We’re hunkered down for winter here in Melbourne. Especially me, as I’ve managed to come down with a boring cold and my head’s too thick even to read.

But the good thing about winter in this neck of the woods is that it’s writers festival time.

So here are a few of the events and classes I’ve got coming up.

Woodend Winter Arts Festival: June 10

A panel with Robert Gott,  Eliza Henry-Jones and Mark Brandi, hosted by Kate Cuthbert. We’ll read a bit and talk a bit and answer your questions.  It’s help to celebrate 30 years of Writers Victoria, our wonderful state-wide writers’ organisation.

Details here.

Emerging Writers Festival: June 29

One of my favourite writers’ festivals, because it is for writers, and it’s always innovative and so helpful to people who are starting out. So I’m delighted to be part of it again this year, with a workshop on how to write historical fiction.

And it’s free!  Details here.

Bendigo Writers Festival:  11 August

Another of my favourite festivals, in one of the most interesting areas of Victoria. This time, I’m chairing a session with two lovely writers: Kate Forsyth and Ilka Tampke. We’ll talk about researching the past, and knowing the three of us and our enthusiasm for the topic, they’ll have to drag us off stage with a shepherd’s crook. Details here.

I’ll also be quizzing the editor and some contributors of Kindred, a new anthology of YA queer stories, just out last month. I haven’t read Kindred yet, but I’m very much looking for to it, and to talking to Michael Earp, Claire G Coleman, Erin Gough and Nevo Zisin about their work. Details here.

Gender and Love conference: 25-27 September

In Spring, I’ll be back in South Africa for the Gender and Love conference and  doing more research for my YA novel, Roar, which is set in the late 1980s in London and Apartheid-era South Africa.

HNSA conference: 25-27 October

By October, the sun will be out again, and I’ll be in Sydney for the Historical Novel Society of Australasia conference at historic Parramatta. I’m teaching writers how to use Scrivener in a craft workshop  on the Friday, and then in the weekend program will be chatting with Sophie Masson about our approaches to writing for different age groups. And I’m co-convening the academic stream on the Sunday.

In between, I’ll be recording podcasts, teaching, attending some other writers festivals and events, moving house, releasing the new editions of  the Firewatcher Chronicles … oh, and finishing Vigil, book three of the series.

If I can just shake off this cold!