Literary Breakfast with Glenda Millard

As some of you may remember, for the past two days – and this weekend – at the ALEA conference.

You can check out the ALEA Conference blog here, where I've been for the past week and will continue to be until tomorrow.

This morning was the literary breakfast with Glenda Millard, and I though I’d write about it over here considering that I usually do lit event sum-ups!

Plus it was really awesome so I want to share it with all of you :p

I have to say, the prospect of getting up at 6am (yes, you read right :p) wasn’t that appealing. Not at all! And you all know me, I tend to favour sleep-ins, especially on weekends!

Nonetheless I managed it (just) and headed over to The Hilton.

The food was plentiful and Central Victoria author Glenda Millard was amazing.

She told the story of her childhood lively and joyfully, with many funny stories including how she got a job in a supermarket (by asking the owner for a job every week until he said yes) and how her father was the local preacher (as well as riding his bike to work every day).

She said that she ‘never dreamed of being a writer’ as she was a ‘small town girl’ and had ‘small dreams’.

She was in her mid-forties when she started writing. A lifetime love of reading gave her the solid base she needed, and she said that ‘If I hadn’t of been a reader I would not have been a writer.’

She took a course in How To Write for Profit and the teacher encouraged her to submit a story she wrote to a children’s publisher.

She didn’t know where to start so scoured local bookstores for information about publishers. She researched what publishers published the picture books she loved and bought some books on how to approach them and write cover letters.

After waiting a year to hear back, she was sent mock illustrations in the mail with a contract!

Glenda said that oral stories are as much a part of her love for stories as written stories are. She love to explore what is to be human in her stories and revealing what lies beneath.

All in all, not having been to a literary breakfast before I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but it was lovely to eat great food and listen to a fantastic story-teller.

For more information,

Glenda Millard

HarperCollins