One of my favourite events is on the horizon: the conference of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia. Very sensibly, it’s entirely online this year – an excellent bit of foresight on the part of the organisers since Sydney, Auckland and Melbourne are now all in lockdown and borders are closed.
It’s always a terrific event, for writers and for readers. This year it’s spread over two weekends – 16 & 17 October, and 22-24 October. Here are all the details and the full program.
And I’m going to be rather busy throughout. Here’s what I’m doing.
Bootcamp
On 16 October, I’m running a full day Bootcamp for writers, focused on the processes of drafting and revising, and crafting the key elements of good historical fiction, with lots of exercises, tips and tools.
Scrivener for beginners
My Scrivener workshops appear now to be part of the fabric of these conferences, and this year it’s on again. We’ll learn the basics of this software program created especially for writing: what it does, and how to get the best out of it. October 22.
Biofiction panel
On October 23, I’m chairing a panel with Sienna Brown, Kelly Rimmer and Sue Williams, on one of my favourite topics: Biofiction, or the biographical novel.
LGBTIQ characters panel
Also on October 23, I’m part of a panel with Nigel Featherstone and James Worner, chaired by Greg Johnston, discussing representations of queer characters from the past.
There are lots of great panels for people who love reading historical fiction, and terrific guests (including Geraldine Brooks!); and for writers – especially emerging and aspiring writers, there are workshops, online manuscript assessments, masterclasses and bootcamps run by some of my favourite people.
And the good thing is you can attend from anywhere, and in your pyjamas if you want.
The bad thing is you have to do your own catering.
But we’re so used to that now, aren’t we? Let’s hope by the conference after this one, we can all gather again in person.
In the meantime, hope to see you there.
Kelly Gardiner 