Hurling Towards the Month of August and Crazy Town!

The month of August is always madness for me. So much happens in this one month. It’s all very exciting but also completely exhausting.

Here’s a summary.

Byron Writers Festival

This year I am helping in two ways. I’m the Deputy Chair of the Festival and am also helping out in the office three days a week as a consultant. The Festival is in four weeks, so things are really hotting up.

It’s going to be an amazing event. We have a number of international guests including lauded American satirist and political commentator P.J. O’Rourke, best-selling UK novelist Louise Doughty; Irish writer Evelyn Conlon, Spanish ex-police officer Victor del Arbol whose novel won this year’s Premio Nadal, Pulitzer Prize winner William Finnegan and Cheryl Strayed, whose best-selling book Wild (loved this book) detailed her extraordinary solo hike across America.

Also, internationally renowned Australian writers Helen Garner, Anna Funder, Tom Keneally and Drusilla Modjeska will join Texas based Australian Dominic Smith (whose novel The Last Painting of Sara de Vos I’ve just finished reading and it was amazing), this year’s Stella Prize-winner Charlotte Wood and performer Magda Szubanski who has elegantly transitioned from the screen to the page with her fascinating and award winning memoir Reckoning.

I will be chairing two Festival sessions including a conversation with romance author Charlotte Nash. I've read Charlotte's Ryders Ridge, Crystal Creek and have just started reading The Horseman. All fabulous books.

And so much more… If you have never been to the Festival, you should.

Romance Writers of Australia Conference

Next up is the RWA conference in Adelaide. A wonderful highlight each year. Not only do I learn an enormous amount but I also love catching up with all my writer friends.  This year for the first time in a long time, I’m not actually presenting anything so I can just kick back and relax (although that never seems to happen).

Down to Melbourne

My son is currently attending ‘bush school’ in country Victoria. A year with no computers, no phones, no tablets, no electronic devices of any kind (and that’s why he is there). He does the normal curriculum but on the weekends goes hiking, walking, camping, fishing, skiing, does community services (like chopping wood for elderly people), orienteering and, in general has an amazing time. 

We are off down to the school for parents’ dinner, which will be lovely.

Finalising the unpack

In August last year we moved house. This August I am determined to unpack those last few boxes, which have been taunting me. Just can’t leave them go past the one-year anniversary mark.

So, August is pretty full on for me. How is your month of August shaping up?

Breaking News: Tempted by the Billionaire Tycoon has been selected by iBooks for their Winter Reading promo which is a little exciting. This book is part of my Billionaire Romance Series.