So, we shall start by rolling back to Thursday, before it all started...... now I've been eagerly looking forward to this event for the last, erm, well, since January when I booked really..... not only was I getting to go to the meet again this year after having such a fantastic time last year, but this year I was getting to stay over, in a posh hotel, with no critters........ which begs the question.... why the hell did I leave tidying my house to a sufficient standard that I was happy for someone else to stay in it to look after the dogs until the day they were arriving?? Suffice to say Thursday I cleaned....the dog sitter arrived in the evening and had a guided tour of the house, we went through the instructions for dealing with the hell critters.... she signed waivers absolving me of any damage to life, limb and sanity (well not really, but I feel she probably ought to have done)....
On Friday I was up early to pack (yep, I specialise in leaving things to the last minute) and then I waved goodbye and headed off at about 9.30 am....... mainly because I needed to go the the garage and get my smashed right wing mirror replaced before I drove on the motorway (yeah, I was mean to drop it into the garage back in April when the glass arrived.. )
The journey down was uneventful... thankfully... until I arrived in Bristol.... now last year it took me three goes round the one way system in Manchester to find the hotel car park..... this year it took five... including narrowly missing going over the suspension bridge, and turning the wrong way down a one way street... and this is with a sat nav... can you imagine if I didn't have one!
I checked into the hotel at around 2 pm... luckily my room was ready... unluckily, the guy on the desk managed to wipe the credit card details from the system that we'd used to book the room....... and was to be used to pay for it.... which caused a bit of a problem as the card I had with me couldn't cover the room booking... panicked e-mails and texts to my sister (who'd paid for the room as my christmas/birthday present this year) to try and get an authority from her to take out the cost of the room and to confirm the card number.... thankfully, it all went through later that evening.
My room was lovely... and I freshened up in the rather ornate marble bathroom then had a nice lie down on the very comfy bed and read for a while. I wandered downstairs at around 4 pm and registered for the event... then I sat and knitted in the foyer whilst other people arrived... I ran into a couple of friends from last year and on line which was fab. I hadn't booked to go out on the Friday night - which was a good thing as I'd crashed and was in bed by 9pm.
Now you'd have thought that having my first critter free night away in over 15 years I'd have managed to have a nice long sleep and lie in...... but no.... I woke up at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep ... until I opened the curtains and turned the air con on to almost freezing... then at 6.20 am I was wide awake and decided to give in and get up.
The event itself opened at 9.20 am for registration... but with the promise of coffee at 9 am I found myself heading to the conference rooms we were using. the event itself kicked off promptly at 10 am with a big session in the main room on Novel Openings. Several authors read from published work and current works in progress, including a really good introduction to a graphic artist who specialises in gay romance comics. The idea being to show what was the hook into the story in the opening 150 words or so.
I stayed in the main room for the next two sessions, on demystifying publishing - which talked about things to look out for when submitting to a publisher and also how to spot danger signs and what to do about it. The next session was a really good one on marketing and branding, which for a reader really showed clearly how authors can make it easy for us to recognise them and their work.
After a buffet lunch I was in charge of a "readers only" table when we split into discussion tables - there were lots of other topics being discussed - including sci-fi, self editing, characters with disabilities, web comics, writing sex scenes .... I had a lovely discussion with the people who came to join me as we wrote what we liked and didn't like on post it notes and talked about them.... I will do a summary of this at some point soon.
After yet more coffee there was a lovely speech from Belinda McBride about what can give you inspiration, can encourage you to carry on and how to deal with writing and real life when it smacks you in the face. After that was the book fair where we could go round and talk to authors about their books, buy them, get them signed etc
In the evening we had a formal dinner in Palm Court. During our first two courses (which for me were spicy tomato soup followed by baked aubergine) we were entertained by a fantastic drag queen who sang to us - the only down side for me was the number of photographs being taken. I know that I wouldn't be in them as I was wearing my white lanyard (the meet organisers are fantastic about this - if you wear a white lanyard then your photo won't be taken or appear on line - even the back of your head) but unfortunately being phobic about cameras a couple of times I started to get a bit shaky and wondered if I'd make it through the meal without a panic attack... it wasn't helped by being at the table right on the edge of the performance stage area and with my back to it..... After the drag act finished The Songbirds Choir set up and sang beautifully whilst dessert was served (lemon tart)..... then we had a "surprise" for a mini prize giving event when bare bottomed butlers (yes seriously, they wore just an apron to give them a little modesty, and nothing else) came to help escort the prize winners to the front of the room....
The evening came to an end just after 10 pm and I snuck away to go enjoy the comfy hotel bed and to read and unwind......
I will post about Sunday (which included discovery that the internet may be vast but at times it's also a very small world indeed) tomorrow......
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