Michael Kirby, Australians’ champion of love

Australia’s longest serving judge Michael Kirby shared the stage with authorised biographer Daryl Dellora and chair Mick O’Reagan, ABC Radio National’s homepage editor. Kirby’s thoughtful and compassionate comments and humorous anecdotes of his personal life, and his experiences as a High Court judge were entertaining and thought provoking.

Kirby set the tone early by taking the mickey out of himself when plugging his own book A Private Life: Fragments, Memories and Friends and Dellora’s Michael Kirby: Law, Love and Life, holding the books up and saying “I would hate to be so vulgar as to advertise my books”.

O’Regan described Kirby as a man with a great passion for family, his long-term partner Johan van Vloten and an unrelenting courage to stand up for what he believes to be right and just.  Kirby was quick to point out that he has his faults, joking that one day he sat down with van Vloten to list them and van Vloten looked across at Kirby’s notepad and said, “that pad’s not big enough”.

Michael Kirby, Daryl Dellora and Mick O’Regan in the signing tent at Byron Bay Writers’ Festival after their session. Photograph: Tao Jones.

While the conversation moved effortlessly between his early years when he met van Vloten, to his rise in the High Court, it soon became apparent that Kirby’s message today is about love. Referring to Law, Love and Life Kirby said that the title should be reversed as life precedes all, it is the genesis of our being, then comes love, it gives our lives meaning while developing and enriching us and lastly is the law, “down there”.

Kirby spoke warmly of his family admitting that he has been surrounded by love all his life and, “anyone who denies another love is not a nice person”. This was in spite of the difficulties he encountered when coming out as a homosexual both publicly and personally. Dellora’s book contains extracts from letters between Kirby and his father written in the ’60s that encouraged him to go to the top doctors on Harley Street to get himself fixed, making his plea, “as a loving father”. When his mother read the letters she wrote back, “I love you, I love you, I love you”.

Kirby encouraged the audience to be grateful for the love in their lives, that if we find someone who is kind, supportive and honest we are a lucky human, whether we are straight or gay. He said it doesn’t matter if we have a mother who loves us and another mother, or a dad and another dad, the important ingredient is love and any child that is loved is a lucky child.

He talked about the fear campaign in the media’s coverage of refugees pointing out that Australians shouldn’t be swayed by fear. He drew attention to the fact that Australia has a very small number of refugees, currently around five thousand, which is substantially less than other countries. What he would like to see is a process where their applications can be processed more quickly so people know where they stand asserting, “we shouldn’t be so unkind to these people”.

Kirby’s respect for life is not limited to human beings but extends to animals. He is encouraged to see how many young people attending university are campaigning for Animal Law, that they are saying our society is cruel to animals and, “we have corporatised the killing”. Kirby’s own view is we should be treating animals as sentient beings and extending to them love and care.

When writing a biography, Dellora said he looks for something others have overlooked and saw that Kirby is one of the only people willing to speak out about love.

Kirby, a man who has devoted his life to human rights and the law and continues to serve on international bodies remains genuinely conscious of his shortcomings. He spoke highly of his partner van Vloten and his capacity, “to give and give at all times”, against which he could only describe himself as a selfish man.

“I shouldn’t be here,” he said, “I should be down mowing the lawns.”

Missed the Kirby session? Click on the image to listen.

Humble words from Australia’s champion of love.

Margo Laidley-Scott is a media student at Southern Cross University.

Digitial big bang: a brave new world for writers

The digital big bang is neither a good thing, a bad thing but neither is it neutral, agreed panellists Marc Fennell, Antony Funnell and Stephen Sewell.

The way Sewell described it, we’re looking at a revolution. Pillars of our economy, our arts and our society are crashing down around us. We cannot possibly know what might be left when the smoke clears. An oppressive online environment controlled by large corporations, or a great freedom and deregulation with all the advances and the dangers that might encompass. Fennell thought it was most likely we’d end up somewhere in between.

Funnell agreed with the sentiments of revolution. He described the digital big bang as an evaporation of everything we understand about writers, books and publishing. We are standing on the edge. Exhausted as we might feel by the constant digital expansion, we’ve barely dipped our toes in the water.

Dickens’ words “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” captures perfectly the digital revolution. Sewell fantasises about being author to a kind of Alice in Wonderland story. Readers would just leap into a hatch and could go wherever they pleased within the written world. On the flipside, the internet brings new debates about censorship and copyright, it brings trolls onto the scene and it takes some of the legitimacy away from ‘published’ books.

With so much choice, the panel wondered, how can we know what is worth reading? Publishers have performed that function: will we eventually need to trawl through masses of unsolicited works to find the diamond in the rough? A publisher brings a critical eye and editorial ability to a manuscript. Without them, authors risk self-publishing inferior work or they will be forced to hire an editor privately. Potentially a very profitable decision, Fennell thought – IF the book proves successful.

At a session yesterday, I heard about how the success of 50 Shades of Grey has caused publishers to start wildly publishing erotic fiction hoping to capitalise on E. L James’ success. The same thing happened following the hysteria over Twilight. With the economic climate turned against publishers, there is a risk that excellent writing will be left on the reject pile because it fails to fit the sellable mould.

Digital publishing risks the intensification of the shrinking literary variety. Publishers can receive feedback through our e-readers on what we’re reading, how quickly we do it, what we highlight and how often we return to it. In the same way the advertisements you see online are tailored to your search history, we may see publishers tailor their commissioning of new work to suit the style that our data says sells well.

To be an author online is to open yourself to criticism; you need to be prepared for that sort of audience interaction. Fennell spoke about his The Movie Book, the subject of at least three blogs. He is used to his work being discussed online (his advice is to never Google yourself). Fennell however felt that his work was skewed for audience interaction, and the way people reach out to do that is online. As a movie critic, his role he felt is in starting a conversation which the audience finishes. Maybe that’s the future for all writing. Writers stepping out of the ivory tower and into the throng.

Emily Handley is a Southern Cross University media student.

Shining a light on Isobelle Carmody

There is something rather magical about Isobelle Carmody.

Touted as Australia’s own version of J.K Rowling, Carmody has a sparkle about her; a twinkle in her eye, as though she has knows a powerful secret. With wild, raven black hair and small elfin like features, you could actually imagine Carmody stepping straight out of one of her fantasy books – or perhaps that is just the spell she casts upon you.

I had the pleasure of seeing Isobelle Carmody speak at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival 2012. It was purely by accident that I ended up at the ABC3 tent, after my 10-year old daughter decided to tag along with me at the last minute. As a guest blogger with Southern Cross University, I was lucky enough to see some superb sessions at the Writers’ Festival this year, including some truly wonderful Australian talent. But by far the most memorable session for me, both as a writer and as a mother, was the session with Isobelle Carmody – the one I attended with my daughter.

Isobelle Carmody is an award-winning Australian writer of science fiction, fantasy, children’s literature and young adult literature. Her rich and vivid imagination shines just as brightly in person as it does on the page and she connects to her audience with an honesty and authenticity that is so often missing when children are involved.

Carmody has written extensively for adults,  however, today’s crowd was made up predominantly of book-loving youngsters between the ages of 4-18,  many of whom came out to the festival today, especially to meet her.

I had seen Carmody interviewed the day before by a Southern Cross media student, and thought she seemed intriguing. While everyone else visiting Byron Bay was admiring the spectacularly warm winter weather, Carmody was cursing and complaining.

“Too much sun,” she said. “I’m not a fan of the sun.”

My 10-year old daughter had read a couple of her more popular books at school,  but had no preconceived idea about the author one way or another. But within minutes of being up on the stage, Carmody had won us both over, and towards the end of the session we marched straight over to the book tent to get our new books signed, with a gaggle of fans eagerly lining up behind us.

After family and friends, books are what matter most to me in the world, and to see my child engaged and excited about the idea of reading and writing; to see her eyes light up and her mind wander off and into the realm of imagination – well, it’s worth its weight in gold (or in gold-dust, as Carmody might say). And she certainly sprinkled plenty of that our way.

Michelle Sim is a student at Southern Cross University.

Women go wireless by writing in cyberspace

This afternoon, I was presented with the opportunity to watch one of my absolute long time inspirations, Marieke Hardy, the well-known author, radio presenter, blogger, screenwriter.

Hardy was on a panel with Virginia Murdoch, one of the founders of Booki.sh (an online/ebook publisher) as well as a graphic designer by trade, who also works with Overdrive and Haylee Kerans, an avid reader of romance and the Publishing Manager at Harlequin (think Mills & Boon, Harlequin & Mira). She is living proof that life can imitate fiction: Kerans did her thesis on the polemics of Mills & Boon and now works in a position that has put her research to excellent use. Jeanti St Clair (journalist, media lecturer at SCU and ABC North Coast’s arts reviewer) chaired this session so I looked forward to some lively debate.

With the arrival of the internet as not only a competitor but also possibly a replacement of traditional reading sources, is it now necessary for writers to embrace this environment for survival? Those more familiar with a pen and paper can be daunted by the challenges that this landscape throws out, but decreasing printed book sales, a diverse array of available content and the options of e- & self-publishing have emerged as a new force within the literary world that can’t be ignored, regardless of our personal views.

The rapid growth and global accessibility of blogs, YouTube, social networking and easily downloadable content has seen an explosion of both the “good” and “bad”, releasing more for consumption than ever before. So what do today’s writers need to be aware of to stay in touch with changing trends?

These four uniquely talented woman discuss the issues emerging from internet writing.

Jeanti St Clair began explaining that women are quick to take up e-publishing and blogging and that studies show that women trust blogs. Why? Due to the length and depth of format, as well as the online “community” available, St Clair says blogs are hitting a chord with female audiences.

Marieke Hardy commented, saying that community is definitely a strong drawcard to blogging and that she often finds  “young, funny, sharp female writers” online who usually have other day jobs, but are accessible due to the ease of creating a blog. She says her own blog,  has a large following and she often uses it to comment on political and media-related issues, such as the axing of Channel 10’s The Circle, which has outraged many viewers, and Hardy has been vocal about it.

Haylee Kerans says blogs are as important for publishers as for writers, especially in the genre of romance in which she specialises.  Virginia Murdoch asks Kerans: “What about the book-to-blog phenomenon? Where do you start – the piles of manuscripts or online?” St Clair continues this line of questioning, asking if it makes writers easier to market when they come already having an audience? Kerans explains that it can make the job harder (trawling thorugh the internet for fresh content) as well as easier, because writers “know how to use the tools”.

Regarding structural changes, Murdoch notes that companies such as Booki.sh have not caused this trend and that in actuality, they serve to “widen the ability to reach audiences, engineered to help share and make easy and quick purchases”. She goes on to say that there are times when hard copies are more likely required (such as cookbooks, gifts, collections etc) and times when e-books are more practical (for travel and portability).

Digital/ e-publishing and self-publishing differ greatly, says Kerans. Despite popular opinion, she concedes that “some genres works better, such as romance”. Some say the resurgence of romance has a lot to do with the availability of private purchasing and consumption via downloadable content.

But with so much content floating around, what will make yours stand out? This is where a good publisher is worth their weight in gold. Kerans likens them to being “a champion” for your cause, quick to point out that just because a book is in the marketplace or worth reading, doesn’t guarantee at all that it will sell. St Clair suggests that publication has always been about “curation”, and hence it will continue, a statement I couldn’t agree more with.

Moving back to the subjects of blogging, Hardy talks about the rapid rise of the “mummy blogger”, joking that the internet was surely made for mothers of small children; a place where women can “discuss, heal and help each other”. All this is true, which leads into the slightly darker topic of the not so pretty side of blogging for women.

While this includes healthy competition, it also includes the absolutely vile and unacceptable comments being left on blogs, to which Hardy, like many high profile bloggers, have been subjected to. As she says, it “gets easier”, realising over time that the people who hide behind their screens bullying others in an unaccountable way are cowardly in their approaches. She advises other woman not to engage in nastiness and to develop a thick skin.

But what of a blogger’s responsibility to moderate comments on their own blogs? Hardy admits this is a grey area. At what point does this become necessary? Hardy doesn’t believe in removing posts that critique her work but sometimes has to draw the line at comments that are abusive or violently oriented at others.

St Clair’s last question relates to scarcity of female authors and the “glass ceiling” aspect to this industry. I can’t help but reflect upon other topics we have covered so far: the end of a solely female presented TV show despite a steady audience; abuse, nastiness and threats directed at women online as well as the disproportion of income, based on gender in most industries. With these sort of issues to face, is it any wonder there are less women out there sharing their thoughts?  This will only change by strength in numbers and long-term commitment to make real changes in this area. Women have voices and we need to start using them!

Virginia Murdoch mentions that while e-publishing will not change the gender figures alone, that sites like smashwords are available to all writers to self-distribute by uploading your own manuscript, and giving it away or selling it for a commission. She suggests that more community-driven audiences and less middle men will definitely change the way that people are published, giving people more and more of what they want and less of what they are given or sold by larger companies. Still, competing with large companies who are not interested in making any profits for authors can be hard, she says.

Kerans agrees saying that “we don’t value intellectual property enough, (we forget that) a lot of work has gone into it by the writer”. This is, without a doubt, a key factor in how the market has changed. With the advent of the internet, everyone wants everything right now and for free.

I try to think of it like fast food chains though, you might eat there occasionally when you are really hungry or desperate, but you don’t make a habit out of it because you usually regret it afterwards. It is so much nicer to sit down and eat a well-prepared and lovingly cooked meal. Even if it takes longer and costs more, we all know it is worth it. A writers’ work is no different. Creations of quality are always worth the wait and the extra few dollars.

On this note, I’d like to point out the self-proclaimed ‘granny blogger’ who made a few comments at the end of the session during question time, about why she blogs. Quite simply, she said that she and her fellow granny bloggers “blog online because we like writing and sharing, it makes us happy to do it”.

And that is the best inspiration there ever was.

Keira Patrick is a Southern Cross University media student.

Speaking Freely: The impact of censorship

If you were heading out to the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival today to an event entitled Speaking Freely: The Impact of Censorship, you’d probably assume that Julian Assange would rate a mention.

Instead however, the presence of Assange loomed large in the marquis tent this morning, like an omniscient presence – the proverbial elephant in the room.

Was it a conscious decision not to talk about the Wikileaks founder and the fate that surely awaits him for his role in overseeing what he describes as the pursuit of transparency?  Was it possible that the panel of journalists, hand chosen for their stance against censorship, had in fact chosen today to censor the big man himself? Perhaps it was just a really big oversight on um… someone’s behalf. Anyway -

Sitting on the panel were Mohammed Hanif, Denise Leith and Nicole Moore, who has just recently published a book on the history of censorship in Australia. Chaired by Julianne Schultz stepping in for Simon Marnie, Schultz paid homage to the PEN empty chair, reserved for not one, but three international writers who were currently imprisoned respectively in Mexico and China, on charges relating to censorship and conspiracy.

I couldn’t help thinking that a chair should have been reserved for Julian Assange but then that would have actually meant mentioning his name, and discussing a whole bunch of really necessary issues – giving less time for each panellist to plug their prospective books. Enough said.

The theme of ‘speaking freely’ pivoted around what censorship has to say about a society. The central questions society must ask of itself chimed the panel, revolve around what is being censored and why.

In Pakistan, explains Hanif, silence is the ultimate blasphemy. What is silenced and excluded tells you a lot about a society.

Moore brought an interesting perspective to the panel derived from the research on her book, The Censor’s Library. Funnily enough the book took seven years to complete, Moore tells us.

“I went down into the archives and then seven years later, I emerged.”

There were literally 793 boxes, equalling 12,000 titles of censored books.

Throughout Australia’s history, explains Moore, different types of books have been banned for different reasons, depending on the era and the moral panic of the time. Social norms played a huge role in determining what was classed as taboo. For example, in the thirties it was books on birth control and sex, then we moved onto homosexuality, and in a post war Australia it was all about political censorship, particularly Socialism and Communism.

In Pakistan, explains Hanif, it used to be about sex, and now censorship is all about religion. Even the average citizen must be careful how they speak about religion in the public domain and therefore a kind of self-censorship becomes normal in everyday life.

For the writer and for the journalist, there is a responsibility to share truth and to remain faithful to the truth while at the same time remaining respectful of those who may not want those stories told. Hanif suggests that fiction is the perfect solution. Writing fiction, he explains, enables the writer to tell the story they want to tell, the story they think is important, without having to worry about self-censorship or stepping on anyone’s toes.

On the topic of self-censorship, Denise Leith shares her own knowledge and wisdom on the subject of war reporting and particularly photojournalism.

“Photo-journalists are faced with a series of ethical and moral decisions,” Leith says.

Telling the truth isn’t always straight-forward, there are costs involved for the subjects in the photograph and their families, for the newspaper owners, for the advertisers and for the public at large. The journalist’s role is to document the truth and they give us the first cut of the truth but at the same time, there are consequences, and choices must be based around decorum, respect and tact. In the end it always comes back to that question of what is most at stake.

Evidently.

Michelle Sim is a Southern Cross University Student. 

Turn to the dark side of humanity to find hope and feel life

The darkside of humanity is a side we are advised to stay away from.

Throughout history, humans have been the cause of some extremely dark and evil events, from serial killers to the Holocaust and so much in between. As with everything we are advised to stay away from, some people just can’t help but be attracted to the darkside of humanity.

Three authors who are adept at writing about the darker parts of humanity are Denise Leith, Tony Cavanaugh and Stephen Sewell. These authors immersed themselves in the darkness of their characters, but don’t want to leave you feeling that darkness, but wish to impart a sense of hope (Except Sewell.).

Denise Leith is the author of What Remains, wants to understand the dark parts of humanity, but not from a twisted mind. Leith wishes to understand what makes a person help out others in the face of evil. A story she mentioned was of the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda during the genocide. It seemed as if all Hutus were killing Tutsis, but some Hutus took a risk of their own lives to make space to hide Tutsis.

Leith’s interest in these horrible events comes from her teenage years, when she found herself with a strong hatred of injustice, making her an angry teenager. What Remains is a story about a female journalist, Kate Price, who doesn’t feel emotions unless it digs deep inside her. It follows her journey, as she confronts some of the most horrible parts of humanity, and her mental breakdown from the memories and horrors.

Tony Cavanaugh is a screenwriter and playwright, and has written his first novel, Promise. Promise is a story about the dance between cop and serial killer in the bright and sunny atmosphere of Noosa, Queensland. While writing the book, Tony Cavanaugh got into the mind of a serial in the character of Winston, who has a horrible distaste for humanity and wishes them dead. The story is juxtaposition between the sunny holiday setting of Noosa and the serial killings conceived and perpetrated by Winston. When writing this character, Cavanaugh found himself cleaning his house like a crazed man to help relieve himself of the darkness of Winston.

Both Leith and Cavanaugh write using such dark and disturbing topics, but want to leave the reader with a sense of hope, that even in the darkest times hope can shine through. Leith told a story of what happened after a disturbing event when a few people took a lot of the drug, ice and went on a killing rampage in a church.

But what Leith saw next was incredible. She returned some months later and found a grandmother caring and giving love to children. Even in the darkest moments of humanity, love shone through the brightest.

Stephen Sewell, however, doesn’t want to leave his readers with a sense of hope, but a sensation that they’re alive in their own skin, and he isn’t bothered if it’s a positive or a negative experience. It’s about feeling the experience, rather than feeling contemplative and upbeat.

Sewell’s first book Babylon is the story of youth and the struggle of living in a world of corruption and depravity. The landscape and characters reflect a broken down and intense world, where the social constructs in our society have been taken away, as well as the destruction of the environment. The book shows a link between the destruction of the environment and the decay of the human mind and society.

A critical moment in Sewell’s teenage years saw his perception become diverted by an attraction to the darkness of humanity. Sewell hopes to understand what makes humanity cause atrocities such as the Holocaust during World War II.  It is his spiritual journey to attempt to understand the violence and insanity that humans are such a large part of. One quote that stays in his mind is ‘There has been no poetry since Auschwitz’. This shows the difference between the beauty of poetry and horrors of war.

Unlike Leith and Cavanaugh, Sewell wants to leave his readers feeling like they’re alive and, regardless whatever else they feel, that’s the core of the matter. They are alive.

Aaron Monopolis is a Southern Cross University media student.

The Gods of Wheat Street – Jon Bell, Deb Cox and Lois Randall

The process of pulling together The Gods of Wheat Street, a 10-part TV series which has been filmed in Casino, was explored by its creators Jon Bell and Deb Cox with Lois Randall in a Screenworks-sponsored  session held on Saturday afternoon at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival.

Described as “the Aboriginal Neighbours or Home and Away“, the series has cast many locals and will be broadcast on ABC1 in 2013.

A new hope for feminist future through extreme journeys

Anna Rose, Ailsa Piper and Jessica Watson talk about their journeys and achievements. Photo: Kristie Yates

What do a climate change activist, a writer and world solo sailor have in common?

They are strong, intelligent and ambitious Australian women.

At 4.00pm on Friday, the ABC3 Marquee began to fill with an audience, predominantly female, but not entirely. Young teens and students, mothers and elderly groups eagerly awaited the arrival of the speakers.

Jessica Watson was the first to arrive. One particular fan had traveled across the country to Byron Bay and to listen first hand to Jessica share her story. She have the young man a hug and signed his copy of her book, True Spirit. He did not stop smiling the entire session.

In 2010, at the age of 16, Jessica Watson had successfully completed her dream to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo. This voyage meant 210 days at sea, more than 22, 000 nautical miles with only her boat, Ella’s Pink Lady, for company. Since becoming the Young Australian of the Year in 2011, Watson has written a book and now spends time speaking publicly and honestly about her journey and how she got where she is today.

Watson was then joined on stage by fellow speakers Anna Rose and Ailsa Piper along with chairperson Jill Eddington.

Anna Rose seemed to have a following within the crowd who were already familiar with her work on climate change. Striving to improve the condition of the world for the future, Anna is about as passionate about the environment as it gets and is the co-founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Her latest journey was spent researching and writing the book, Madlands: A journey to change the mind of a climate sceptic.

Rose’s concluding comment gained instant support amongst the audience as they applauded.

“If we have climate change activists going to jail trying to help the world, the least I can do is spend four weeks with Nick Minchin.”

Continuing with the list of powerful women, Ailsa Piper has made an impressive name for herself within the Australian arts and film industries. She has dabbled in everything from acting, theatre directing, writing, teaching and public speaking, winning various awards along the way. Like Watson and Rose, Piper has also fused her passion into a book. Sinning across Spain is about her journey travelling, learning languages, facing fears and enjoying the entire process.

Piper speaks highly of her fellow panellists in relation to youth and experience as the stepping-stones to the future. She gestures between Rose and Watson: “If this is the future, Sign me up!”

Jill Eddington did a great job at keeping the session lighthearted, fun, intellectual and structured.

The first thing you noticed as these women took the stage wass how well the mixture of their confident personalities, elegance and even sense of humour meshed together, making them a compatible and thoroughly entertaining ensemble to engage with.

Entitled Extreme Journeys, the session was designed to explore the journeys of modern day, via powerful women who are keeping up or even overtaking industries that have previously been dominated by men. The three panellists revealed everything from their fears and vulnerabilities to their influences, strengths and fulfilling their dreams.

The emphasis on extraordinary journeys experienced by ordinary people delivers a strong sense of empowerment, which was invaluable for all audience members, particularly young women.

No matter the journey, it is women like Anna Rose, Ailsa Piper and Jessica Watson who pave the way to a better future. Through sharing their experiences with Australians, they are able to inform, empower and inspire us to take our own journeys.

Kristie Yates is a Southern Cross University media student.

Cooking our way to salvation: Jim Hearn and Wayne Macauley

Can we cook our way to salvation?

This is the question posed to Jim Hearn (researcher, filmmaker, chef and author of High Season: A Memoir of Hospitality and Heroin), and Wayne Macauley (highly acclaimed and awarded author of many titles including his most recent, The Cook) by Michaela McGuire (writer, columnist and author, Melbourne’s Women of Letters Salon host) in the Blue Marquee on the final afternoon of the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival.

Two very “real” authors sit facing the crowd from the stage, “real” as in honest and approachable. Jim Hearn and Wayne Macauley have a common thread in their writing; both their recent books are set inside commercial kitchens, but that is where the similarities end.

Hearn’s experiences in High Season are gritty and real-to-life. Set locally in Byron Bay, it is a memoir reflecting upon the reality of chefing and the toll it can take on one’s life. He describes the havoc on our “actual, physical body” that long hours and unforgiving schedules creanjte, the roller coaster ride of adrenalin that fast-paced service times demand, as well as the effect of this sort of career on family and relationships. He laments that “hospitality doesn’t lend itself to happy families”.

Hearn describes his work as being “raw and unapologetic, (a story) about living on the edge, addiction”  – he went through a nasty heroin addiction and thankfully, a recovery – “and rites of passage”.

There are no doubt some similar experiences that Hearn may have shared with “Zac”, a troubled young man wanting to become a chef who is Macauley’s central character in The Cook. Hearn’s experiences were all very real happenings though, that he has courageously shared with readers even though they may be some of the most difficult times of his life. Macauley credits his research to a lot of reading cookbooks, foodie blogs and biographies of celebrity chefs, whereas Hearn can look back on his life and see how his own path created an amazing story to work with, despite many twists and turns.

After working for many years as a Chef, Hearn returned to university at SCU as a mature age student to complete a BA (Hons) and is currently enrolled in a Phd at the University of Sydney, demonstrating the benefits of re-educating ourselves in later years with life experience to back up the theory.

It seems Hearn is a man with the gift of retrospective clarity. He is of an age when he reflect on his life and start to see that all of the craziness and suffering might have actually been headed somewhere, not just a continual path of learning, but towards lessons he can share with others in a hope of reaching out, both on a cautionary and empathetic level.

Both men read passages from their books. Hearn reads steadily and it is easy to see the rawness of the text in relation to the person reading, which is an amazing thing to witness in a world of overly constructed writing. Macauley offers a faster paced account, with his passion for storytelling really coming alive as he speaks, almost excited to drop each word into an attentive audience. Both men are engaging on their own terms, very different in styles which creates an interesting dynamic on stage.

Michaela McGuire now turns the conversation towards how meals and eating out (and the whole Masterchef movement) have gained such power, and how they are viewed as  status symbols in contemporary Australian society rather than as mere sustenance. Hearn seems slightly amused by this notion, explaining that the actuality of restaurants is more about the service and receipt of generosity than “all about the food”. He laughs off the TV perception that chefs stand around all day discussing the greatest way to create jus, also at the contrast of “working class” Australian kids getting immersed in French cooking terminology to get through their apprenticeships.

Hearn said it has definitely been part of the reason that Australian cuisine has become more sophisticated, due to a strong European influence, but that, overall, the relationship between the host and the guest is paramount to the underlying tasks of any successful food business.

There is lively debate between Macauley and Hearn over the role of service and servitude, and Macauley makes the point that sometimes it can be excruciating to pay for ten times an ingredient’s worth whilst dining out, especially in stark disproportion to the fact that we are experiencing widespread global poverty and food shortages. His socially aware stream of thought seems to echo a moment of sadness in the audience, which Hearn breaks by stating the truth of the matter, however disconcerting to hear.

“We live in a consumer-driven climate; so, no, cooking will never be a way to salvation, it is not possible.”

It seems that it is going to take more to save the world, or our souls, than a well-executed meal. Maybe true salvation may lie not in the presentation of a plate but in filling the bowls of the starving? Just a thought …

Keira Patrick is a Southern Cross University media student.

Fiction meets reality, says hi and writes a book.

It’s quite a well-known saying, that reality is stranger than fiction. Three authors, Sulari Gentill, Nick Earls and Stuart Littlemore have written stories based on real life, and these stories have impacted their lives in different ways.

Sulari Gentill is the author of Miles Off Course, an Australian crime series based on the 1930s. The 1930s is an interesting time in Australian history, with the New Guard and Old Guard roaming around. Fascism, communism and other political ideas were floating around, but as Gentill found out, the many times that Australians went to the brink of major social change, they decided against it and went to have a cup of tea.

Miles Off Course is the third book of Rowland Sinclair and his companions, who are enjoying their time at The Hydro Majestic – Medlow Bath, when one of the characters goes missing. The stories found in the series have been called unbelievable by publishers, and harder to imagine for readers. To help with believability, Gentill uses newspaper articles at the start of each chapter.

Gentill speaks of her being a writer, and says it is isolating due to living so much inside her head. For her husband, it can be difficult, especially when Gentill uses him as a basis for her character. Her husband has people recognise him in her books, and she gets some comments about ‘how could anyone be with him?’ When she realises this is the man she married, she wonders if this is a good thing to use her husband as a character.

Nick Earls is politically minded and very outspoken. He is the author of Welcome To Normal, which is different to his other works, which are lighthearted and not as serious. Welcome To Normal is a collection of short stories from real life, and Earls has gone out of his way to find stories that are unseen and unheard. Each of us think we know what a normal life is, but there are all kinds of normal lives. Earls, in his stories, shows readers a different perception of normal.

For Earls, reality and fiction met while writing Welcome To Normal. He had an idea of asking his followers on Twitter if any of them wanted their name in his next novel. Around 1000 people responded, and Earls decided to use people’s names as all of his characters. Some people have asked him about their character in his story. One was a doctor in training, who wanted to know if their character was going to be similar to themselves. Turned out the character was very different, a stripper.

Stuart Littlemore, QC, has spent many years in the courts, and knows many stories that those outside have no idea about. His new book is Harry Curry: The Murder Book, and tells tales of the defendants of murders, trying to get their clients out of the legal predicament they’re in. The court system is something that many people know about from television and in books, but most of them haven’t been in a courtroom or as part of a trial. Littlemore hopes that his stories will provide clarity and transparency for the courts, so that people can understand why the decisions that are made are.

It is a truth about the court system that lawyers are there to win, and that’s what they are trained to do. They aren’t trained to decide justice, to be fair, to be moral and stand up for law and order, but are there to win. Littlemore, in his stories, uses judges, lawyers and other people involved in the court system. This connects reality and fiction, as the people the characters are based on are real life people. One judge found himself being call ‘tall, rat-faced’, but had no legal recourse as it was claimed that the character can’t be based on the judge as he is 5’3″, and very much ‘not short’.

Writers often live in different worlds, the ones created in their minds and the reality we all share. It can be difficult at times, and in many instances reality and fiction blur together. In the end, reality is always stranger than fiction.

Aaron Monopoli is a media student at Southern Cross University.