London Book Fair 2013...an author's point of view

The Emirates Airline Literary Festival Team

This morning I am relaxing, just a little. The past two days I have been enjoying the madness that is London Book Fair. On Monday I was there just to soak up the atmosphere...but of course I immediately bumped into friends.

Immogen Howsen and Lynne Connolly at the Samhain stand

I wandered around bumping into friends and I was lucky enough to catch Patrick Brown of Goodreads talking in the AuthorLounge his presentation is here. There is so much to learn. While in the author lounge I bumped into Sue Fortin and Linn B Halton.

Carole Blake ready for the second day of London Book Fair to begin

Day two had a plan. I was meeting spending the morning meeting my editors from Germany, Holland, Portugal and Norway. I was given a table just behind my agent Carole Blake to share with Peter James (yes, esteemed company except that Pater ending up holding his meeting in the The Ivy Club!)

Pater James and Carole Blake

It was fabulous to met my editors and find out how the sales are going and if there was anything I could do to help sales. It's very frustrating to not be able to help...However the good news was that The Cornish House aka Sterne Uber Cornwall, A Casa Dos Sonhos, Sterren Boven Cornwall and Stjerner over Cornwall is doing very well!

Meetings over I set out into the fair and bumped into two agents...Jane Judd and Broo Doherty then caught up with Julia Williams and her twin sister Virginia and a relaxed lunch before braving the fair again.

Saying farewell to them I found the Choc Lit stand and shared a chocolate with Sue Moorcroft and Pia Christina Courtenay. Then the amazing Victoria Lamb appeared...she had left her coat in The Ivy Club so while collecting it with her we had a glass of champagne...

While exploring the Orion stand I bumped into Kate Mosse and the Emirates Airlines Literary Festival Team plus Rose Prince...just love name dropping...then fortunately I saw Annabel Kantaria from Dubai who won the Montegrappa First Fiction competition at the Emirates Airlines Literary Festival. I tagged along and found myself in The Ivy Club again...

Isobel Abulhoul, Luigi Bonomi, Annabel Kantaria and Yvette Judge

And who did we find in The Ivy Club...

Luigi Bonomi, Peter James, Isobel Abulhoul and Liz Fenwick

After catching up it was a mad dash to attend the launch of the campaign to save bookstores BOOKS ARE MY BAG. Lord Saatchi opened the launch...

Lord Saatchi

The simplicity of the campaign was explained...Everyone can carry the poster BOOKS ARE MY BAG...the campaign officially begins on September 14th but the bags were the most coveted item of the London Book Fair...

I have mine but I also have a spare...so leave a comment here by May 2nd and I'll send you the BOOKS ARE MY BAG bag and a signed copy of The Cornish House to go into it.... Do any of my writer friends want to add there book to the bag for the winner?

NOTE: The bag now contains more books... A Clash of Innocents by Sue Guinney and Home for Christmas by Cally Taylor

Finally here's the link to my radio chat about books on Sunday the 15th of April with Geordie Bird on Dubai 92 here. The book discussion begins about four minutes in...I discuss the charts and what in my to be read pile...

Romantic Novelists' Association Summer Party

The Library at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

What can I say - except it was fab! I love the RNA. Not only does it have the New Writers' Scheme and the MOST supportive membership they throw one hell of a party. The Summer Party is when the winner of the Joan Hessayon Award is announced. This award is for a writer who has come through the scheme and is published. It is a celebration of all the excitement and hard work that it takes to cross that hurdle to be published. Katie Fforde said each and everyone of the woman up for the award had won. So a huge congratulation to all of the seven worthy writers but a special shout for Allie Spencer for her Little Black Dress Book Tug of Love.

Speaking of Katie Fforde, she is now the chair of the RNA having taken over from the wonderful Catherine Jones.

As with all these parties there is never ever enough time .....Oh and we had three of the nominees for the Melissa Nathan Comedy Romance Award in attendance - Trisha Ashley, Kate Harrison and Julliet Archer (who was one of the nominees for the Joan Hessayson Award).

Sorry for no names to the photos - connection is not brilliant so I will try and amend when I am at the airport.

I head back to Dubai today having done no writing since I left the plane. I am hoping this means my subconcious will have had the needed break to catch up with where I am going now that I chopped and changed scenes....

Happiness Is......

Happiness is so many things - being with my family in Cornwall (despite the grey skies), being able to cut beautiful spring flowers from my garden, an Amazon delivery with two friends' books (Giselle Green's latest LITTLE MIRACLES and Novel Racer,Rachel Green's AN UNGODLY CHILD - crearly there is a green thing going on and I have to say I was savouring the varying shades of it that soothed my eyes as we drove from Heathrow yesterday! I had forgotten how green everything was here as my eyes are so accustomed to varying shades of sand) and the short list for the Melissa Nathan Comedy Romance Award was announced and contained two friends! (Novel Racer, Kate Harrison's SECRET SHOPPER"S REVENGE and Trisha Ashley's WINTER'S TALE) Here's the whole short list:

The Secret Shopper's Revenge by Kate Harrison. Orion
Bridesmaids by Jane Costello. Pocket Books
Recipe For Disaster by Miriam Morrison. Arrow
A Winter's Tale by Trisha Ashley. Avon
The Marriage Bureau For Rich People by Farahad Zama. Abacus
The Importance Of Being Emma by Juliet Archer. ChocLit

Black Boxes released in Paperback and the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award

One of the best things as a writer, aside from seeing your own work in print (yes, I have but in non-fiction), is seeing friends' books out in the wide world. So after the lovely writerly day I had had before I was browsing in Smith's in Heathrow's terminal 3 looking for Trisha Ashley's book A Winter's Tale (which I found). I continued to roam the titles and then I made a little spectacle of myself when I squeaked upon finding Caroline Smailes' Black Boxes. I was so excited I whipped out my phone and took this dodgy photo! It turns out she's running a competition here for the best photo. Now, I know I won't win any prizes, but I can say I received more just by the flow of happy excitement that ran throw me!

Sorry for the post yesterday. I really wasn't on this planet, but did want to get the photos up as it was such a wonderful day and so many had seen me snapping away. But yesterday I existed in my own little jetlagged bubble trying to comprehend how I had been in both snow and sand storms in less than thirty-six hours..........

However CS Harris did ask how was the state of UK publishing...well, things are being cut like lunches to say the least and there had been a report in the press about the demise of the launch party unless the poor author paid. Also of concern is the huge discounting demanded by the supermarkets.

I did ask one agent about the market and she said new writers were still being sought (this surprised me) but it was a risky time for the midlist. Publishers were looking at ways to cut costs and this seemed to be their target. Sobering news to say the least.

Finally to the blogs that contained far better reports on the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Lunch:

Susie Vereker

Debs Carr

Julie Cohen

Fiona Harper

Ray-Anne Lutener

Kate Hardy