write publish and realise your creative vision panel at sunshine library

It was such a great event being on a panel Write, publish and realise your creative vision! at Sunshine Library with Lucy Lucy Appadoo and Michael J. Prewer. All three of us had a unique way of finding our publishing journey and it was such a rich discussion.

Lucy is an independent author who has published 20 books in 10 years and has found her voice and creative vision through sheer determination, practice and perseverance. She's an inspiration in how she dedicates herself to her author business working four days a week in her day job to achieve such an impressive output.

Michael had his debut novel R.E.Generation by Midnight Sun which is a dystopian novel about a future regeneration of the planet after over-exploitation of resources. He used his biology background and knowledge to recreate the world of his novel and it was so fascinating to hear his dream journey and the inspiration of themes of climate change. He hand wrote the novel over a year and then kept revising until he was done, submitted and scored a publisher.

I talked about my journey as a traditionally published author with the dream run of a getting shortlisted for an unpublished manuscript, getting my dream agent, getting two offers for my novel, winning a literary prize after publication, getting a largish grant for the sequel, and then the fuckery that ensued afterwards. And how I'm re-branding myself as a small press and re-publishing as my rights revert back to me, and now writing new books that I control the intellectual property for.

These opportunities mean so much to authors because it gives us a much needed opportunity to share our hard-won wisdom with emerging writers, network and come out of our cave and appreciate this wonderful journey we're on.

Thank you to Scott at Brimbank City Council and the Sunshine Library for making this possible.