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The best thing about getting up at a ridiculously early hour to get into the city is that at the end of it you get to spend some time in charming company.  The session with Peter Temple was very much a conversation with he and Clare Forster talking about a range of things including the vagaries of plotting on whiteboards, the difficulties in trying not to repeat yourself, and the difference in writing a novel like Shooting Star and In The Evil Day.  Peter Temple has a background as a journalist (which he calls an antidote to writing (I think he's partly joking / maybe totally joking - it's hard to tell :) ), and he has a particular fondness for writing dialogue.  He did go through the problems in writing realistic "reading" dialogue as opposed to realistic "said" dialogue which was interesting.  He also answered a number of questions from the audience and talked about the vagaries of working with film / tv adaptations of the writers work.  It sounds like he's had some very nice lunches and some very sobering experiences.

Luckily I'd taken my second copy of Shooting Star to be signed as this was one of the books that he spoke about - written very quickly to get the feeling of rush and panic inherent in the subject matter, the book is one that he mentioned he thinks fondly on.  I'd read it originally many years ago so was pleased to revisit it on it's re-release.  It does give the reader a feeling of the intense pressure of the circumstance, and it is different from his other books - in particular The Broken Shore.  If you haven't read it - give it a go.

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Submitted by Karen on Wed, 23/07/2008 - 07:15 pm