Some Past Events

One Book, One Tumbarumba:

‘The Trivia Man’

Tumbarumba landscape (Image: WGH)

‘One Book, One Community’ programs have taken off in North America, the UK and now in Australia. How do these programs work? It's simple - a whole community is invited to read and discuss a chosen book. This year Tumbarumba Shire and its Library held their very first ‘One Book One Tumbarumba’. And the featured book was . . . ‘The Trivia Man’! 

During September and October, multiple copies were available for members of the local community to borrow and discuss informally. I was thrilled to learn that more than 70 'Tumba' residents have read the book.  

On Thursday, 12 November I drove down to Tumbarumba to meet the readers over dinner at the beautiful Elms Restaurant at the Tumbarumba Motel.  I spoke about the inspirations for the book and my own connection with trivia going back an embarrassingly long way. We even had a trivia quiz with questions about the book.

Dinner at the Elms Restaurant

The following day I ran a writing workshop at the library. We focused on the genesis of a story - coming up with a great idea, a catchy title, an intriguing first line and a gripping first paragraph. 

Tumbarumba Library

A big thank you to Library Coordinator, Vicki Hulm, for initiating and organising this wonderful program.

Tumbarumba roses

November, 2015

Touring with ‘The Trivia Man’

While Kevin Dwyer was off visiting nine different reviewers who kindly invited him into their virtual domains and deemed him a charming and engaging guest (albeit a tad quirky), I was a on a book tour, speaking at various venues in country NSW and Sydney itself.  The week before ‘The Trivia Man’ was released, I was one of several speakers at a Literary Evening at Miss Ruby’s Bookshop in beautiful Braidwood. This fringe event was a precursor to the biennial Two Fires Festival. The bookstore, housed in an elegant Victorian-era building, was packed with authors, readers and even a visiting publisher or two.  

On Friday June 5 ‘The Trivia Man’ was officially launched in the airy auditorium at Hurstville City Library. You can read about it here.

On June 10 I was at a packed Marrickville Library for an evening of fact and fiction, comprising my talk about 'The Trivia Man', followed by a trivia contest hosted by popular quizmaster, Nick Nolan, who had the audience of seventy trivialists (yes, that’s the correct term) in his thrall with some very tricky questions. For example, in what year was the term ‘to unfriend’ coined? Two teams came very close to getting it right. I made the obvious assumption and was wrong by several hundred years!

The prizes took the form of ‘lit trays’ whose only resemblance to meat trays was the large plastic trays and cling film wrapping. Winners were treated to an assortment of coffee table books and chocolates. Many thanks to the staff at Marrickville Library, Sue, Josie and Ruth, for a fantastic evening. From the positive responses on my Facebook page, I feel certain everyone had a great time.

The next evening I headed south to Sutherland Library where Monique spoilt me with cups of tea and a very nifty hands-free mini-microphone. I met lots of lovely readers and signed many books, courtesy of Amy from Berkelouw Books in Cronulla. I even got to meet the winner of one of my book giveaways!

On Thursday 25 June I spent a very enjoyable evening at Five Dock Library where there were two surprise guests among the audience - my brother- and sister-in-law, travelling back from a holiday in Byron Bay to Victoria. Thank you to Judy and Colin for braving Sydney's peak hour traffic and to everyone who came out in the rain to attend. And special thanks to Claude and the staff at Five Dock Library and Bonnie from Your Bookshop at Rhodes. 

This was the last stop on the book tour and now I'm retiring to my writing cave to continue work on my new manuscript. More about it soon!

Deborah O’Brien

26 June, 2015