The Sydney Writers Festival

I went to the Sydney Writer's Festival this weekend. I walked around for a while trying to figure out how and where to leave my letters. There were food stalls and tables set up for notable writers to speak and sign their books. I could see right away that the organisers would throw my letters away once they cottoned on. I thought, you can not pussy out here. You have to put these letters into people's hands otherwise there is no point. I was nervous. Of course I was. I zeroed in on a woman waiting in line to see some famous writer and I said, I have a letter for you. I must have come across like a complete nut. People turned, looked over at me and the atmosphere became a bit tense. Why does he want to giver a letter? Women clutched their handbags a little tighter. She smiled and said, no thank you. I don't want your letter. I thought, oh man this is going to be difficult. Sorry to bother you I mumbled and wandered off. Then I modified my approach. I got humble and began my pitch by saying, I am really sorry to interrupt but could you do me a favour? I write these fictional letters and I leave them all around Sydney. Then I went on to explain there was no religion, no politics, no pornography in these letters. That they were purely fictional. I also said, once you finished reading these letters, please feel free to leave them somewhere. Success! People liked the idea. Once the suspicion had lifted, they were quite receptive. Pairs of women were the best bet because women are less defensive about some goofy dude with long hair walking up to them and saying, here is a letter from my invisible friend. I handed out 25-30 letters. I talked to a range of people. A Trinidadian woman on a bus with her husband. A mother and daughter. An Israeli couple. A woman sitting alone at the end of the dock, the harbour bridge at her shoulder. Three young woman of the goth variety. A ginger couple. After this I went to the Gloria Steinem talk at town hall. Jonathan Franzen was scheduled to speak later on. People were lined up on the steps. I started talking to three elderly woman. One said, well if there is no sex, politics or religion....what's the point of reading it? 

Good point, I agreed. They took a couple anyway. Then three woman in their thirties. Corporate gals. Then a gay guy and his female mate. One woman was already smiling, saying, oh no no, even before I'd finished my pitch. And that was fine. Rejection is part of it. The day had been so successful, a few knock-backs were totally acceptable. I found it was good to explain that my writing, in one form or another, had sat on my hard drive for ten years. More than ten years in fact. That I'd been in a creative vacuum for this entire period. All-in-all, a very successful day which, once I'd finished, I capped off with a few beers at the rooftop bar in the city.

My next thing will be to develop a logo. And a suggestion printed on the bottom of each letter saying, please don't throw this away. Please pass it onto someone else.