Inspiration from the Brisbane Writers' Festival

Last week, I boarded a budget airline with the family and headed to Brisbane for a dose of Vitamin D, a little work and a lot of naval-gazing.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Brisbane Writers' Festival to catch children's author Peter Carnavas at his cartooning workshop.

Peter is a schoolteacher by trade, so it is little surprise that he knows how to work a room and inspire an audience.

Every member of the capacity crowd (150 in total) had pens and pencils poised before Peter had even finished his introduction; they were eager to begin learning how to draw cartoon faces worthy of being published.

In the 45 minutes he was on stage, Peter had inspired and wowed us all with his creative abilities. With only a few strokes of his whiteboard marker, Peter had expertly recreated the pixie-like character from his second book Sarah's Heavy Heart. In even fewer strokes, he had drawn Sarah's ever-present turtle.

I've always felt that writing and illustrating a children's book would be extremely difficult, but after 45 minutes in Peter's company I felt inspired: felt it to be an accomplishable dream within everyone's reach.

After all, Peter himself felt his debut book, Jessica's Box, was not good enough to be published - and yet, the first print run of 8000 books sold out within 12 months.

The best inspiration comes from those who have put everything in to make their dreams come true and, to that end, Peter Carnavas is a true inspiration.

For more information about Pamela Wilson or WriteSmart, log on to http://www.writesmart.com.au/