News and Appearances

Hello Darling Readers,

I have some news to announce, and some upcoming appearances to list (I know, what is this life?), so here it goes;

I am both thrilled and a wee bit nervous to be appearing at Melbourne Writers Festival this coming weekend, in two panels:

Girls Books vs Boys Books • Sat 22nd Aug 1.00pm

In the past I've written a very little bit about changing gendered reading habits, so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this topic along with authors Myke Bartlett and Sally Rippin, to be chaired by Bec Kavanagh from the Stella Schools Program (because this event is supported by the wonderful Stella Prize!) 

Fan Fictions • Sun 23rd Aug 1.00pm

Seeing as I used to write FanFiction (*ahem* between 2002 and 2009 the sum total of my 23 long-form pieces came to a whopping 442, 884 words!) I am so excited to be discussing all things Fandom and FanFiction in this event, along with authors Melissa Keil and Justine Larbalestier, to be chaired by equally fabulous author Amie Kaufman. 

Wednesday 9 September—Sunday 13 September

I'll be popping up to Albury to take part in the wonderful Write Around the Murray Festival! I'll be appearing in a whole heap of events, including chairing an 'in conversation' with authors Isobelle Carmody, Richard Harland and Andrew McGahan, plus I'll be conducting 30-minute Mentoring Sessions as part of the School's Program and SO MUCH MORE! 

For details about all my WAM events, check out my profile page (and if you see me round MWF or WAM, do come and say hey!) 

Australian Romance Readers Convention 2017 

Finally; some extra special joint-news that Adele Walsh and I are finally allowed to share ... we have volunteered to be co-coordinators of the Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) for 2017! AHHHHHH!!!!!

Adele and I attended our first ARRC in Canberra this year, and if you want to know how much I loved it I actually wrote an article all about our experience: Things no one tells you about romance readers. ARRC2017 will be happening in Melbourne, and we are currently looking for Melbourne-based individuals to join the Organising Committee. We have a number of positions to fill and if you've got the skillz and enthusiasm, we'd love for you to be involved! There will be an announcement about this is the near future but in the meantime why not consider becoming a member of the ARRA?

Adele wrote about how excited we are to undertake this task on her own Persnickety Snark blog, so a lot of this is going to be "what she said!" ... but we are best friends and I love her to bits, and I absolutely cannot wait to go on this bookish adventure with her! We did become acquainted via our book blogs, and then we met IRL and became friendly, but I really do think it was discovering our mutual love of both Kelly Clarkson and reading romance that cemented our friendship. 

The moment went something like; 

It is true - books bring people together, and the romance reading community in Australia is a particularly fantastic one that I'm so proud to be apart of ... and I thank all of you who have shown such enthusiasm for Adele and I as 2017 co-coordinators, it means a lot to both of us! 

But if you don't know me or Adele, please feel free to drop us a line over Twitter - I'm @danielle_binks she's @snarkywench - we'd love to hear from you. Or you can trawl through our Instagram accounts (check out just how much fun we had at #ARRC2015!), I'm dbinks and she's snarkywench. OR (and this one really is the greatest) if you see us around town, COME AND SAY HEY! We'll most definitely be at MWF, soaking up some of the romance-y goodness (look at them all! LOOK!) plus the ARRA book-signing event on August 22 ... please do come and say hello :)

•••

That's it. 

That's all the news for now. 

Take it away, Penny Lane ...