Author of the Too Cool book series for children Phil Kettle had more than 100 students at Friday’s Jugiong Writers Festival Small Schools Day engrossed as he spoke about his career as an author.
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The Small Schools Day brought together students from Stockinbingal, Wallendbeen, Jugiong, Murrumburrah, Bongongo and Brungle with authors, illustrators and cartoonists inspiring a love of reading, writing and all things literary.
Wallendbeen Public School principal Toni Daly said this is the first year her students attended the Writers Festival event and she was impressed with the way they embraced it.
Knowing Mr Kettle was going to be speaking, the students spent the week leading up to the event, both in and out of school, with their nose in a Too Cool book.
“Getting to meet real (published) authors has been a great experience for the students; anything that gets them enthused about writing is wonderful and today has really done that,” Mrs Daly said.
There were junior and senior sections for students to participate in with groups mixing together students from the various schools.
Mr Kettle took his session back to basics with a Q&A session with students.
Writing is something that comes easily to a fortunate few and is much harder for others, however Mr Kettle imparted some good advice.
“The secret to writing is to discover your own voice,” Mr Kettle said.
He told students that when he was their age he wanted to be an AFL footballer, a test cricketer for Australia or a writer.
He knew what he wanted and followed his dreams.
He credits his father for his love of literature.
“Reading starts at an early age,” Mr Kettle said.
As a toddler, her father would encourage him to ‘turn his imagination on’ before opening a book, thereby opening up a whole new world.
His father encouraged him to pull on his ear before the start of a story, an act which would turn all words into pictures.
Mr Kettle will have a new book series out in September.
The Jugiong Writers Festival continues this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, March 18 and 19) with a series of author talks on day 1 including Di Morrissey and Stan Grant.
On day 2 there will a gourmet brunch and concert under the windmill in the Jugiong Park.
There will be readings from the poetry and short story competitions, complemented by artisan stalls.
To book for any of the author talks visit jugiongwritersfestival.com.
