Melbourne Writers Festival 2

So, today I went to a couple more events at the MWF. It has been quite a while since I did that. Last year I went to nothing and the year before only one event and that was a free book launch. So it was nice to find something I wanted to attend a second day in a row.

I had intended to go to the panel on true crime as well, but I left home too late; there was plenty of time to get to the panel on historical fantasy fiction. The panellists were two women of whom I'd never heard, though one of them, C.S Pacat, is apparently a huge bestseller with her novel that started life as a web serial and went on to be self published before being picked up by Penguin. The other one, Ilka Tampke, was a debut novelist who seems to be doing well. Her novel is set in pre-Roman Britain, while the other one was not really historical fantasy at all, just the author's own universe, though she did research some historical periods. Both novels have  sex in them, including bestiality in the Britain one!  

To be honest, the discussion was very general and there was no mention of what the books were actually about. I had to whip out my iPad and ask my friend Dr Google for the story lines! The Pacat one sounded to me like old style slash fiction(including hurt/comfort? Hmm, I wonder...). Not my cup of tea, but this sort of fiction is very popular, hence the bestselling status. I might check out the other book, though the bestiality thing doesn't appeal. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Sharon, a friend and former colleague, who had come to hear Ilka, a friend and former neighbour. We sat together. I also met Virginia Lowe, who does Create A Kid's Book, and her husband, both of whom came with me to the next session.

That session, free, was on "modern mythologies" and much more interesting. The authors were Dolores Redondo and Samhita Arni. Again, I'd never heard of either of them, but I was interested in the idea of using mythology as the background for a novel. Both books, Invisible Guardian and The Missing Queen, were crime fiction/thrillers. Ms Redondo's book - which has so far sold 600,000 copies in Spain alone and been translated into many languages - has a theme taken from Basque myth and legend, while The Missing Queen was inspired by India's national epic, the Ramayana but set in the here and now. 

I bought them both in ebook on the spot. 

The Spanish lady had an interpreter who was very good, whispering to her and translating almost immediately. Through the interpreter, she said, among other things, that fans of the novel have been turning up in the area where it's set, much as there were Brother Cadfel tourists in Shrewsbury at one stage(I was one of them). Apparently, the murder victims of what seems to be a set of ritual killings are found with a certain type of local cake on them. Nobody actually sells these cakes nowadays, they are only home made, but tourists ask for them! Things left on dead bodies in the novel!  Sounds like a very popular series(it's a trilogy, but only one volume has been translated into English so far).

So, a good day at the festival. Not sure if I'll go to more this week, must check the program, but it has been good do fat.