Fleur Blüm

Fleur Blüm, a Melbourne-based writer, performer, and musician, crafts fiction with a romantic twist, infused with feminist themes. 

Conference Bound

I’ll start by saying I’m a bit late with this post. I went to Hobart for the Romance Writers of Australia Writer Wonderland conference, on 22-24 August.

I’ve had an increased workload at my day job in the last few weeks, which has meant I’ve been doing more hours than usual, and in turn that I was a bit more tired even before I got to the conference than I might have been otherwise.

I arrived at the accommodation, at Wrest Point, at about 8pm. I’d left straight from work to the airport, and decided to skip the cocktail party in favour of hiding in my room with room service. It was a solid choice for me, especially for my energy levels, though it would have been nice to see everyone.

Outdoor view of a sunny day, view over open water, with hills in the background
Wrest Point view
Outdoor view, a sunny day over an open waterway, with hills in the background, and people standing on a balcony looking over the water.
Wrest Point view
Image of a conference room, with a woman standing at the podium speaking.
Welcome to Country
Sun-lit room with stalls along the right hand side
Book stalls outside the conference rooms
A conference roon with five women sitting in a line across the stage. The screen in the background reads: Panel I don't know how they do that
Panel discussion

The two day conference started at 8am on both days; I managed to get to the first session on the Saturday, but not on the Sunday. The keynote and featured speakers chosen by the conference organisers were excellent, including Sarah MacLean, Stacey McEwan, Brenda Novak and Sarra Cannon. It’s a big task running a conference and this one was really very smooth, so well done to the team.

I attended workshops on rom-coms, setting up a series, astrology and character, idea wrangling, among others. I have at least one great idea for a rom-com which I will be adding to the TBW pile (to be written) after the projects that I’ve already started work on.

I want to give a special shout out to the other writers I spent time with over the weekend, including a number of members of the Melbourne Romance Writers Guild, and several others, new friends and old. It’s so inspiring to spent time with other writers and hear about their projects, tips and tricks, and other writerly things.

I got home quite late on Sunday, and had to work on Monday (I don’t usually, so that was a bit of a pain), and it was lovely to be in my own bed. Next year the conference is set to be in Darwin. It’s further away and a more expensive city than Hobart. I am still undecided about whether I’ll go, but I do enjoy the little break. I’ve got almost a year to decide so I’ll do that later.

toearlyretirement

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