s Chain Thriller “AirBorne”.

I still cannot believe the news… but as I have had emails from Random House and my name has been posted on Facebook, I had better get my head around it!

So thank you once again. I feel I’ve joined a long list of success stories for SWC and hope that I can benefit again soon from your experience and guidance.”

Congratulations Kylie! We’re so excited for you!

Playwrights Award

All you playwrights out there will be very pleased to hear that the Griffin Theatre Company has doubled its annual prize money to $10,000! Based in Kings Cross at the Stables Theatre, Griffin Theatre has been bringing Australian audiences the best in new theatre for 30 years. 

 

The Griffin Award offers a rare opportunity for Australian playwrights, and not only for the prize money. The theatre has launched many careers over the years.

Griffin’s Artistic Director Nick Marchand says:

 

“The Griffin Award has a fine tradition of introducing exciting new voices for the stage. With more than 100 submissions received from every state in 2008, we hope this fantastic prize will now attract even more entries this year!”

 

Previous winners from the last 12 years include Brendan Cowell (Rabbit, 2003), Ian Wilding (The Carnivores, 2005) and Mary Rachel Brown (Australian Gothic, 2006).

 

You have until 4.00pm on Friday 3 April so check out details now at Griffin Theatre Awards.

Perth Writers Festival

The Perth Writers Festival is coming up, and for all of you lucky enough to be living in WA, this is one you should definitely try to get to. Starting on Saturday 28 February and finishing on Monday 2 March, the festival will feature international writers including Stella Rimington (former head of MI5 and author of Deadline), Nadeem Aslam (The Wasted Vigil) and Sebastian Barry, author of The Secret Scripture. Australian authors include Robert Drewe (The Rip), Kate Grenville (The Secret River) and Susan Duncan (The House at Salvation Creek). There will also be a series of workshops and panel sessions over three days. For more information visit Perth Writers Festival.

Starlight Cinema

Starlight Cinema is back! Beautiful, balmy nights in Sydney are best taken advantage of by grabbing a picnic and heading to North Sydney Oval for some of the season’s best flicks.

Featuring this year is Marley & Me, starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson. The film is based on the autobiographical book by John Grogan about the joy – and frustration – their pet dog Marley brought them for 13 years.

Other films screening are Bedtime Stories, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Bride Wars. For more information and to book go to Starlight Cinema.

Review of Creative Writing with Pamela Freeman

It’s always nice to hear how much our participants enjoy a course – even nicer when they take the time to mention us in their blog! Here’s a taste of one review by Susan Conyer for Creative Writing with Pamela Freeman.

“Pamela was immediately engaging and refreshingly humble despite the success she has had as a writer - one week we were given several drafts of a passage from one of her books and asked to pick which one was included. She had no qualms in telling us that it was in fact none of them and she had to rewrite the whole thing!”

Go to Reviews by SU to read the full review.

Former student Amanda Falconer has been taking the media by storm

First there was her appearance with Mel and Kochie on Sunrise. Then she was on ABC Radio. Then three full pages in the Sunday Telegraph. And a mention in The Sydney Morning Herald. Now, former student Amanda Falconer has been on David and Kim, promoting her new book, The Renovator's Survival Guide.

You can watch Amanda in action here. Congratulations on your success Amanda!

And if you want to learn how to get this kind of publicity, check out our one-day workshop: "Media Releases that Get Results".

Student success

We got an email from former student Jo Harris this week. Jo attended the online course Feature Writing for Magazines and Newspapers. Here's what she had to say:

"I completed Valerie's online course in November 2008. By Christmas, I had secured my first freelance writing job! I was completely amazed at how quickly it all happened. Without Valerie's support and encouragement and of course the user-friendly online course, I would never have had the confidence to apply for this ongoing freelance writing position. If you follow Valerie's expert advice you really can't go wrong."
- Jo Harris

Thank Jo!

We know this is just the beginning of fabulous things for you in your writing journey