Have you any idea how difficult it is to start working on your children’s book when you’ve just been reading The Kite Runner? It’s got to be at least 11 out of 10, if not harder.
Tag Archives: reading
Literary Death Match Edinburgh
A Literary Death Match is a wonderful thing.
For some reason I had assumed that everyone would have heard of it by now, but apparently not, so I shall explain. Literary Death Match is an event where writers compete against one another for the adulation of their peers, or failing that the approval of a live audience and panel of judges. Four writers read their stuff for up to seven minutes (any longer and they get shot) and are whittled down to two according to the criteria of literary merit, performance, and intangibles. They then go head to head in a final round that doesn’t involve reading, but is in some way literary – for instance Tuesday’s champion was ultimately decided by spelling bee.
Filed under 12booksin12months, blogging, socialnetworking, writing
Interview: Kohl Publishing
Kohl Publishing is a new independent Scottish publisher set up by Lesley Dickson and Leila Cruikshank earlier this year. I chatted to them about chick lit, why they decided to go it alone, and the inescapable topic of the digital revolution…
Filed under 12booksin12months, blogging, socialnetworking, writing
Joe Dunthorne at Edinburgh Book Festival
This morning I went to my first reading of the Edinburgh Book Festival, where I was greeted at the Spiegeltent by a man wielding free coffee. I have never been more pleased to see anyone – I really needed some coffee. I didn’t realize how much until I tried to milk it with another jug of coffee, at which point someone asked me if I was there from The Scotsman. I take heart that whoever is covering the book festival from there is as dazed and confused as I am first thing.
Suitably caffeined I sat down to await the arrival of the author, Joe Dunthorne (probably best known for his first novel, Submarine, which was made into a film this year starring Paddy Considine and Maria out of the Sarah Jane Adventures). All around me people were reading; which is a truly beautiful thing but it made me feel like a bit of a freak because I was scribbling away in a notebook. In red ink, no less. I consoled myself with the fact that some of the best novels are written in red ink, even though I have no evidence to support such a statement.
Then the man himself appeared, optimistically clad in shorts, and explained a bit about the reading he was going to do from his new book, Wild Abandon. The scene was based in a commune in the Gower in South Wales, he said, and contained a lot of different characters (as is the nature of such places).
It was really good. Continue reading
Filed under 12booksin12months, blogging, socialnetworking, writing
Book Bloggers Unite
Do you like books? Do you like blogging? Then why not come to a book blogger meet up as part of the Edinburgh book festival? Bethany Anderson is here to tell us more…
As Scots, we’re used to being left out. America has it all, and England (or London, anyway) has quite a few. But book blogger events in Scotland? Naw.
Scotland may only be wee, and OK there aren’t millions of us, but that’s no reason that we shouldn’t do something. Since no one else was, I have taken it upon myself to gather together some bookish types in Scotland.
What better place and time than the Edinburgh International Book Festival? On Thursday August 18th, book bloggers are invited to meet just outside Charlotte Square Gardens at 7.30pm (if we meet outside the entrance then we won’t be in everyone’s way).
The idea is to get to know each other – where do you blog? Why? Let’s share hilarious blogger anecdotes – like that one time you read that crap book, or the one time when someone spammed your blog, or that one time (or several) where you got drunk and did x, y, or z. I believe this is also known as socialising.
We can meet, grab a drink, meander round the gardens and pester some fellow bookish buddies. Then, at 9, if the feeling takes us, we can take a peek at the Unbound event or go for a drink elsewhere – whatever out blogger hearts want!
Hopefully, some fun times will be had and some friendships made. At least everyone should have a new blog to look at! Who knows? Maybe we’ll bump into each other more often during the festival!
Bethany Anderson is a writer who blogs about books at http://subtlemelodrama.blogspot.com. She tweets as @subtlemelodrama.
Filed under 12booksin12months, blogging, socialnetworking, writing
A Reading
Yesterday was the busiest I’ve ever had on the 12 books blog, which is lovely, so I hope people liked it enough to come back. If you are visiting for the first time and would like to know what on earth is going on, you can read a quick overview on IdeasTap or a slightly longer evaluation of the journey so far on Mslexia.
Meanwhile here is a reading from book seven, which you may remember is aimed at kids and is about a grumpy wizard called Snooky Jim, a slightly batty cat lady called Amelia Trousers, and a young lad called Chris who is well brung up and usually eats his greens. I wrote this yesterday and have just done one take, so it’s literally just me reading off a bit of paper. But it’s pretty short, so that’s a bonus… And anyway if you don’t like it you can’t be mean cause it’s my birthday, so there.
Filed under 12booksin12months, blogging, socialnetworking, writing
