This is likely to be a long post - I've been rather busy of late, so grab a cuppa and settle yourself down for a long overdue update.
First, I went to my first ever book festival!
I've never been to one before, but as it was the Newark Book Festival, and relatively close to home - plus I'd had the offer to share a stall in the Festival Literature Village with a fellow SoA author, Marilyn Pemberton - I decided to give it a shot.
I made a few investments especially for this event...I bought a repurposed standing banner which had been painted in blackboard paint, and spent a pleasant afternoon setting out the lettering to list my name and all my books.
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| The lettering is in different coloured chalks, but it doesn't show up too well on the photo |
I bought a SumUp contactless card reader, because I wasn't sure how comfortable people would be dealing with cash in these covid times. (As it happened, the card reader paid for itself over the weekend, and most of my sales were card, not cash)
The final thing I did was get some postcards printed - I managed to mess it up several times, but with the help of the lovely staff at the Printroom in town, I got sorted.
Newark itself is a lovely place, and we (Marilyn and I) were on a stall in the marketplace for both days. We were really proud of how the stall looked, and received several compliments about it.
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| The banner certainly showed up in situ! |
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| Our shared first day stall |
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| My side of it! |
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| Day 2 stall - different spot in the marketplace |
The weirdest thing was being able to talk to so many people, after steering clear of busy places for so long. And yet it was lovely to chat to fellow authors, to readers, to passers-by who were just having a mooch, and then to boogie along to the music provided by The Business. (Lots of 80's covers - I was in my element!)
These kind of events aren't solely about sales though - yes, I sold some books, but it was the conversations and contacts made that are almost more important. On the Sunday, our stall backed onto that of a lovely lady, Shagufta Khan, who was selling the most exquisite book of poetry. We had quite a chat about life and writing, and she went away from the day feeling inspired after a time of writer's block.
So after two days standing on a market stall, you'd think I was ready for a rest...nope.
The day after, I was in Walsall, at the Joseph Leckie Academy, where I'd been invited to give a workshop to a class of Year 7's. I was nervous, mainly because there were a lot of covid cases in schools at that time, but with mask at the ready and a safe distance between moi and pupils, it didn't feel too bad when I was there. And here's a laugh for you; a lot of schools now have an electronic signing-in system, which takes your photo on the day. Now, I'm not tall - you know that. But when this is your third attempt, even standing on tiptoe...!
I took along my paint chips and what's in the bottle story activities, and the students worked really hard at coming up with story ideas. There were some corkers...
In the bottle were: butterfly wings (who would be so cruel?!), dragon's breath, captured as fire that fell from the sky; shadows of people that travelled through time; phoenix tears; an amulat that held the heart of both fae and human worlds; a magic flower, which, when someone sang its song, it glowed and healed whoever touched it.
Had a bit of trouble getting out of the school at the end of the session though, because I didn't realise that the staff were used to double parking, so I'd been blocked in. Felt awful having to drag a member of staff out of her lesson - I did apologise profusely!
To finish off the visit, I met up with an old university friend, who lives in Walsall, and we had lunch together. In a pub! With no masks! Again, it felt very strange after being used to taking so many precautions, but it was lovely to spend a couple of hours catching up and setting the world to rights.
I was cream-crackered on Tuesday after three busy days, a fact my body made me all too aware of by landing me with a migraine as soon as I woke up. Spent most of the day in bed...Ugh.
And then, Squidge's Guide to Super Stories was published on the Wednesday! Woo-hoo! So if you know any budding young author who'd like a fun yet informative read which will help them with their own writing, do point them in my direction.
I've also been working hard on Tilda #4, trying to twist that one into shape. What's interesting is that for a long time I was really struggling to make headway with it, because I'd written myself - and Tilda - into a corner and couldn't see a way out of it. After lots of thinking and working out, I'm glad to say I not only have a much better direction for Tilda #4, I also have a strong outline for Tilda #5 which gives - I hope - an absolutely amazing twist to the Chronicles of Issraya series and finishes it off rather well. I'll keep you posted on that front - #5 is having to sit and stew while I polish up #4.
I'm also going to be involved in the Middleway Words - The Midlands Book Festival, an online festival taking place the first full week of September, which is going to showcase authors from the Midlands, and will include sessions for writers and readers. There will be interviews with authors and videos of authors introducing themselves and their books. There's such a wealth of talent in the Midlands, so if you want to get involved or attend the festival, keep an eye on their facebook page.
