Hurrah! A literary event in Sydney! Elena from With Extra Pulp let me know about this one last night, so I went along and got to meet her as well. We talked about writing, drinking wine and getting distracted by graphic novels. Lovely!
Mic Looby (who I know better from his Big Issue column) was talking about his book, Paradise Updated, with Ben Groundwater. We were treated to a reading from the book, describing one of the older, jaded travel writers; and the conversation largely focussed on what a terrible job being a travel writer really is. I’ve been as guilty as anyone, assuming that travel writing would be a great, glamorous job. When it’s explained more fully (think covering an entire country on a two month deadline) it doesn’t sound quite so fun.
Elena, having read the book (and reviewed it, in fact), has a slightly more informed and amusing review of the night up here. Hopefully there’ll be some more events like this one for us to go to soon!
Going off on a bit of a tangent for a moment, the venue where last night’s event was held also happens to house my preferred cafe to write in, so I was there this afternoon making notes and scrawling down outlines. I have high hopes for this place: a jazz quintet set up and played a set or two while I was there, and the beginnings of some kind of art exhibition became apparent as I left and tables full of wine bottles were set up. I’ll have to keep a close eye on this place.
I recorded a small snippet of what I heard at Da Caff (as I’m now calling it) to share here. Unfortunately I’ve got no idea how to convert it to the kind of file I can actually upload… so for now it’s sitting on my desktop. Any help in that regard would be greatly appreciated!
avocado and lemon 
I loved how he made his main character Robert Rind so oblivious to his situation…and yet the embittered veteran guidebook writers were themselves too oblivious to recognise themselves in Rind.
It was lots of fun meeting you! We may bump into each other in the upstairs cafe…
Great to meet you too! Might see you at the cafe sometime soon.
Hello A&E, thanks for this. I’m the publisher of Mic’s book and just wanted to let you know we’re hosting another literary event 6.30pm, Wed (17th) at Gleebooks if you’re interested. James Valentine is launching two collections of short stories, Under Stones by Bob Franklin and Nineteen Seventysomething by Barry Divola. Do pop along if you’re free. And say hello.
Thanks for the info! I’m actually in Melbourne that night, but I’ll keep an eye on your website for more events, and pass this one on to some friends I think might be interested.