The organisers of Writers Week (part of the International Arts Festival in Wellington) knew what they were doing when they organised for these two writers to have a joint session in the Paekakariki Hall. It sold out fast. I wrote about it here.
My partner Prue Hyman and I live five minutes walk from the venue and ended up (thanks to the efforts of Kay Jones) hosting a potluck for Alison B and her partner, Holly, Terry C and fifty-odd other women afterwards. In the session they both talked about their use of their own life in their writing – it was such fun listening in on their conversation with each other about how they create the stuff we love to read, then Prue walked them along the beach from the hall. Sylvia had baked a cake, photos of which have already appeared on Alison’ Facebook page and blog. They were overheard on our deck speculating about which view was the better, the one they were looking at or Big Sur.
It was a great evening with Alison and Terry engaging in many conversations, enjoying the food, and generally being charming and sociable.
There’ll be more about Writers’ Week in my Sunday post.