Ulog 19(b): Hanging Out With Rockstars!

Happy Friday Steemians!

I know I'm a very bad Ulogger, and I promised you that I'd write the second half of this post last night, but... as you'll see... things got way to exciting for that :)

Last night, I travelled up to Exeter to hear four of my favourite authors in conversation. I've met Holly Martin and Lisa Dickenson before, but despite following them on twitter and loving their books for years, I've never met Miranda Dickinson nor Cathy Bramley before.

I melted slightly in my car on the drive up to Exeter after work - the sun was so strong - so I decided to park a little way out of town and walk into the city centre to make the most of the evening breeze and cool down a little bit. It's a lovely walk down by the harbour and over the bridge.

Anyway, I'm very glad I did, as the room the event was held in was sweltering when I reached the library - no air conditioning, and a whole bunch of people piled in! They did their best, and I think there were about 20 fans pointed at the audience!! The authors were amazing, and it was well worth it - even though they were blinded as the sun dropped down and peered in through the windows where the blinds were broken. If there are any wealthy philanthropists out there- please make a donation to Exeter Central Library so they can get some air-con installed and that back wall painted... I grabbed a photo of the girls on the stage- but can't say it's very glam (but at least it proves I was there in the audience ;) )

The authors covered all sorts of brilliant questions, from how they conducted their research, to best career moments so far, to the process of working with their editors and agents. They were really generous with both their knowledge and sharing their personal working processes- and it was fascinating how different each one of them was in terms of how they write, when they write and what gets them inspired.

One of my favourite parts of the evening was when they shared how they each broke into publishing. Again it was so different for each one of them. After several knock backs, Holly Martin was on the verge of giving up when she won a short-story competition and was published in an anthology. From this she went on to get her first deal. Cathy Bramley self published her first novel. This was then discovered and it was on the back of this that she gained her publishing deal. Miranda Dickinson was discovered through the now defunct website, Authonomy - and Lisa Dickenson, like Holly Martin, had her work discovered through a short story, and was approached directly by a publisher to work on a book for them. Not a single one of them had what I would call a 'traditional' route into publishing.

After the talk and lots of gossip with the lovely author Belinda Jones, who I was lucky enough to bump into in the audience, I was thrilled to be invited to join the authors, Lisa's husband, Belinda and the lovely lady from Transworld publishing out for a meal. What a treat... pizza and lots of book gossip to end the day on a high note.

This was an amazing event - really inspiring both in terms of writing, and also to get my reading groove back on. I treated myself to a copy of each of their new books (Lisa's isn't even out for another month, so I snapped that one up like a shot!), and got them all signed while I was at it!

Certainly a night of sweet dreams for me!
Happy Friday my lovelies,
Eveningart x

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^{Sources: All photos by yours truly}