Kathleen Noonan seems positively enthused about attending the Byron Bay Writers' Festival over this past weekend. So much so she wrote about her anticipation, her friends' bemusement, authors' angst, and attendees' disappointments in "The Courier-Mail".
And what drives writers to abandon their keyboards and face the reading public?Writers are generally perceived as introverted, monk-like little creatures who like to observe and contemplate, locked away in their attics, rather than mixing with the crowds. The very nature of their job demands solitude and silence and their backside on a seat for at least several hours a day. Most are far more comfortable communicating through their writing.
Yet book tours and writers' festivals demand the very opposite. Few authors escape the festival circuit -- publisher and publicist drag even the big names, some screaming, to the podium to discuss not just their book. Often they are expected to be experts on world affairs, political issues, social trends, the voice of a generation.
