Just returned from the fantastic Historical Novels Society Australasia conference held at the Western Sydney University Parramatta campus. So many good panels and workshops to choose from over Friday – Sunday. I attended an extremely useful talk on Trove on Friday, with heaps of info about this amazing online resource into Australian history and how to access articles, maps, books, gazettes, magazines and just about everything else needed by an author writing historical fiction set in Australia. It was great to attend the conference with friends old and new. I particularly enjoyed Isolde Martyn’s panel on The Things We Don’t Know with Gillian Polack, Pamela Hart and Ilke Tampke, and Stoking the Flame (sex and sizzle) with Elizabeth Jane Carter, Lizzi Tremayne and Renee Dahlia, chaired by Anne Gracie. A whole range of subgenres was canvassed, and I thank my panel for their great input into History and Mystery – talking crime with Malla Nunn, Katherine Kovacic and Tessa Lunney. The celebration dinner was also great fun, as was the dashing sword display put on by Stoccata School of Defence. Congratulations to the HNSA committee for organising such a terrific conference. (Pictured below: novelist and medievalist Dr Gillian Polack with HNSA convenor Lisa Storrs – aka the ‘History Girls’, The History and Mystery panel, and the gallant swordsmen.)
