The London Short Story Festival

Where better to hold a literary festival than in Waterstones' flagship store on London's Piccadilly? Award-winning writers nestled in amongst the endless shelves of books and a sea of book-loving streaming in through the doors every hour. Solid effort from Spread the Word teaming up with Waterstones for the first ever London Short Story Festival.

With the sun blazing outside, though, some anxious cynicism seeped into my brain - was the lineup, fantastic as it is, likely to win against the blue skies and 25 degrees outside? Thanks to Spread the Word and the festival's Guest Director, writer and blogger, Paul McVeigh, lined up such a fantastic series of talks and workshops across the weekend that the turnout was not something we needed to be concerned about.

The festival kicked off on Friday evening with the launch of Salt Publishing's Best of British Short Stories 2014 followed by an evening with the winner of the Guardian's Fiction Prize, the impressive Jackie Kay who had the audience in the palm of her hand as she read, discussed and answered questions on her work.

Amidst the science-fiction novels and Manga on Waterstones' first floor was the festival's main space, which played host to an eclectic range of talks all weekend. The first of which got everything off to a weird and wonderful start with "The Weird and Wonderful World of Short Stories" with readings from Adam Marek, Dan Powell and Robert Shearman. Marek's first line made sure there wasn't any hanging around in the 'weird and wonderful' department: "I met a man with a 40 litre monkey..."

You can see just what went on by looking at the Festival Programme online HERE, which featured writer and journalist Anita Sethi, writer and editor Jacob Ross, writers Colin Barrett, Stuart Evers, MJ Hyland, Alex Preston, Radio4's Di Spears, Booker-shortlisted Alison Moore, the list goes on...

A big draw for the writers in the audience was the range of workshops on offer over the weekend, hosted by huge talents such as MJ Hyland, Vanessa Gebbie and Claire Keegan, whose book Foster was, from my experience, the talk of the festival!

Meanwhile, downstairs Spread the Word had set up a series of hands-on sessions in the Writers' Space.

If you didn't have tickets, you needn't have left the store's main atrium to have listened to some stunning examples of short stories at Speaker's Corner. I was very lucky in being able to introduce Davy Byrnes-shortlisted Irish writer, Danielle McLaughlin, Crossword Book Award Winner and author of Boat on Land, Janie Pariat, Edge Hill-shortlisted writer Jaki McCarrick and journalist and writer, Anita Sethi. All of which were fantastically evocative and entertaining. And I mustn't forget the powerful English Pen session which saw Femi Martin read some extraordinary extracts from creative writing written by prisoners - quite amazing.

I feel there is so much more to say as it was such a fun-packed event. Fingers crossed for round two next year so you can all come along for yourselves!

Canon Tales

One of the highlights of the TLC conference last year was the Canon Tales session. What, I hear you ask, are the Canon Tales. Set up by Doug Wallace and Jon Slack in, I believe, 2006, it is essentially an innovative literary project where figures in the world of books pick twenty images that showcase their own personal take on creativity in publishing. The tricky part is that they only have 21 seconds per image, thus creating a high-speed 7 minute snapshot.

This year Canon Tales came back with seven strong contenders. I say contenders like they are going in to battle, which could be an interesting development... a publishing rap-off anyone? Ok, getting carried away.

Although pretty shoddy quality, you can get an idea of the whole set-up by watching Canongate's Jamie Byng Canon Tale at the London Book Fair a few years ago:

I don't sadly have any footage of those who contributed to the Canon Tales session at the TLC conference this year but everyone put in a strong effort:

YA Literary Agent Hannah Shepard charted her relationship with books from Nancy Drew and Point Horror through to her life as a bookseller and then agent.

Biographer Maggie Ferguson delivered a touching talk on her relationship with George Mackay Brown and later Michael Morpurgo.

X-Men's Mike Carey was the intellectual talk of the session - looking at the way words and pictures have worked together over the centuries, from fine art to political cartoons, from comics to the Chinese alphabet.

Daniel Cooper took us through his life in the world of books from working for Amazon in Seattle to his own personal escapades with writing and publishing via Kindle.

Author Katy Darby took us through the evolution of her life as both a writer and founder of the live literature event - Liar's League - which now has branches in New York and Japan.

Editor at Granta, Max Porter, managed to get through his talk with 90% of his images displayed upside down - so huge kudos to him, even more so because his first book at Granta was Booker-winning The Luminaries... some people are sickeningly talented. 

Gemma Seltzer of the Arts Council gave an inspiring talk on her adventures with new ways of presenting stories, from innovative blogging to Japanese book binding, from dancing in libraries to James Bridle's physical and online weathervane project where people 'get on board' and 'shipped' out to sail the seven seas.

Novelist, Kamila Shamsie wrapped things up with her publishing story from the beaches of Karachi to the campus of an American university to being published and winning awards at the age of just 24.

In short, if you see a Canon Tales event going on - go along.

Writing in a Digital Age 2014: Day 3

As I said on Friday, the conference is now in its third year and, with TLC always on the hunt for new exciting opportunities for writers, it is no surprise that they have made this year’s conference bigger and better than ever by adding a brand new bonus day to the programme.

The third day saw people from all walks of literary life taking over Farringdon’s Free Word Centre, with Kobo Writing Life’s Diego Marano kicking the day off with an informative introduction to Kobo and its continued support and schemes for writers.

Thanks to the Royal Society of Literature in association with the Booker Prize Foundation, upstairs fourteen lucky writers took part in an intimate three-hour masterclass with award-winning novelist and poet, Bernadine Evaristo. During the session, entitled ‘On Character’, Evaristo divulged her secrets in the art of character building, from how to write complex, interesting but credible characters that can hold an entire novel, to using them effectively to create powerful, emotional impact.

It is arguable that it is impossible to be a great writer if you are not also a great editor. Luckily professional copy-editor and proof reader Richard Sheehan was on-hand all day to showcase the different types of editing, indispensible advice for any author, be they published traditionally or independently.

Meanwhile the main theatre was transformed into literary X Factor. TLC’s Rebecca Swift and Aki Schilz took Dermot O’Leary’s seat, hosting the Kobo Writing Life sponsored Pen Factor Writing Competition pitching session. Fifteen brave Pen Factor entrants, including this year’s winner Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown, read from their opening extract to a panel of top London agents: Hannah Sheppard (DHH Literary Agency), Heather Holden-Brown (hhb agency), Tom Witcomb (Blake Friedmann), Chris Wellbelove (Greene & Heaton) and Lorella Belli (LBLA). The sessions provided the writers with the rare opportunity to pitch directly to the industry ‘gatekeepers’ and walk away with detailed bespoke editorial advice and an invaluable insight into the mysterious mind of a Literary Agent. And it was clearly not just the readers who were benefitting, as each discussion was accompanied by the soundtrack of scrawling pens and scurrying fingers over keyboards coming from the rapt audience.

In the main hall, the Writers’ Fair was in full swing with representatives from TLC, the Alliance of Independent Authors, Amazon KDP & CreateSpace, Completely Novel, ePubli, Kobo Writing Life, Liars’ League, and the Royal Society of Literature, each offering both one-to-one and drop-in sessions for writers throughout the day.

From agents to Amazon, from debuts to backlist, from digital to live fiction, the TLC’s bonus day showcased the plethora of options available to writers, both new and established, and taught us all that the Digital Age is not about one right way of publishing but about multiple opportunities and platforms waiting to be explored.

Wow, that all sounded pretty intense and meaninful huh? Well I'm feeling knackered so I'm going to go to sleep all week. Oh, wait, I'm working and have the London Short Story Festival next weekend... no rest for the wicked! 

P.S. I always thought it was 'no rest for the wicket' as in, you know, cricket... I think my way makes more sense.

Writing in a Digital Age 2014: Day 2

Back at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon today for Round 2 of The Literary Consultancy's Writing in a Digital Age conference 2014. Today was, even more so than yesterday, all about the author - more specifically, the self-published author.

First up 'The Writer in the Machine' brought us a 'dynamic quartet' made up of Orna Ross, the founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and self-published writers Joanna Penn, Polly Courtney and Rachel Abbott. The first hour consisted of each panelist giving a talk about their own experiences, their own bylaws and their own take on the daunting task of marketing.

Joanna Penn's energetic (if not slightly manic) manifesto on exploiting the plethora of rights opportunities out there was certainly informative and her results hugely impressive but I felt left with a mild case of whiplash... In short, though, they all agreed you need a damn good cover, a great blurb, a strong strap-line and "know your reader". The discussion of the latter may have sounded a little stereotypical in places and potentially creepy taken out of context... hunt down your 40-something women on Mumsnet, capture your sci-fi readers as they browse techie websites and fan fiction forums - but essentially the message was that every book needs a primary readership to target and that you're doing it all wrong if you're just saying 'any gender, any age, any location'.

The second half was what I will call the Marmite session in that some people in the audience really loved it, others looked slightly bamboozled and on the verge of an attack of the giggles. Orna Ross led a practical session where all the writers got out their pens and pads (did not help me stay inconspicuous as the only non-writer in the room...) and scrawled down answers to questions like "why do I write" and "who do I write for".

As engaging as it was, after a two-hour long session lunch was a welcome break.

Last year it was Tina Seskis, this year it was Piers Alexander - winner of last year's Pen Factor award and the latest TLC self-published success story with his historical novel, The Bitter Trade. This guy should be an agent - it was the greatest pitch of the weekend and saw him sell a healthy number of signed copies of his book and likely double the size of his book launch by sort of accidentally inviting the entire conference... charming, talented and go-getting, just what you want from an author!

This post is getting quite long... so I'm going to stop rambling quite so much... other highlights included a star-studded panel chaired by Paul Blezard (who has a voice to rival Michael Gambon and Anthony Hopkins in my opinion), which saw 'book-blogging's First Lady' Dovegreyreader, the Telegraph's Sam Leith, and founder of ReadySteadyBook and Quercus's Mark Thwaite discuss the art and future of the book review.

We also got to hear who had won TLC's Kobo Writing Life sponsored Pen Factor Award 2014. The prize went to a very shocked Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown - such a lovely moment seeing her collect it from Kobo's Diego Marano. Judging by Piers's success, great things are sure to follow for her - I do hope so, having myself had a read of the sample material she submitted.

Another great day at the conference. Final day tomorrow!

Writing in a Digital Age 2014: Day 1

Today I attended the first day of The Literary Consultancy's annual conference: Writing in a Digital Age. It's my second year, the Conference's third, and there was a strong turnout, which is always good to see. I personally opted for the best seat in the house - halfway up the raised seating at the back, right in the corner so I have a great view and a sturdy wall for some good right-angled leanage, while remaining reasonably inconspicuous, which is generally a good way to be in my opinion when you find yourself the only non-writer and member of 'traditional publishing' in a sea of authors. I just typed out my reasons and decided that as it took up two beefy paras that I best delete and move on to the conference itself...

For those of you who don't know who The Literary Consultancy are, I've put their very helpful website at the bottom but, in short, they provide professional and in-depth editorial and proofreading services for authors. Beyond that, and what the conference is really all about, they are an excellent source of advice for authors on traditional publishing, but also all the other options available to new writers in the changing publishing landscape.

The conference is a three-day extravaganza and I'm not about to go into loads of detail now. Why not? Not because I'm lazy but because TLC cleverly slipped in little writing spies, including myself as it happens, to write up each session in detail and you can have a read (and listen) of those HERE. I really recommend you taking a look as there's so much interesting information to be taken, be you a writer, a reader, a publisher, an agent, a bookseller or anyone else with an interest in whether books are going to die or not (spoiler: they're not by the way, we're gonna save 'the book'  by doing lots of cool digi-shit).

But let me give you my highlights of Day 1

The first session with keynote speaker, sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow, was pretty mind-blowing. I don't think I've ever heard quite so eloquent a speaker - not a single 'umm'. And Cory sure knows his stuff, and he has a whole lot of passion to go with his knowledge. But the whole talk left me slightly sweaty with anxiety if I'm completely honest. I thought I knew what DRM meant but it turns out I really don't know anything at all about anything and basically Amazon is trying to eat our souls and really I shouldn't call myself a publishing-person (not that that's how I introduce myself at dinner parties...) because I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. *breathe* Conveniently for me and for the writer-up of the session, it was all recorded - thank the lord - and you can have a listen HERE. Phew.

The next two sessions were brilliant. In content, yes, but what I loved most was the juxtaposition of the two panels. The first of the two was the Industry Snapshot with an all-male panel which, after a very informative talk from Steve Bohme at Neilsen Bookscan, discussed the doom and gloom of publishing. Having come from an agency myself, I am certainly no stranger to the view of panelist and agent James Gill talking of a 'narrowing' of the industry, but it's still so depressing to hear that even the proverbial gatekeepers are struggling to summon up a bit of hope. After an hour and a half of talking about publishing 'service providers' and 'processes', the next session with an all-female panel (including author Rebecca Abrams, publisher Alexandra Pringle, and writer and Kingston's Publishing MA course leader Alison Baverstock) had a slightly different approach... 'service providers' had suddenly morphed into a discussion about editors, authors and agents forming a publishing 'family'...

A talk on funding for writers followed but the prize for the most cheering talk of the day goes to the wonderfully positive sounding 'The Age of Possibility'. Last year, this session was probably my least favourite... on a completely subjective level I guess I'm just not that interested about creating an app with situation-specific stories for the reader to enjoy on their commute. Clever, yes, but inspiring - I'm afraid not for me. That said, this year was fun. John Mitchinson of Unbound, Canongate's Frances Bickmore, and David Varela all discussed the digital opportunities available out there for novelists. Not KDP, no, far more exciting than that and enviously creative (particularly loved hearing about the evolution of the Letters of Note blog tie-in book and Letters Live). Discussions ranged from zombies computer games, to setting up pirate radio stations, to crowd-funded literary projects. Have a read of the write-up for more info, and have a browse of the Unbound website yourself, and feel inspiiiireeed.


TLC Conference 2013

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

When Harold Fry nips out one morning to post a letter, leaving his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking. To save someone else's life.

'The odyssey of a simple man, original, subtle and touching'. - Claire Tomalin

'From the moment I met Harold Fry, I didn't want to leave him. Impossible to put down.' - Erica Wagner, The Times

As a reader, great quotes from respected sources are much appreciated. As a reviewer, they make things difficult. Ultimately, I'm struggling here to describe this book in a better way than Claire Tomalin. She even stole my name. Or arguably she had it first, but whatever.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce is one of those books that has sat on my proverbial shelf for a long time but, as so often happens with me, everyone keeps saying 'you must read this' and so I don't read it for fear of it not living up my consequently heightened expectations. Foolish, it turns out in this case, as it was honestly brilliant.

It's really rare that I find a book deeply touching but there's something about old people isn't there? About lives lived (or not, as the case may be)? I don't mean that in a patronising way, I'm always oddly envious of people who have experienced life, whatever route it took, and have something to talk about rather than having to hype up for themselves what they might do.

The Frys, though, aren't talking. Rachel Joyce gets across the rural and domestic silence so well. Somehow she combines the lonely sadness of it all with the enlightening, refreshing feeling when you read about people whose lives are not over-complicated. With that said, though, (and I realise I keep making one point then backtracking and saying the book did something else entirely...), this book reminded me of how everyone's lives are more complicated than they seem. A classic 'what goes on behind closed doors' tale, and not just in the case of the Frys, but also all the people who Harold meets along the way. The little secrets and lies we tell ourselves that we think will make everything that bit easier.

Underpinning the whole narrative, of course, though, is the main premise. The is something wonderfully bizarre about the whole concept of a man who goes out to post a letter one day and just keeps on walking, and that light, quirky, humorous side is something that carries on throughout the novel and brings it all together - a classic British read where subtle humour and sadness come hand in hand.

If you have any heart at all, you will love this book, and you'll probably feel a little weepy...

9/10