“Model daughter, model student and all-round good girl,” was how Canberra based writer Qin Qin described her younger self while discussing her memoir “Model Minority Gone Rogue” at the third annual Boorowa Literary Festival held at the Boorowa Recreation and Sports club in beautiful downtown Boorowa.
Qin Qin was one of the six writers attending the festival to discuss their books and share entertaining anecdotes and behind-the-scenes insights into their stories and their lives as writers.
The festival, the brainchild of Jeremy Clarke, the owner of Boorowa’s The Absolutely Superb Bibliotheque and Occasional Wine Bar, was a warm, friendly and well organised gathering of writers and readers who came together to “talk about reading and writing.”
The festival kicked off on Friday night with author Tim Ayliffe discussing life and all things literature through the lens of his thriller novels – some of which are in development for TV - as well as his 25 year career as a journalist.
Qin Qin, interviewed insightfully and intelligently by Boorowa local Nicky Merriman, spoke about her transformative journey from fulfilling her immigrant parents’ desire for her success to discovering a life of personal fulfilment and joy and it made for a profoundly moving interview.
Unfortunately I couldn’t be present to hear author Siang Lu speak about his novel “Ghost Cities” inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China.
But according to everyone who was present, Lu‘s interview, with resident sinophile Jeremy Clarke, was fascinating and generated much conversation over coffee and cake at the end of the session.
After the lunch break the award winning crime fiction author Matthew Spencer was interviewed by local cop, Detective Chief Constable Chris Anderson.
Being interviewed by a working police officer offered us an “inside” perspective and Spencer regaled us with stories about some of the shadier real life characters he’d interviewed and been inspired by in writing his novels.
Margaret Hickey, yet another award winning writer and playwright, told us about how she finds the tension between the “beauty and the terror” of the Australian landscape continually offers her a myriad of scenarios and characters to write about along with endless perfect sites to “bury the bodies.”
Wrapping up the day was the internationally famous and multi-award winning author Candice Fox.
Fox has not only written eleven crime novels, two of which were adapted into a major ABC TV series, but she co-wrote seven New York Times bestsellers with James Patterson – the world’s bestselling thriller writer.
Her warm, straight-talking nature belied her status as an international star and she spoke as enthusiastically about rescuing an injured sea eagle for WIRES as she did about meeting and befriending her idol the prolific author Lee Child. She was a delight to listen to and no-one wanted her interview to end.
Thank you Jeremy and Lucy for creating this wonderful event in our own backyard and I know I’m one of the many who can’t wait for next year’s “absolutely superb” festival.
ROZ HALL FARLAM