Anna Campbell: Literati Was Lovely!

by Anna Campbell

One of the really fun parts of being a writer is getting out and about to meet readers and other writers. On the weekend of the 17th and 18th May, I headed a couple of hours south to the Literati Festival which is put on every year by the wonderful folk at Gold Coast Libraries.


In 2013, there was a huge romance presence at Literati which was held at the brand new Upper Coomera Library. Apart from me, we had queen of romantic suspense Helene Young, New York Times Bestseller Keri Arthur, and author of clever, funny contemporary women's fiction Lisa Walker. There were 14 authors altogether, including thriller writer L.A. Larkin and Y.A. writer Paula Weston.

I was invited to take part in two panels. The first was called A Recipe for Romance and was designed for people writing romance (or at least contemplating it!).  Here's a photo of me with the moderator Louise Pieper of Gold Coast Libraries and Helene Young who looks elegant as always! We had a small but very enthusiastic group of participants, including Destiny author Jennifer St. George who added the perspective of someone published in category romance. There's a photo of Helene and me with Jen below the dawn shot.

The kind folk at Literati had put all the authors up at the very swish Watermark Hotel in roadwork-plagued Surfers Paradise and we all congregated there for a wonderful dinner. It was lovely to have a chance to catch up with everyone in such an informal setting - although my attention focused mostly on the spectacular dessert buffet!

Slightly the worse for wear, I was up early the next morning and managed to walk the couple of blocks to the beach. Isn't this shot of dawn at Surfers Paradise gorgeous? It was a perfect, although chilly day to come.

Following a very giggly breakfast with two lovely people I don't see nearly enough of, Keri Arthur and Helene Young, we all trundled off for the 9am panel at Upper Coomera Library. To my surprise at such an hour on such a cold morning, we had a room full of people there to hear about the Course of True Love.

Moderator Louise Pieper ran a really fun session with me, Helene, Keri and Australian women's fiction author Lisa Walker whose books include the wonderfully named LIAR BIRD. This panel was mainly designed for readers, so we covered things like our writing journey, our daily lives, and where we get our inspiration.

My last photo is from this panel. From left to right, Keri Arthur, Anna Campbell, Helene Young and Lisa Walker. Don't we all look jolly?

As you can probably tell from the photos, Literati was huge fun. I think it's such a great thing that Gold Coast Libraries make such events available to their locals - not to mention everything was free!

So have you ever met one of your favorite authors? If so, please tell us about what happened. If not, who would you like to meet? And why?