Last Saturday, a small but dedicated crowdof YA readers a...

Last Saturday, a small but dedicated crowdof YA readers and writers* convened at Northcote Town Hall (which, BTW,has the fanciest loos I've ever seen in a council building) for the second dayof A Thousand Words. My session with Tim Pegler and Bec Kavanagh was aboutmaking writing work – with work, with life, with family, with distracting pets – and various, somewhat related tangents about publishing vs self-publishing, the rise of the ebook and whether writers have to have a social media presence. I love doing sessions like this because it's so interesting to hear other people's approaches to their writing and to being An Author.
As with all bookish festivals, thehighlight for me was meeting other writers and readers before and after thesession. I caught up with lovely Megan-Literary Life, met my YA book-to-movie doppelganger(we both gave the screen versions of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging the thumbs up and Nick and Norah thethumbs down), chatted with the next James Patterson (he's only 14 but he'salready planned his first trilogy, a couple of standalone novels and theeight-book series that will rocket him to fame – I am in absolute awe of him!),and talked about the long and thorny path to publication with a fellowweb-contenter.
Bec and the ATW crew are already brewing upbig plans for next year's festival. I know where I'll be on 4 and 5 August2012!
* mainly people who identify as both, if the ones Ichatted with were any indication