Radio Ga Ga
On Monday, Jane and I were catching up on some marketing work when her sister rang, saying only “ABC local radio – they’re talking about you – Now!”
Jane flew to the nearby radio and we both huddled – all ears.
We caught the tail end of a discussion between Annabel Crabb (who was covering on James Valentine’s Afternoon Show) and her guest, an author. I’m sorry to say, I can’t tell you who the author was as we’ve not managed to track down a podcast and we were too busy jumping up and down to hear Annabel thanking him in her wrap-up.
What we did hear, however, was the two of them discussing this new book (which Annabel hadn’t yet heard of) that was written by five women. ‘Imagine trying to write a novel with four other women,’ she exclaimed. ‘I can’t imagine writing sex scenes that way!’ (please don’t quote me, I’m paraphrasing). She went on to ask her guest author what he thought about collaborative writing and he went on to discuss the concept intelligently for a few minutes. The program was over all too soon.
Afterwards, Jane’s sister called back to fill in the rest of the story. Apparently, a listener had called to say that he had to prize this particular book from his wife as they were both trying to read it. He said it was one of the best reads he’d had in ages (again, don’t quote me but that was the gist). When asked what the book was, he said ‘The Painted Sky’ by Alice Campion – a group of five women. And so, the conversation evolved.
Most of the media coverage we’re getting at the moment, we’ve had a hand in creating, but it is so satisfying to have randomly prompted a genuine literary discourse! Hopefully this is just the beginning of the Group Fiction conversation.
