Showing posts with label Writing Festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Festivals. Show all posts

Wednesday 19 January 2022

Tickets on sale for one-day crime fiction event in the heart of Vera country

Hi, crime lovers!

Have you heard about Bay Tales Live yet? You should have...

The team behind Virtual Noir at the Bar have released tickets for their first physical event - in their hometown of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. Bay Tales Live, a one-day crime fiction festival for readers and writers, will be held at Whitley Bay Playhouse on Saturday 12th February 2022 and will feature some of the most successful UK crime writers, as well as introducing audience members to the brightest rising stars of 2022. Featured authors have had their books optioned by BBC, ITV and Netflix

Keen to continue their habit of hosting the biggest names in crime fiction alongside new writers, Vic Watson and Simon Bewick - shortlisted for FutureBook’s Event of the Year last year - have collaborated with some of the UK’s biggest publishers to put together a programme of six panels featuring award-winning authors like Louise Candlish and Vaseem Khan as well as successful local authors Ann Cleeves and Trevor Wood. And, just like their virtual shows, the pair couldn’t resist throwing a wildcard into the mix: inviting Dr Richard Shepherd, forensic pathologist and author of the Sunday Times bestseller Unnatural Causes, to speak at the event. “This event is perfect for both readers and writers of crime fiction, with a little forensic pathology thrown in for good measure,” said Vic Watson who, prior to the pandemic, had been responsible for events in Newcastle and Harrogate. "The events I’ve hosted in the past, whether online or in real life, have always given audience members to connect with the featured writers. Bay Tales Live may be in a more formal setting but there will still be opportunities for people to meet the writers and get their books signed as well as to ask questions towards the end of each panel.” 

After bringing hundreds of authors and readers together during the pandemic, Watson and Bewick would like them to connect in their hometown which also happens to be the setting for ITV’s smash hit TV show, Vera. Local author Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera and Shetland series said: "I can't wait to meet fellow readers and writers in Whitley Bay in February. I know it'll be a brilliant day.” Whitley Bay, a seaside town ten miles east of Newcastle, has seen significant investment and regeneration in recent years and the Bay Tales team are keen to raise the town’s profile by enticing crime fiction fans with a reasonably-priced day pass, leaving guests with plenty of money to spend while in the town. 

Simon Bewick, who edited the NHS charity fund raising crime fiction anthology featuring Virtual Noir at the Bar authors, Noir from the Bar said: “We want to make this event truly affordable for everyone. At £30 for a full day festival featuring six panels and over twenty authors, we believe it’s the best value of its kind around.” More information regarding the full line-up and where to buy tickets can be found here.

I don't know about you, but this sounds so exciting! And the best news? I'm giving away my ticket to a low-income reader or writer who would love to attend this event, as I can no longer go (I'm gutted but it's great news for you!). To enter, please retweet this tweet and comment with which panel you're most excited to see. I'll pick an entrant at random and notify you if you're the lucky winner.

Roxie

@RoxieAdelleKey

Friday 11 October 2019

Finding your people

Writing. It’s a pretty isolating thing to do, isn’t it? You hole yourself up and block out the world, and then emerge days later, blinking in the sunlight and wondering what the hell happened while you were out cold. Unless you’re very lucky indeed, you probably don’t naturally have an abundance of writers in your life… unless you seek them out. And my god, its fantastic when you do. Not that my brilliant friends and family aren’t enthusiastic about my writing, but I feel guilty if I harp on about it too much. I worry about boring them to tears. When you have writer friends, you will talk about little else for hours on end and it’s fine. It’s great, in fact. They get it.

But how do you meet them? I met my first group of writing friends through workshops. In my little corner of the world, there is a beautiful historical house and gardens called Delapré Abbey (they also have a second hand book shop with an honesty box!). They often hold events, and one particular week last spring, they organised a festival of writing. A festival of writing, right near my home! I attended two sessions with successful authors Menna Van Praag and Sue Bentley. Not only did I get to soak up the wisdom of these wonderful ladies, but I met some brilliant writers, who I have remained friends with. Occasionally we meet for lunch or a coffee, and talk about our writing. We email, and share our writing amongst ourselves. We encourage each other to keep writing. It’s just lovely to know they are there, and they understand.

As you may have read from my most recent blog post, I recently attended my first writing festival. A crime writing festival, to be more specific. I was blown away by the amount of fantastic people I met and plan to stay in touch with. If a writing festival is within your reach, I would encourage you to reach out and grab it with both hands. Introverted like me? Just make one extroverted friend and they will bring the interesting people to you. Or, you know, pretend to be an extrovert (like I need to learn how to do). My summary of the event: Beneath all the panels, book signings and alcohol, there was an underlying sense of togetherness, of excitement and of anticipation. I met so many people, ranging from unpublished authors to international best sellers and I can't say I've ever been in a situation where strangers are so damn nice to each other (although the appropriate amount of piss-taking was duly given and received).

Where else? My latest discovery is Twitter. I have used it sporadically for years, mainly to complain to companies about bad service and to enter competitions, with little success (I won a small tent once). But my view of Twitter changed dramatically when I discovered the #WritingCommunity (or #WritersCommunity). Thousands of other writers, all procrastinating together, is a beautiful thing indeed. Never have I ever seen such a solid community full of encouragement, support, advice and kind words (and funny gifs).  

So I conclude that writers are a pretty awesome breed of human, and you should incorporate as many of them into your life as possible.

Sunday 29 September 2019

Capital Crime 2019 - the verdict

Earlier this year, I discovered crime writing festivals are, in actual fact, a thing. This weekend, I discovered how much joy they could bring me. Enter: Capital Crime 2019.


Talk about hitting me between the eyes with line up after jaw-dropping line up. Apologies for briefly switching genres, but never in my life have I needed Hermione's time turner more than I did this weekend. I'll talk briefly about my own personal highlights, but I know from the people I spoke to that thousands of memories have been made in the course of three days.

I arrived on Thursday evening after much internal thought-wrangling and was immediately hit with the same thoughts that pummelled me on my first day of university. "Look at all those witty, clever people. You're nothing like them. Fraud! Leave!" No, thank you. I'm a Remainer in every sense of the word. After wandering around trying to look nonchalant but spectacularly failing, my knights in shining armour appeared in the form of Adam Hamdy and David Headley, who introduced me to a group of fellow authors and suddenly I didn't feel so lost.

The quality of the panels was phenomenal. My personal highlight was sitting on the front row for Truth in Pieces, a panel of bestselling authors including my all-time favourite author and inspiration for my crime writing Jane Casey who I was thrilled to be able to meet in person. Excellent tips were shared and absorbed!


As a woman, a feminist and a lesbian author, two panels I couldn't miss were: Is Crime Fiction a Problem for Feminists? and Changing Times. The former a group of astounding Killer Women including Sarah Hilary, Kate Rhodes, Julia Crouch, Colette McBeth and Amanda Jennings, and the latter discussing writing LGBTQ and ethnic minority characters within fiction, and the lack thereof. Mari Hannah almost reduced me to tears (in the best possible way) and was bloody wonderful to meet afterwards. After such a brilliant conversation, I came out feeling inspired and buzzing.


The most useful panel for me as an author at the beginning of my writing career was the Craft of Writing, with the aforementioned knights in shining armour and Vicki Mellor. I learnt a lot, and despite the scary statistics I left the room feeling fired up and ready to go for it. I will beat the statistics.

One of the things I loved most about Capital Crime was the unexpected infusion of humour. The Interrogation of Mark Billingham by former detective Graham Bartlett had me in stitches and the combined hilarity of Sarah Pinborough, Stuart Turton and Ben Aaronovitch in Fantastic Crime was pure comedy gold.


But beneath all the panels, book signings and alcohol, there was an underlying sense of togetherness, of excitement and of anticipation. I met so many people, ranging from unpublished authors to international best sellers and I can't say I've ever been in a situation where strangers are so damn nice to each other (although the appropriate amount of piss-taking was duly given and received).

I'd heard crime writers are a friendly bunch... I can happily confirm that is true beyond all doubt.

Are you a fellow Capital Criminal- sorry, Crimer? Please comment, I'd love to chat.