Hello ladies and gents,
Thank you for joining us for our season finale with Debra Oswald and Richard Glover – and what a season it’s been. We’ve interviewed such a wonderful range of Australian writers, from debut writers to seasoned pros, and covered so much ground.
We kicked off the season with literary couple Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion and book-ended it with another pair of amazing Australian scribes, Richard and Debra.
In between, we chatted with debut authors Holly Ringland and Lauren Chater, and dined with other fantastic authors such as Kelly Rimmer, Pamela Freeman, Natasha Lester, Josephine Moon, Charlotte Smith and Christine Wells.
We even tried our hand at writing festivals, nabbing a few great interviews with Annabel Crabb, Richard Fidler, Garth Nix, Jacqueline Moriarty, Sophie Green and Belinda Murrell.
We ventured into international literature interviewing – fantasy master Raymond Feist, Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, and international debut sensation Emma Glass.
It’s been an extraordinary experience and an incredible learning curve.
Neither of us had any video-production experience and, when our filmic partner Claire Absolum had to leave in the very early stages of the show, it was touch-and-go as to whether we would proceed. But we were half way through filming and had made commitments to publishers and authors so, with little to no experience but with a massive can-do attitude, we rolled up our sleeves and soldiered on.
We had our ups and downs. It’s amazing how many things can go wrong with software, computers, and the internet – often simultaneously. Even filming can have its moments, and we were wringing our hands, pulling our hair and gnashing our teeth on more than one occasion.
In the end, it was incredibly rewarding and we were very proud of what two time-poor mothers on a shoestring budget and zero experience could achieve.
Our goal was to bring authors into the living rooms of our readers, so they could learn more about the people behind the books, the challenges experienced in writing them and, of course, the way they incorporated food, such an integral part of our daily lives, into their writing.
Almost without exception, food was featured to some extent in all of our authors’ books. The best part for us was, of course, eating it in such fascinating company.
On top of filming, we were producing stories and recipes for the website, which we were hoping could provide content for our followers’ Twitter and Facebook sites as well as provide brief snatches of insight into the Australian literary scene, great reviews and recommendations, and iconic quotes from literary history. The aim was to feed our time-poor readers’ spirits with a little bit of literary luxury.
We also staged some massive giveaways and had a dedicated group of entrants who are right now embellishing their bookshelves with their winnings. A big thank you to all the publishers and authors for their contributions to the giveaways and to Australian culture.
We’d also like to thank all of the cinematographers and videographers who helped us out of a tight spot. Particularly Gaetan Selle and Adrien Seignoux.
Now that the season is over, we intend to celebrate – over lunch and champagne of course – and plan the future of Word of Mouth TV. We intend to continue but we will probably change the format and frequency to a model that better matches our production expertise.
In the meantime, we will keep posting the occasional Twitter and Facebook post and look forward to joining you again later in the year. Once again, thank you for embarking on this crazy journey with us, for liking and sharing our posts and getting the word out, and for being amazing bibliophiles – our favourite kind of people. Good reading!!
