Posts tagged 'dating'

The heat at last night’s erotic fan fiction bubbled over onto Twitter as people who saw it needed to let off steam.

@katiemelb came away with a new opinion of a children’s classic after it was re-imagined. She tweeted “Charlotte’s Web will never be the same after @mariekehardy’s Wilbur/Charlotte fanfiction at @wheelercentre tonight. Some pig, indeed. ;)”

MissTruex managed to beat the TV to come along to the event: “Sad I missed Marion being booted #masterchef -but super glad I saw erotic fan fiction being read at @wheelercentre, twas wrong and so funny”.

And blogger @bookworm_megs has been coming along all week but on last night she sums up the evening best with “they’d all taken characters and/or celebrities and wrote them in erotic fiction. Some were funny, some were cringe-worthy and all were entertaining!”

Marieke Hardy’s piece about the love that dare not speak its name between a pig and the eponymous spider got the most mentions though. One reply to her by @fivewalls “I was kind of hoping for a special on Watership Down, now I’m thinking all kinds of permutations on ‘Some Pig’”.

For her part Hardy wasn’t sure how the evening went, tweeting “A nice girl came up to me after my erotic fan fiction reading last night and said it was ‘revolting’. Still not sure if it was a compliment.”

The early results are in on our booked-out literary speed dating and we’re offering a sneak peek of what speed daters are bringing.

Unsurprisingly, Tim Winton fared well with 8 people bringing along one of his titles – Cloudstreet was the most popular though the more obscure short story collection, Minimum of Two also got a mention. The most popular single title though was To Kill A Mockingbird, which this year celebrates its 50th year and proved a favourite with more than 10 daters opting for their copy of the Harper Lee classic. Jane Austen also proved popular though one wag is bringing along the mash-up, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, to ensure brainy conversation with potential partners.

But with only one book to pick, some speed daters went for the unusual. One is bringing along William S Burroughs' The Ticket That Exploded, the beat grandfather’s drug-soaked, paranoia-infused, almost sci-fi text that has only recently been re-released. A few graphic novels – Watchmen and Buddha – made an appearance. But in the time-poor impress-quick world of speed dating, who could go past Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books Retold Through Twitter?

Our Literary Speed Dating event has now totally sold out for both men and women.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who’ve already booked then you can expect a night of passionate discussion on your favourite book. Spreading the event over two nights, July 9th and 10th, we aimed to include as many daters as possible, but all tickets have now gone.

Andrew Weldon on why a good literary man is hard to find. Taken from the book, I’m So Sorry Little Man I Thought You Were a Hand-Puppet

The Wheeler Centre’s Literary Speed Dating has proven so popular we’ve just announced a second night. The only catch is the gender balance.

It turns out finding a literary man is even harder to find with biblio-blokes slow to enlist for the event. Literary speed dating works on the concept of bringing your favourite book and discussing it with possible partners of the opposite or same sex.

It’s a simple idea pioneered by the State Library of Victoria and last time Marieke Hardy attended.