Local Author Event - W H Smith

I attended a local author event recently at W H Smith in Wellington. These events are a great way of meeting other writers as well has hopefully getting a sale or two!

I was very lucky to be sat right next to my own Mom, Phylis Blakemore who wrote 'Gentlemen of the River - The last Coracle men of the Severn Gorge' We had a lovely time chatting to customers and although we didn't sell loads of books, it was a lovely experience.

Pictured below is local author, Catherine Cooper. She was launching her new book 'Silver Hill' and has already enjoyed enormous success with her Jack Brennin series which will be turned into a film very soon.

It was so inspiring talking to her and this was the only chance I had to get a photograph as she had a constant stream of customers queuing to buy her books.




I didn't have to fight any queues off but I did make one sale which was lovely and I always appreciate the fact that a person is willing to pick up a copy and pay me for it. But that's not what it's all about. It gave me a great opportunity to spend several hours browsing the shelves and taking note on which writers are popular at the moment and which publishers they are using. This is so useful when preparing for my own future projects as I even found a new publisher that I may try submitting to.

I came away with a mind full of inspiration, a notebook crammed with information and enough money to buy a copy of the December issue of Writers Forum which has an article by Wrekin Writers very own Julie Phillips.

To me that's a sucess!

A Golden Opportunity

I was lucky enough to be invited to Catherine Cooper's celebration party the other day. Catherine has just won the overall Brit Writers award with her magical book The Golden Acorn'

The red carpet was out and many people were trying it out for comfort, but of course it was there for Catherine who is a worthy person to tread it.



The copy below is the one that was printed in advance for when she attended the awards ceremony at the O2 in London.



The room and tables were incredible as Catherine had gone to immense detail to capture the magic of her book. The place names each had a golden acorn for us to take home and many of the characters from the book where on display. A man played a harp as we entered the room and Roman Soldiers mixed with the guests.

I was so inspired by the speeches that friends and family made about Catherine. She had suffered with poor health for years, eventually having to give up her much loved job, but never gave up on her writing.

She began by self-publishing her first three books and taking her wonderful displays into schools to inspire children to read. I was captivated when I first met her at a writers event in Newport earlier this year and had to buy 'The Golden Acorn' out of the money from my own book sales!

She entered the Brit Writing awards and not only won the children's award but was crowned the overall winner.




Catherine Cooper



'Camelin' - one of the characters from her book, carefully guarding Catherine's Awards.



The celebration cake



More characters from the book



Myself and Mom were on a table with other writers which was wonderful and we were spellbound when a Roman Centurion joined us for the whole afternoon. They were dotted around several tables and I had the pleasure of Gaius Longinius sitting right next to me! I even had a go at writing on his roman wax tablet.



I came away feeling so inspired, after such a magical day, and believing that anything is possible if you believe in yourself.