The RNA Winter Party Pictures

As always it was a glamourous evening in the IMEC Library...

(where possible I have named people and the their fabulous shoes....eyesight and names badges sometimes fail)

Judy Astley, John Astley and Brigid Coady

Fiona Harper

Lesley Cookman's shoes

Freda Lightfoot, Alison Morton and Myra Kersner

Freda's and Alison's shoes

Nikki Goodman and Sue Moorcroft's shoes

Mandy Baggot, Catherine Miller and Sue Fortin

Liz Fenwick's shoes

Carole Matthews and Charlotte Betts

Liz Gill, Anthea Kenyon, Anne Bennett

Eileen Ramsay's shoes

Tony Mulliken of Midas PR and Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

Isobels's shoes

Gillen Green of Ebury, Emily Yau, Hannah Robinson

Alison Morton and Talli Roland

Rowan Coleman, Lizzy Kramer of David Highman and Carole Matthews

Debbie White, Celia Anderson, and Christine Stovell

Add caption

Val Loh and Vivienne Bass

Anthea Kenyon, Mary DeLazlo and Pia Christina Courtenay

Henri Gyland's boots

Pia Christina Courtenay's shoes

The library 

Kim Young's and Gillian Green's shoes

Jenny Barden's amazing tights and shoes

Liz Fenwick, Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann, Pia Christina Courtenay and Alison Morton

Gwyneth Williams

Publicity Seeking by Bernardine Kennedy

Journalist and author of seven best selling books Bernardine Kennedy shares her experience of dealing publicity.




Recently I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to write a couple of personal press releases that can be sent out to the media to prove that I’m really very interesting and worthy of a few column inches that will help promote my next book. You know the press releases I mean, they delve into the personal rather than the professional and are written to catch the jaded eye of the journo assigned that day to sifting through them all.

Once the crack-high of acceptance for publication has died down, there comes a stark realisation that the next step for one’s lovingly crafted book, and the next one, is for it to actually sell in enough numbers to keep the publisher happy.

The loyal purchase of the first book by family, friends and curious colleagues (after the debut they sadly lose interest) just won’t do it; the book has to be lobbed forcefully out into the big wide world and the general public have to hear about both it and the author and then they have to be persuaded that they really, really have to go out and buy it. Complex stuff.

This is where publicity and self promotion comes in. Publishers and agents will do some of the touting around but on the whole it’s down to the author to try and fire up some interest. Any interest. From anywhere.

Self-promotion is a necessary evil that even the most shy and retiring has to get to grips with but it can be a dangerous balancing act trying to find the happy medium between being ordinary and uninteresting and giving out ‘too much information’, some of which is possibly (accidentally?) exaggerated and which will one day return to bite the author on the bum. Trust me, there’s always someone somewhere feeling mean and ready to rain on your parade.
So just how much personal information should you give out about yourself and your nearest and dearest in the quest for that ever elusive publicity? Where does a Joe Bloggs author, not normally in the public eye, draw the line between doing everything possible to get mentions and quotes, and going too far?

It seems to vary greatly from person to person; I cringe sometimes when I read an in-depth confession of something so deeply personal, tragic, humiliating or devastating it brings a lump to my throat and then see the little note at the bottom of the piece about the authors latest book that is out that very week. Aha. Publicity.Cringe I might but at the same time I can understand it. Authors want their books to sell and so do their publishers but in these days of gossip magazines and tabloid newspapers publishing increasingly salacious details about celebrities, being normal, ordinary and hard-working simply doesn’t cut it.‘Happily married mother of two point four children who lives in a semi and works part-time in a bank writes a novel’ isn’t going to grab any headlines unless she was, for example, moonlighting as a high class call girl at the same time. (N.B.High class call-girl is good, heroin raddled street walker is bad).Same as ‘Disabled dad whose wife ran off to Turkey with a toy-boy leaving him with five children managed to find the time to write a heart-rending account of his struggle when kids were in bed’, will have them all gagging for the details. Especially if the wife now wants her share of the royalties. Bring on the tabloids!

So would I tell tales on my kids to get a two line book mention at the bottom of a page? Would I rip into the ex-husbands who are also the fathers of said kids? Reveal personal details about my childhood, adolescence and marriages that will embarrass not only me but also everyone close to me? No I’m sure I wouldn’t. Well I haven’t done so far. But would I drag up something from my past that makes a good tale, doesn’t impact on anyone else and won’t come back to haunt me? Oh Yes.All I have to do now is think of something catchy that will have Tesco getting out the cheque book and readers queuing around the block for a signed copy.
Back to the drawing board of my ratchety old past!


http://www.bernardinekennedy.com/
http://www.bernardinekennedy.blogspot.com/

Veronica Henry Reports on the Colman Getty Pen Quiz

There were sore heads for more than one reason, when the RNA team entered the Colman Getty Pen Quiz. Veronica Henry tells all.


We had all been swotting for weeks, glued to Mastermind/University Challenge/Brain of Britain in a vain attempt to improve our general knowledge. But nothing could prepare us for the ferociously hard questions at the 2009 Colman Getty Pen Quiz, hosted by the eloquent and efficient David Mitchell of Peep Show and Mitchell and Webb fame.

We had been lulled into a false sense of security beforehand, quaffing champagne in the splendour of the Royal Institute of British Architects and spotting literary luminaries such as Joan Bakewell, Sarah Waters, Deborah Moggach, Daisy Goodwin, Isobel Wolff and Kathy Lette, mixed in with a good sprinkling of publishing movers and shakers.

Then we moved into the banqueting room for dinner and … agonising torture as the questions came thick and fast. We conferred, debated, scratched our heads, reached for the wine bottle and actually put up a pretty good fight in the end, our best rounds being history [where we played our joker, earning double points] and the picture round.

In the end it was a tie between The Times, The Guardian and Harper Collins [the competition was pretty tough!], so the final winner was decided by a quick fire round, with The Times emerging as victors after correctly answering the question ‘In 1519, the French King Francis 1 bought which painting to put in his bathroom?’ [The Mona Lisa].

Coming last was softened by Liz Harris winning four bottles of fine malt whisky in the raffle, and the knowledge that we had contributed to an excellent cause – the evening raised approximately £20,000 to support PEN’s work defending freedom of expression, campaigning on behalf of persecuted writers worldwide and promoting literature and literacy.

A Glimpse At Bernardine Kennedy's To Be Read Pile

This weekend's TBR Pile comes from Bernardine Kennedy, author/freelance writer and journo, living in Essex, UK. She has published seven novels and the eighth is under construction.

This TBR pile of books is actually only a cross section pulled off the shelf. I have so many to read but not enough time; or rather my time management skills are poor right now! The shelves are heaving with unread books but I'm still a compulsive book buyer of several a week.

I love going on holiday with half a dozen books and nothing to do but read. And eat of course. I'm into cruising at the moment and there's nothing better than a book, a balcony and the whooshing of the sea beneath. My current WIP has some ship travel in it both from the sixties and now, seems a shame to waste any experiences that come under the heading of research. I think writers automatically see everything through the eyes of 'research'.

I prefer to read books of a different genre to my own, firstly because I live in dread of subconscious plagiarism and secondly because its nice to read something different and give the brain cells a rest from 'work'. I do have a very eclectic taste in books although it changes from time to time. At the moment I'm into the crime novels of Kathy Reichs / James Patterson / Karin Slaughter and co and the romcoms that always lighten my mood by authors like Kate Harrison / Pauline McGlynn (Mrs Doyle!) / Jill Mansell. I'm also currently dipping into some of the celebrity autobiographies. Dawn French, Russell Brand, Eric Clapton are top at the moment...

I love to have 'dip-into' books on the go as well as the 'race to the end' novels that I can't put down.
'The Wit and Wisdom of Keith Richards' is one I keep going back to. Brilliant.

And now I've piled some of them together for the photograph I feel so impatient to get at them that I'm going to set aside some time to read them all. I hope!

Bernardine's latest, SHATTERED LIVES, is published in large print by Thorpe this month July. It was originally published by Headline December 2008.

For more information about her books visit her website and for a glimpse into her writing and what's going on in her life stop by her blog.

Going Wild - One Writer's Approach to Awakening the Senses and Stimulating the Writing Flow

Going Wild

Wild swimming. No chlorine, no tannoy, no lanes, and frequently no other company... To many people, plunging in to cold lakes, rivers or seas sounds like madness. To me, it sounds like bliss.

I've always been a bit of a water baby, but when I came to live on the edge of the Lake District in 1996, in seemed like a license to bathe. Whether it was from the gravel shores of Crummock Water or the stony banks of the River Derwent, sleepily wending through some of the most ancient woodlands in the country, as soon as the sun shone, I loved to get out and swim.

In 2008, time and heat wave never once coincided. This year, I was in the river by the beginning of May.

It's refreshing, renewing, great exercise and simply as if you've immersed yourself in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

So what does swimming in lakes and rivers have to do with writing?

The fact is, whenever I'm struggling with a story, a quick dip never fails to get things moving again. Sometimes I think that's because wild swimming is such an overwhelmingly sensual experience. It's a whole body touch, sometimes bracingly, oh-my-God-I'm-going-to-die cold, sometimes almost decadently warm. The water, your whole world, smells and tastes sweet. Hear the slap and trickle of water on the move, then duck your head beneath the surface to hear in the wet-noise the squeak-speak of stones disturbed, or the eternally optimistic quacking of a foraging duck.



Opening your eyes to see a dragonfly, in yellow and green motley, hawking overhead, and beyond him the wisps of white cloud evaporating in the sunshine.


The senses come alive. I start to think about how my characters feel in different settings, how their senses are engaged. What sound conjures a childhood holiday? Which scent makes them think of past loves?


Then, of course, there is The Fear.


Most outdoor swimmers have encountered the breath-stealing moment of deep water fear. That horrible, there's-something-down-there terror that can be sparked by a shadow, a twig... almost anything. I get it nearly every time I go out of my depth, especially when I can't see the bottom (rare in Lakeland's crystal clear waters). You have to push through it, breathe deep, conquer the moment. Swim on.

You think, "can I do this?" and you have to tell yourself that you can.

Just like when you're not sure you can carry off that difficult plot point or when you wonder if this new genre is a good choice for you. When you know that as long as you don't submit a manuscript, you can't be rejected by a publisher.

When those moments come, whether you're deep in writer's doubt, or shivering on the edge of Blackmoss Pot in Langstrath Beck, you simply have to swim on.


It's worth it.

For more information on Anna and her books visit her website.

Anna's latest book, DANGEROUS LIES from Medallion Press.

Marianne Forster was only spending time with a gorgeous man in the hot sun of Morocco. It wasn’t anything more than that - until she was kidnapped on the way home.

An appology and a correction for yesterday's post...The conference experience was that of multi-published saga writer Elizabeth Gill and not as first attributed.

The weekend's post will be a look at another To Be Read Pile, Bernardine Kennedy's.