The plan this year was to blog as I went along, instead of doing it all the week after I got back. However it turns out there isn't that much time to blog unless you specifically stay up late/get up early. Especially if your brand new tablet keyboard doesn't work.
As usual Day 1 is arrival day. Everyone turns up in dribs and drabs. There didn't seem to be as many people at our usual meeting place this year, the coffee shop seemed rather empty, but that turned out to be because everyone else was already on the coach,
There were some trivial but welcome additions this year - mugs in the rooms rather than cups, and a bank of coffee machines that dispensed a variety or coffee and/or chocolate beverages. In a conference full of writers this was particularly popular.
On the Saturday it all really kicks off with an evening speaker. This year it was Scottish crime writer Alex Gray. She spoke so engagingly about her works and journey to becoming a novelist (and I think she may have a bit of an author crush on her character Solly Brightman) that I rushed off to buy the first in her series and get it signed. She told us how she was rejected by a publisher because although they liked the book they "already had too many Scottish writers" - which I think says a lot about what's wrong with the publishing industry these days. She also told an anecdote about the importance of querying. The publisher who ended up taking on her first novel originally lost it, and she only found out by querying.
Afterwards was the traditional icebreaker social events, but after a day of travel I was tired and had an early night.
As usual Day 1 is arrival day. Everyone turns up in dribs and drabs. There didn't seem to be as many people at our usual meeting place this year, the coffee shop seemed rather empty, but that turned out to be because everyone else was already on the coach,
There were some trivial but welcome additions this year - mugs in the rooms rather than cups, and a bank of coffee machines that dispensed a variety or coffee and/or chocolate beverages. In a conference full of writers this was particularly popular.
On the Saturday it all really kicks off with an evening speaker. This year it was Scottish crime writer Alex Gray. She spoke so engagingly about her works and journey to becoming a novelist (and I think she may have a bit of an author crush on her character Solly Brightman) that I rushed off to buy the first in her series and get it signed. She told us how she was rejected by a publisher because although they liked the book they "already had too many Scottish writers" - which I think says a lot about what's wrong with the publishing industry these days. She also told an anecdote about the importance of querying. The publisher who ended up taking on her first novel originally lost it, and she only found out by querying.
Afterwards was the traditional icebreaker social events, but after a day of travel I was tired and had an early night.
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