Books and Bickies at Morisset Library

Today I spent the morning as the guest author at Morisset Library's monthly Books and Bickies session.  I nearly cancelled, due to the fact that I'm all out of books after last week's event (more on the way...) and have rather a lot to do, including finishing a story for a rapidly advancing deadline. I decided to go anyway and I'm very glad I did. Firstly, it was a reasonably sized crowd, but more than that, most of the people there had actually read Black Cow, and were intelligent, articulate, and enthusiastic (the perfect combination). It was one of the most invigorating hours I've spent: talking books in general and my books in particular. One nice fellow told me that, while he hadn't (yet) read Black Cow, he absolutely loved Sleep Before Evening and was especially impressed by my original use of metaphors in the book. Since he was a former English teacher, his approval of my metaphors was good enough for me (he also told me SBE was far superior to another 'similar' book Trainspotting, which he hated :-)). The group also talked about the impact of e-books and what that meant for the future of libraries, about notions of sustainability and 'affluenza', about characterisation, about Tasmania and why I chose it, and lots more. They even asked me to read specific chapters that they liked and noted.  The wonderful librarian Andrew Boyce stage-managed the whole thing (and brought the biscuits and a few library copies of my books). I was so energised by the event and the positive reception I got that I finished my story within the hour of arriving home. Libraries rock.