Getting Literary in Yeovil

The Yeovil Literary Festival is in full swing, packed with all sorts of exciting authors and events. I was up there yesterday and today and I’ve come away buzzing – inspired to get on with some new writing. There are still two more days to go but I thought I would share with your some of the highlights so far.

Yesterday the festival kicked off with the Yeovil Prizewinners event. I was there in my capacity of short story winner 2016 but all the rest of this year’s winners were there as well – something of a first – I don’t think everyone has been able to make it before! The standard was excellent and diverse. The winning novel was superb and I can’t wait for it to be published and I can read the whole thing – and I’m pretty sure it will be – it was really good!

Some of the past winners were there as well, now published and with books to sell, and it was a lovely feeling to be amongst them with my own. Sue Yockney and Chip Tolson were launching their latest books. Sue’s new novel, Outside the Box, is a satirical romp, and Chip Tolson has just released a collection of his short stories, many of which are Yeovil Prize winners in their own right. 

Jackie Gingell, myself, Sue Yockney and Chip Tolson 

Chip and Sue on the bookstall - selling like hot cakes

Chip and Sue

And their books! This is my haul from the event! 

Today I headed back up for a crime writing workshop run by local crime writers Clare Donoghue and Chris Ewan – yes I’m thinking of dabbling in a bit of murder and mayhem – which was excellent but I do wish it had been longer. In fact they’ll be running a course in Taunton soon. Unfortunately a bit too far for me to get to.

But one of the best things was bumping into other authors. It was particularly nice to meet fellow Allsort Emma Carroll as well as Kiran Millwood Hargrave who I met at the Yeovil Prizewinners event a couple of years ago and has now had her first book published.

I only wish I could have stayed longer and spent more time talking all things writing. I hope to see you all again soon!

Meet me in Yeovil

The 2016 Yeovil Literary Festival runs from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd October with a fantastic selection of authors and events to wet your appetite.

But the festival actually kicks off on the Thursday afternoon at 3pm in the Johnson Studio of the Octagon Theatre with the Yeovil Literary Prize event. Here you will have the chance to meet past and present winners of the Yeovil Prize and hear how winning has benefited their writing careers.

I will be there reading 'A Legend of Flight', my winning short story and I will have copies of my short story collection, The Scribbling Sea Serpent for sale at a reduced price.

But above all I love to meet other authors so do come along and say 'Hi'.

This Little World: stories from Dorset Writers

About a year ago I became involved with an exciting initiative from the Dorset Writers Network. The idea was to run a series of writing workshops across rural Dorset to encourage people to have a go at writing a short story set in the county. These stories could then be entered it into a competition being run by DWN for inclusion in an anthology.

I ran workshops in my local village hall and at a local secondary school as well as being involved in the judging and mentoring for the adult entries.

There have been many people involved throughout the process and on Saturday the project reached its culmination with the launch of the anthology This Little World: Stories from Dorset Writers.

The This Little World book launch and Writers Day took place at Dorchester Library. At the launch event the organisers talked about the project and some of the featured authors read out their stories. A couple were stories that I had picked out which is a lovely feeling, but I have to say I was particularly impressed with the children’s entries! What a wealth of young talent this county has!

As well as the launch itself there was a series of writing workshops covering all sorts of subjects from writing dialogue to poetry and screenplays and The Littoralis (me and fellow local authors Laura James and Kathy Sharp) hosted a panel event where we discussed our experiences with our publishers. Despite all of us being published by small mainstream publishers our routes to publication and our experiences of the process couldn’t have been more different!

The whole event was extremely well attended and the anthology sold out within minutes! But fear not. The paperback version is available on Amazon and an e-book edition will be following soon. It is packed with a wealth of wonderful Dorset set stories and would make a perfect Christmas present.

Yeovil Literary Festival II

I have just returned from a brilliant couple of days up in Yeovil, where I have been participating in the second Yeovil Literary Festival. The festival has been amazing and I had a really fantastic time, catching up with old friends and immersing myself in all things literary!

In all I was involved with three events. The first was the Past Winners of the Yeovil Prize panel event on the Friday morning. The list of success stories continues to grow and this year it was lovely to be joined by several of the poetry winners. Here we all are. As you can see several of our winning books have now been published.

Winners of the Yeovil Prize, past and present.

In the evening I was the host for an ‘In Conversation With” event, and the lovely gentleman I was asked to host was Jason Hewitt, debut author, whose novel, The Dynamite Room is simply superb.

In conversation with Jason Hewitt

And then, the next day it was off to the library, to run a writing workshop for a fabulous bunch of kids. Sadly my friend and fellow author Carol Hunt had flu and couldn’t be there, but they were such a great bunch of kids – so enthusiastic and imaginative, that even when the workshop had officially ended, they were all still sitting, scribbling away. I’m sure there were some budding authors in their midst!

Children's Writing Workshop at Yeovil Library

So congratulations to the organisers who made all this possible. Last year’s Yeovil Literary Festival was really good. This year’s was even better! I can’t wait until next year!

Follow Me Follow You Book Launch

My good friend Laura E James celebrated the launch of her second Romance novel, Follow Me Follow You (published by ChocLit) at the weekend and she invited me and two other local authors, Carol Hunt and Kathy Sharp, to join in her celebrations.

The launch was held at the Chesil Beach Centre and we arrived to find the landscape shrouded in a fine sea mist – fittingly atmospheric for a gathering of authors who have called ourselves the Littotalis – ‘meaning from the seashore’.

By the time we had set up our stands the sun had burned through and the venue was bathed in sunshine, blue skies and sea with the golden pebbles of Chesil beach for our backdrop.

Laura gave a reading from Follow Me Follow You while her children fetched extra boxes of books to keep up with sales. In fact we all sold well and really appreciated Laura giving us the opportunity to be a part of her launch.

Follow Me Follow You is available as both an e-book and paperback. Here is the Amazon link. Do check it out.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival

I have just returned from the Edinburgh International Book Festival and I am still buzzing – because I wasn’t there as part of the audience – I was there as an author.

Mine was a joint event with the lovely Sarah Crossan, author of dystopian duology Breathe and Resist as well as the Carnegie nominated The Weight of Water. Or event was called The End is Nigh and formed part of the Baillie Gifford Schools programme of events, hosted by Hannah Love of Faber, who was as lovely as her name suggests.

We read extracts and answered questions about our books, both about the writing process and our inspirations as well as the environmental issues our books address and the emerging genre of Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction).

Afterwards we had the opportunity to meet some of the kids and sign books for them in the festival bookshop. A couple of school groups had come across from Glasgow and they’ve given the event a lovely write up here.

 The Book Festival was held in the beautiful Charlotte Gardens, event venues and bookshops set up around the edge with lawns and seating in the middle where people gathered to drink coffee or eat their lunch. The authors had a separate area, the Author’s Yurt, where we could chat and relax both before and after our events

Of course no visit to Edinburgh during festival time would be complete without checking out The Fringe and we spent some time sampling all that the city has to offer at this time of year. Some of the street acts we saw were quite superb and the whole city was vibrant and alive.

Participating in The Edinburgh International Book Festival was a wonderful experience and has to be one of the highlights of my year so far.

Literally Sand!

Who would have thought that I would find myself taking part in an author event at Sand Sculpture Festival, but last weekend that is exactly what happened.

Sandsculpture is a feature of many seaside towns and in Weymouth, Dorset the sand is particularly fine and the sculptures of an exceptionally high standard. There have been sandsculptures on Weymouth beach since the 1920s but four years ago the sculptures were brought together under one roof to form the sand sculpture park that is Sandworld.

This year Sandworld’s sculptures are themed around books and authors, and the sand artists have been working hard to bring your favourite characters to life – from Moby Dick to Alice in Wonderland, Charles Dickens rubbing shoulders with Tolkien – but this stunning Warhorse sculpture has to be my favourite. Who cannot feel moved by the tenderness shown between horse and boy?

 

In order to celebrate the Grand Opening of this fantastic sand sculpture festival, five local authors were invited along. Kit Berry cut the ribbon and declared us open and we took turns giving readings to spellbound audiences.

We were given out own special authors area where we set up our books while the sandworld staff kept us supplied with coffee and burgers. In fact I can speak for us all if I say that we had a really lovely day. But enough words. I’ll let the following pictures speak for me.

The author area

Carol Hunt introduces us to the Portland Mermaid

The five local authors, Myself, Carol Hunt, Kit Berry, Kathy Sharpe and Laura James

A young fan asks Kit Berry to sign her book

Moby Dick - note how the waves form the pages of a book!

The Post Publication Whirlwind

The past few weeks since Red Rock hit the shelves have passed in a blur of excitement. I don’t think my feet have touched the ground and I’ve barely had time to breathe. There’s been so much happening I hardly know where to begin.

I’ve been taking part in so many author events – I’ve already blogged about the Yeovil Literary Festival but I’ve also been in to a couple of schools and last week I was back up in Yeovil where I was on the panel at their annual Booker Debate.

I was allocated ‘We Need New Names’ by NoViolet Bulawayo to review. I’ve no idea how I managed to make the time to read it but somehow I did – helped by the engaging prose and fascinating subject matter. I don’t think it will win but I do recommend it.

And there’s more to come. This Saturday I’ll be doing a book signing in Dorchester Waterstones so if you’re in the vicinity do call in and say "Hi." And then there's the Story Slam - an open mic event in Bridport at which I'm judging - and yet more schools to visit....

But as things start to calm, like seas after a storm, my thoughts return to other ideas, and new characters start nagging in my year – “Tell my story.” “Hear my tale.” And I know that I need to sit down and get to know them – I need to get writing again.

When Authors Meet

But not just any authors - I'm talking about Greenhouse authors.

Last weekend I was in Bournemouth with my daughter and by fortuitous coincidence Sarah Lean, a fellow children's author who is represented by the lovely Greenhouse Literary Agency was in Waterstones that day doing a book signing for her recently released book 'A Dog Called Homeless.'

 

It was the first time I've met a fellow agency sister - I do hope Julia's ears weren't burning too much ;-)

 

 But of course, this fellow was the real star of the show.

Book Launch – Enchantment of the Black Dog.

Sunday afternoon – clear skies and frost – a lovely day to visit Portland for the launch of Carol Hunt’s latest book in The Portland Chronicles series – The Enchantment of the Black Dog, published by Roving Press.

The second in the series of children's books, The Portland Chronicles, by author Carol Hunt. In Enchantment of the Black Dog, Isabel Maydew sets out to unravel the mystery of the phantom Black Dog of Portland. The story features time travel to the English Civil War years and to the Ice Ages, when snow wolves roamed the Isle of Portland. Joined by a Southwell fairy and a cool surf-dude, Isabel finds clues to the true identity of the mysterious Black Dog.

It all took place at White Stones Café in Easton where Carol and the illustrator Domini Deane were signing copies and the kids (and Carol) were dressed up as characters from the book. People queued to buy their copies and to get them signed and there were activities to keep the kids busy while the adults supped coffee and scoffed cake. There was a really good turnout, which was great to see.

So congratulations Carol and I hope you have as much success with this one as you did with The Portland Sea Dragon.

Natasha Solomon's Book Launch

On Saturday we headed inland for the launch of Natasha Solomon's novel 'Mr Rosemblum's List'. I have been following Natasha's blog for some time now and it was lovely to finally meet her in person.



The village hall was all decked out with bunting, and cream teas were being scoffed. Natasha read from her book - a piece describing the very hall we were all sitting in.

And we even spotted a wooly pig (but for some reason blogger has decided not to let me upload the picture I took of it!!)

As for the book I bought - I'm really enjoying it!

Footprints Signing Pictures

Last night myself and David L Clements met at Waterstones in Dorchester to read from our 'Footprints' stories, answer questions and sign copies.

There event was well attanded and there was a lively discussion afterwards - inevitably the question of whether the Apollo landings really actually happened came up :-) - and my thanks to everyone who attended.

I've posted some pictures over on my website -

Here.

Footprints Signing Reminder

Don't forget to get your tickets for Thursday's Footprints signing at Waterstones in Dorchester at 7:30pm - see post below for details.

You can either buy them in the shop or give them a call on 01305 257123 to book your place.

Hope to see you there!

Footprints Signing in Dorchester on the 27th August

On the 27th August myself and fellow UK author David Clements will be in Waterstones in Dorchester, Dorset at 7:30 pm.

We will be reading from Footprints, and anthology of science fiction stories from Hadley Rille Books to which we are both contributors, and will be answering questions about the anthology, our stories or anything else you care to ask.

Footprints is an anthology of science fiction stories based around the fact that, long after our civilisation has crumbled to dust the Apollo astronauts’ footprints will still be there on the surface of the moon, and the stories it contains explore how visitors from distant worlds might interpret this evidence. Footprints has been released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

I do hope that anyone reading this who might be in the vicinity of Dorchester on the 27th August will join us. Tickets can be purchased beforehand from Waterstones and are £1 which is redeemable against the cost of the book, or you can pay on the door. Refreshments will be available.

But above all it will be a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow authors, and it would also be great to meet any of my virtual friends if you can make it.

I do hope to see you there.