Can I be a writer for 4 days

As the sky slowly turned to black there was an orange glow in the town of Mildura, it was the writer’s festival approaching. Photo by Donna Baldwin from the 2017WIA@Mildura Festival

It all started on a Friday night in Mildura, it was a gala night that started a four day event the likes of which most have never seen before, oh except for the previous years of course. I myself could only dream of what was going to happen as this was a first for me. You could feel the cold as it was that time of year in July when we get the best frosts, I’m sure one was come tonite, but it was nice and warm inside the Mildura Club as the manager kept the  log fires were burning ,    it was as if  everyone knew that something was on!! There was a special person coming from a faraway land. His name was Jason Porter and he was from America. I was really excited to meet this man and maybe take a selfie.

Born in Jackson, Michigan in 1972 Jason Porter had a brief but small career as a news editor at Yahoo! , he was even a rock musician not very good though his words, he completed his MFA in fiction at Hunter College and now he writes fiction, mostly in various odd shapes and sizes. His first book or novel is called   “why are you so sad”? Published by Plume, now this book has made the short list for the Paris Literary Prize, what a thrill that might be one can only dream of such an honour. He lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend and their two dogs, their names of which escape me. He writes about the fact that so many people these days have clinical depression and thought it might make a nice idea for a book by creating a character that you can’t help just feeling sorry for. I found the book hilarious, intelligent and very funny; I think he nailed it in such a comical, strange and yet interesting way of sometimes hitting a nerve but clearly heading for the funny bone and didn’t really have any harm in mind.

I loved how he read out aloud, it sounded so much cooler when he did it, and I was wondering in my head how good would it be if this was on tape (sorry I don’t read much).Reading those few pages telling us about this strange character called Ray and his battle with depression, the three legged cat

                               

called Triangle it all made me want to know what else was happening in this book.  The speaker announced that they only had 20 books for the signing ( I thinking OMG I must have the precious) , I knew me owing this book was a long shot ,I looked at Sue Gillett (the teacher for the weekend ) hoping that she saw the flame going out in my eyes , she just handed me a $50 note and said “go get yourself the book then”, with this I was off to stand in line ( not really I think I pushed in little I can be like that sometimes ) . And there he was sitting there with a pile of books in front of him doing his signing thing with a thin black pen, he looked very shy and his writing was showing that maybe he was a bit nervous? I had my chance it was now or never, I smiled and made small talk with him, he remembered it was me that had taken the selfie before the reading …..And we both laughed about it , saying that we have a lot in common meaning the years and the depression ,I’m sure he was thinking  what a crazy lady this one . I grabbed my signed book and headed back to my team looking like the cat that had just swallowed the cream. I was so so happy this was my first ever signed book from a real author I love it.   

. Just to name a few of the legendary writers from this weekend are the likes of Jason Porter, Carrie Tiffany, Michael Meehan, Kerry McGinnis, A.S.Patric, Peter Boyle, Stephen Edgar, Natalie Harkin, Paul Kane, Gail Jones, Helen Garner, Carrie Tiffany, Les Murray, Kerry Conway, Judith Beveridge just to name a few from this glorious weekend of writing, talking sipping wine and hearing some of the best stories ever told by only a handful of what the literary world has to offer, They were good but not as cool as Jason Porter.