Byron Bay ...sunshine and laughing with famous (and not so famous) writers

Byron Bay Writer’s Festival 2013
Lenny, Marele, Kerrie and Michael

Mary-Lou, Lisa, Graeme & Susanna
What could be better than escaping a Melbourne Winter (raining and 11 degrees I am told) to go to Byron Bay in the North of NSW, far enough north for tropical plants, noisy birds, warmth and if you are lucky sunshine. Last year, the Festival, out in Marquees in the paddocks, was a washout, but this year (my first) luck has prevailed and I am hot in boots and the Rome Rosie Launch leather trench-coat.
This is my third Aussie festival as a hand bag, fourth if you count one I actually attended just to listen. So far it is my far the friendliest and warmest (and I’m not talking just weather). Cocktails last night overlooking the ocean as the preview helped…
So today? I started with A Murder of Writers… probably the only collection noun suitable for crime fiction writers and though Kerry Greenwood’s books have some amusing moments, the other panellists Marele Day and Lenny Bartulin write a little more seriously albeit noir, and the chair, Michael Robotham, does psych crime thrillers, so I wasn’t expecting to be laughing. But they were hilarious and the audience warmed to them and helped them be even funnier. All four were quipping off each other (including poor Lenny with a mere four books to Kerry’s 61) and committing true crimes: Michael (he and his wife incidentally are most charming, we’re staying in the same hotel) apparently nearly burnt down Gundagai as a six year old, and Marele suggested perhaps Lenny (who as a child had urinated in public) could have been used to put it out…Kerry, a bright incisive mind threw in some true stories of her time s  lawyer and the stage was set!
On a more serious note I heard Hannah Kent talking about her passion for Iceland (20 hours darkness in January…mmm), and back to amusing, have an endearing picture in my head of Peter Carey (an Aussie icon) playing football as a gawky kid with his glasses taped on (including between his eyes). Kerry O’Brien managed to get a few laughs with Simon Crean; given the state of the Labour party laughing is perhaps the only option.
Finally intimacy with Mary-Lou Stevens (host), Graeme Simsion, Lisa Walker and Susanna Freymark. Three very different novels; a light love near Byron Bay about a would be surfer scared of water (Lisa), a fictionalised memoir about dealing with a broken heart with sex (not a book you want to be in though Susanna assured everyone her character comes off the worst) and of Course the eccentric Don Tilman looking for love in The Rosie Project. Loads of fun….now I’m back to editing mine and hope this has inspired me!