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Jun. 28th, 2009 08:17 pmThe joys of a bus system where the once-an-hour bus didn't arrive meant I didn't get to my Fellowship of Australian Writers event early. I arrived just as the introductions were being given.
This was good, because otherwise I would have been in the Canberra Times, with the other speakers. I just missed the reporter and photographer. Normally I would be joyous about an appearance in the CT, especially so close to books being published. This time, though, it felt a bit like a narrow escape. I would have been described in the CT as a writer of erotica, you see, even though the joke of the afternoon was that I was the person who taught sex but did not write it.
None of the audience seemed to mind that I brought Brundage's Medieval sex flowchart instead of the readings the other writers had prepared. To make it quite clear, however, I held up the cover of Life through Cellophane and asked "Does this look as if it contains wild sex scenes?" Everyone laughed. I got lots of laughs. There's something very comforting about being able to make an audience laugh.
I talked about medieval sex, halacha, nineteenth century imagery and Lola Montez. I annoyed one writer by insisting that her question focus on a period and place, rather the general "Did people in the past...?" and another by the Beast not being instantly available. Everyone else was happy with me and kept me talking through the long teabreak and twenty minutes after the finish.
This was good, because otherwise I would have been in the Canberra Times, with the other speakers. I just missed the reporter and photographer. Normally I would be joyous about an appearance in the CT, especially so close to books being published. This time, though, it felt a bit like a narrow escape. I would have been described in the CT as a writer of erotica, you see, even though the joke of the afternoon was that I was the person who taught sex but did not write it.
None of the audience seemed to mind that I brought Brundage's Medieval sex flowchart instead of the readings the other writers had prepared. To make it quite clear, however, I held up the cover of Life through Cellophane and asked "Does this look as if it contains wild sex scenes?" Everyone laughed. I got lots of laughs. There's something very comforting about being able to make an audience laugh.
I talked about medieval sex, halacha, nineteenth century imagery and Lola Montez. I annoyed one writer by insisting that her question focus on a period and place, rather the general "Did people in the past...?" and another by the Beast not being instantly available. Everyone else was happy with me and kept me talking through the long teabreak and twenty minutes after the finish.