Gainsborough Event

I had a great time at the ACW event in Gainsborough on Saturday. There were lots of lovely people and some delicious food. Best of all, Joe Story, of Unboring Books, lead an excellent workshop on how to get published, which was very helpful now that I'm busily submitting Once Removed to agents. Joe described himself as the Del Boy of the Christian world and was very down-to-earth, practical, funny and inspiring.

Unboring Books is a newish venture trying to bridge the conventional publishing and the self-publishing worlds. They offer to read and assess your manuscript and if they feel it has merit will recommend it to Christian bookshops. This is something self-publishers need, a kind of kite mark of excellence to lift you above the stigma.

Huddersfield Literature Festival

Another good festival ~ just wish I could attend more events! Anne Caldwell's The Route Women Life Writing was an excellent workshop yesterday. My event ~ The Hard Truths About Self-publishing ~ went well today. There was a positive atmosphere and some good feedback. Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to hearing Anne Fine.

Encouraging words

I just received these encouraging words in an email from Bobbie Ernst via my dad:
"Anyhow, I just finished reading your daughter Kimm's wonderful book and wanted to let you and Kimm know how very much I enjoyed it. Actually, I couldn't put it down ! Having lived in England for 2 yrs in the early 70s, I could so well identify with that part of it. The compassion she expresses on her big, supportive family is moving, and her writing style superb. My hats are off to her as she has accomplished so much and willingly & bravely taken on hardships and new challenges."

Huddersfield Literature Festival

I'm giving a talk/workshop on the Hard Truths of Self-publishing on Friday 18th March. Please pass this information on to anyone you think might be interested. For more information follow the links below:
http://www.litfest.org.uk is the website link.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=61839645820 is the facebook link.

Long time no post

Just added some more dates to the calendar on this blog. After a quiet spell, trying to finish the novel, all of a sudden lots of speaking engagements have come my way! I'm especially delighted to be giving a talk at the Huddersfield Literature Festival in March. The poetry writing workshop should be fun at Lawrence Batley Theatres Festive Fayre event in a couple of weeks, too.

Writers' groups

Last Friday, I gave a talk at the beautiful library in Cleckheaton on setting up a writers' group. It was well attended and we finished up by launching three new groups. One will meet on Friday afternoons, one Monday evenings and one at Birstal library on Wednesdays evenings. Please contact the libraries, if you are interested. And please contact me, if you'd like me to do a talk at your local library. In this economic climate libraries, like other services are fighting for their existence. We need to use them or lose them!

Amazon.co,uk expansion

Amazon.co.uk can now post my books to the following EU countries at no extra charge!
Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal