Isabelle, you have been in Bendigo before. I was pregnant with someone so it was either about 18 years ago or 16 years ago. In that time you’ve written and published more words than I think I have ever spoken, and fully entrenched yourself, your being, as a writer.

Thanks for telling us about how your stories emerge in an attempt to explore the really big questions of life. Thanks for reporting that your books can’t be written under time pressure, that you had to extend Obernewtyn by two books in order for the story to be told, and that you too hid in the library at school to avoid the yard with its bullies, balls and boredom.

I admire the way that you identify yourself as a writer by being one, every moment of the day. You stayed a storyteller while many of us will never take that pathway because it’s too hard and we’ve become used to decent and regular wages. And you’ve got so many stories yet to tell, some of them already half finished on a hard drive somewhere. Epic tales, tens of thousands of words.

And thanks for giving us some impetus to keep going.