LIAN TANNER

First speaking date for 2011

March 9th, 2011

If you’re going to be in Hobart on Sunday 3rd April, I’ll be speaking at the Home Truths Literary Festival, which is part of Ten Days on the Island. I’m in a session called ‘BELIEVING THE UNBELIEVABLE: Creating the Real and the Fantastic’, with the lovely Danielle Wood, with whom I share a publisher, and David Owen, who I haven’t met but who I’m sure is also lovely :). Chair is author Robyn Friend.

I’m just starting to work out what I’ll be talking about, and it’s going to be interesting I think. How I built the fantasy world of Jewel and the Museum, and how it changed from the first to the final draft, and how sometimes, if you can just find the right string to pull, you can unlock a world in one dramatic gesture, both for yourself (the author) and for the reader.

My session is at the Hobart Town Hall at 1.45 pm. If you come, make sure you come up and say hello afterwards.

11 thoughts on “First speaking date for 2011

  1. Diane Caney says:

    Sounds fantastic (!) Lian 🙂
    Would love to know how to pull that string and enjoy the dramatic gesture in my own writing. Will definitely be along.
    I cannot find the quote just now but I read recently that many authors can create a decent story line etc but that the most generous of authors take the time to create an entire universe.
    You’re a most generous author 🙂

    1. Lian says:

      What a lovely quote. Thanks Diane. I must say that creating the world of Jewel was the most fun I have had for a long time. Hopefully this will make the talk extra-interesting!

  2. Donna Calhoun says:

    I discovered “Museum of Thieves” at my local library while searching their online catalog for audio books for my grandchildren. Although, it might not be right for my 2 & 3 year old grands, my 19 year old son is going to love it. I listen while driving and am disappointed when I reach my destination and greatly look forward to being in the car to continue the story. This is the best book I’ve “read” in a long time. Excellent work.

    1. Lian says:

      Thanks Donna. Hope your son enjoys it too. I think Claudia Black does a gorgeous job of bringing the characters to life.

  3. Daniel says:

    i was playing the ‘spot the difference’ game about this book on a site called kongregate and at the end of the game it revealed to me that the game is based on a book. i read the blurb and the 1st chapter online and i was so engaged in the book already that i rushed into the bookshop the next morning. i was a little disappionted at the end of a book (im always disappointed at the end of a great book) because i wanted to keep reading but then i flicked to the last page to find that there was a sequel. i cant wait for it. this book truley is in my top 3 books. i was also wondering if you were going on any tours in sydney and i hope you keep writing, your books are brilliant

    1. Lian says:

      Eek, Daniel, you scared me! I got to the bit where you said ‘I was a little disappointed at the end of the book …’ and thought, oh no, he hated it! Then I read on. Phew! SO glad you liked it, and thanks for the really nice comments. I don’t have any plans for Sydney at the moment, but who knows what will happen as the year progresses. I know that my Aust publishers (Allen & Unwin) are putting me up as a possible speaker for various literary festivals, so we’ll have to wait and see.

      By the way, there are two sequels, not just one!

  4. Ella says:

    Hi Lian,
    I loved your first book Museum of Thieves. My favourite part was when Goldie met Bonnie in Care.I had some sad and laughing moments while reading.
    I finished it in three days flat!! I can’t wait to read your next book, City of Lies. I only read this morning that you were in town yesterday. I was really sad that I didn’t get to see you.

    Could you please tell me if you visit schools? I am in grade 4. It would be AWESOME if you could visit our school and talk about your book(s).
    Thanks for your great book!
    Ella

    1. Lian says:

      Ella, you must be a really fast reader! I must confess that I like that bit where Goldie meets Bonnie, too. In fact Bonnie is one of my favourite characters, and you’ll be seeing quite a bit more of her in City of Lies. From your message, I guess you must live in Hobart, so maybe I’ll email you and we’ll see if we can work out a school visit. I don’t do a lot of them, but every now and again it’s fun to go out and visit a school.

      1. Ella says:

        Awesome! I will check my email every day!

  5. Daniel says:

    I’m currently attempting to write a short story myself. ive always wanted to be a writer since i was really young so i thought i might have a proper go at it. do u have any tips i should know about when im writing? ive got my plot all set out already but im not very good at descriptive language. some advice would really be appreciated, thanks

    1. Lian says:

      Hi Daniel, and welcome to the grand adventure of writing! You know, some writers use a lot of descriptive language and others don’t, so not being good at it is not necessarily a problem. Part of learning to write is working out what suits you – what your particular style is.
      The main thing when you’re starting out is not to try to be too fancy. Just tell the story and see what happens. Then put it aside for a couple of weeks at least, so that when you come back to it you are reading it with fresh eyes. Remember that most writers do quite a few drafts of whatever they are working on. So your first draft might be very disappointing. (Most first drafts are!) But that’s when the work begins. You read it through and try to understand why it’s not working as well as you want it too. Maybe you’ve skipped too quickly over some parts. Maybe you’ve gone too slowly over others. Or there might be another problem altogether. So then you start on your second draft and try to sort out some of those problems. Read the work of some of the authors you admire and see how they dealt with the situations that you are writing about.
      Another important thing is not to be discouraged. You have to be immensely stubborn to be a writer – like anything else worth doing it takes time to learn how to do it. Most people who are ‘overnight successes’ have been writing steadily for ten or twenty years before they hit the public eye.
      And finally, I hope you are reading a lot. Read a lot and write a lot – that’s how you develop your writer’s instinct. Whenever you read a story, try and work out why you liked it or disliked it.

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