Writers on the headland

I’ve just returned from another wonderful writers’ retreat with my best writing buddy, Helena Pastor, whose book is coming out with UQP next year ( I will keep you posted about that). For nine years now we’ve been meeting up along the New South Wales cost to read and edit each other’s work, brainstorm, talk writing, swim, walk and relax.

This retreat was special, in a cabin complex we’d never been before and that we had to ourselves except for tame kangaroos that ate out of my hand and cheeky kookaburras that wanted to do the same. Helena read my current project, “Dear Madman” in one day and didn’t find much to fix at all. PHEW!

We both went shopping in nearby Bellingen and came home with pretty new dresses to wear for our next launches (we hope!). Most exciting was a surprise phone call form a cousin of mine who is an emerging film maker who had used a story from Thrill Seekers as inspiration for a screenplay that had interest from a producer! How exciting is that? I felt very famous 🙂

He’s applying for funding form Screen Australia so I’ll keep you posted. But do cross everything.

Now it’s time to get stuck into the final draft (well for a while anyway) of Madman using Helena’s feedback and from other writer friends and family too. I aim to submit to a major publisher at the end of the month. Here’s to many more retreats and many more glasses of JOYFUL WRITER’S TEARS.

Joyful writers’ tears