Memoirs and Blogging - IBOT

I've been getting out lately - it helps to force myself to get out there when the black mood descends. Last night I was invited to a talk at Officeworks by Stuart Bocking and Jason Morrison from 2UE and from BRW on running a business.  They had lots of useful advice on tax, depreciation, legislation, promotion on social media and websites and how to apply for a government grant, things that every business needed to know but weren't aware that the so much information and assistance was freely available to them.  You'd think I would nod off with all that exciting banter, but surprisingly I didn't have to feign interest.  It actually made me want to start my own business.  One day.  Not for a while.  Too scary.

They put on a great free event for local businesses with nibblies (wish I hadn't eaten dinner beforehand!) and a goodie bag which made my kids very happy - who doesn't love stationery!  To top it all off they gave away some great door prizes to most of the attendees.  I was a lucky recipient of a HKC Multi-Touch Tablet!  It was really heartening to see a successful company like Officeworks wanting to help the small business owner.

Tonight was an event more up my alley.  A couple of well respected bloggers (and ones I've been lucky to meet before), Zoey Martin and Eden Riley, spoke with Jo Case about Memoirs and Blogging at the NSW Writers Centre in Rozelle.

It was a nice and intimate affair with Eden and Zoey sharing their stories on how and why they started blogging and how different it is to writing a memoir.  Jo Case had published a book on the story of her life and about her son with Aspergers.  She also blogged for awhile and also had a lot of input on the differences between blogging and writing a memoir.

Now to be truthful my initial motivation to go tonight was just to hear Eden and Zoey talk about blogging, I had even forgotten that the ad in the SMH Spectrum had said it was also about writing memoirs.  I've had it in the back of my mind that I would one day write a memoir as I haven't been able to take writing fiction seriously for a long time.  Not that my life has been stranger than fiction (some people may beg to differ), but the more I think about people's real lives, their relationships and family history, the more I believe that the truth is so much more entertaining and enthralling.

Does this mean that I'm about to take on the great personal story?  Can I hold the interest in myself for the amount of time and dedication it takes to actually produce a book?  Do I have the ego big enough?  Probably not, but maybe I could use it as a stepping stone to learn about my parents' stories in more depth and present that as a great read.

This brings in a whole lot of bumps in the road that I've been grappling with for awhile.  To tell the whole truth I will have to bring up some painful stuff that not everyone involved will be happy with and it also brings up the problem of do I KNOW the whole truth?  Probably not and because there were so many skeletons in the family closet I don't think I'll ever know the truth so it brings me to the decision of making a fictional memoir.  Writing some truth and embellishing other truths.  That way everyone will be happy, right?  mmmm.....

p.s. To those siblings reading this, let me know what you think would be the right way to write this story right!

**Joining with Essentially Jess for IBOT.**

Keeping my can of worms closed - FYOB Friday

Last night I did something I've never done before.  I went to watch a taping of a TV show.  My main motivation was seeing Chrissie Swan in all her glory, hosting Can of Worms.

My guest was my favourite little sister in law, Moo and Chrissie's guests were Julie Goodwin, Matt Okine and John Safran.  I've been a fan of John Safran's documentaries for years and Julie Goodwin seemed to be a good egg.  I'd only seen Matt Okine on a comedy show once before so did not recognise his name, but kinda knew his face when he came out.

I knew that taped shows had a bit of warming up beforehand and fixing up after so was kind of looking forward to that.  I've always had a bit of interest in the way TV works behind the scenes and I ended up watching the woman who was directing everything (maybe the director?) and wondering if I could do that.  Bit late to be thinking of a total career change, but we can dream, eh?

She was everywhere at once and controlling everything, all with a casual air and a bit of fun.  Reminded me of when I was doing event management roles and being in the thick of organising a conference.  Was a real buzz when it all came together and people ended up enjoying themselves.

Another bit of very important glue who was pulling it all together was Dan Ilic who had us cacking ourselves before the show started and all through the breaks.

Now I can't let you know too much about the content of that show as they made us promise not to tell, but if you're watching it on Monday night (and I recommend you do), look out for the red cardigan behind the blonde audience member who talked about being brought up by fundamentalist Christians. That was me!  Not the blonde, the red cardi woman, frozen as I've realised I may be popping up in people's lounge rooms next week. Suddenly I'm stressing out about my spare tyre and many chins. And the impressive cleavage beside me? That was Moo. Her boobs are legendary.

After the show we were waiting in the foyer of the ABC building (yes, even though it's on Channel Ten, it's filmed in the ABC because they have the right size studio) for my chauffeur (i.e. husband) to come pick us up and we happened to see Chrissie coming out.  Of course I had to stop and ask for a photo which she graciously did even though it may have made her miss her plane. She didn't miss her plane (thanks for letting me know @ChrissieSwan. We also got to meet the beautiful Julie Goodwin, who was lovely and interesting on the show too.

Moo and Julie (they could be sisters!)      A couple of Swans (not related unfortunately)

But once again, when actually meeting someone I admire from afar, I lost all my brains and blurted out "Hi, I'm Becci Swan" as if that would impress her and stuck my hand out. I then had nothing further to contribute except a goofy smile.  Doh!

So will someone please tell me how to meet someone famous, in a way that will either impress or at least so they don't think I'm some random, crazy stalker!  And it seems I only do this with people who write stuff I really, really like (hello Nikki Gemmell, Kerri Sackville, Eden Riley, Mrs Woog, etc).

Joining up with Grace for FYBF!