The Australian Literary Awards, Melbourne

On Friday night, I attended the Fellowship of Australian Writers Awards Ceremony at Deakin University in Melbourne. As we entered the university grounds, signs everywhere announced the event with “Australian Literary Awards”. It was quite an honour to be attending such an event.

My main reason for going was not only to wave the West Australian flag, but to allow myself the pleasure of being presented with my award for my short story, ‘Sophie’s Rose’ taking out first prize in one of the categories. And I’m very glad I made the trip, despite the expense. What came across strongly to me throughout the evening was the emphasis the Fellowship of Australian Writers (Vic) places on promoting and encouraging new writers. Not only were the first prize winners presented and acknowledged, but also the people whose work was ‘commended’ and ‘highly commended’. All up, there were 104 writers presented with certificates out of a total of 1,000 entries.

The judge who scrutinised my category commented that my story stood out in both the first and second readings, which was a huge compliment for me. She even came up to me during the ceremony and gave me a copy of a book she’d written about her daughter who was born with severe disabilities and for whom the category was established, the theme of the short story having to be about disability. I was very touched by her generosity.

This national competition is one of the very few places where writers can enter their unpublished novels, with the hope of being picked up by a publisher.

The other great thing that came out of the evening was that the President of the FAW made a comment about all the FAW groups becoming one body, a move that I think would be very beneficial. In the West, there aren’t many opportunities for writers. In other states, there is a wider range of workshops and online classes to choose from for those of us who want to expand our writing careers. I look forward to this happening in the future.

Lucy, my guide dog, travelled well and had a great time in Melbourne. She met up with her puppy walkers (the people who raised her for the first year of her life) and her reaction was tear-jerking. She has never forgotten them and was so excited to see them again. The comment they made was although they’d found it so hard to give her up, seeing her helping me and knowing that she has changed my life is reward enough. What a great way to end a perfect trip to the East.

I’m trying to forget that I got sick on the way home. I ate something at Melbourne airport that was obviously dodgey. I spent almost all of the four hour flight home telling myself that I’d be fine, that I wasn’t going to be sick on the plane. The guy next to me must have been praying hard when he saw me reach for the air sick bag. I decided to warn the airline staff before we landed how unwell I was feeling because I knew that I’d need maximum assistance to get off the plane. When we got there, all I could do was get myself out of my seat while the airline staff grabbed my hand luggage and put Lucy’s harness on. I was so out of it that I had no idea they’d put it on back to front and inside out! Somehow, Lucy and I made it down the steps to the tarmac without breaking our necks. Luckily, my Mum was meeting us, so I didn’t have to frighten any taxi driver with my green face. But when she saw us coming, she thought something was wrong. Lucy was walking in a very weird fashion, almost crossing her legs because the harness was on incorrectly. We must have made a peculiar sight, what with Lucy’s gait and me hanging onto a security guy’s arm! But Lucy fared well, and we got home before the dreaded bug really took hold. That’s mind over matter for you.

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