Don't all the best stories begin like that? I'm sure they did, once upon a... erm... time...
Well, once upon one of those times we so love, I wrote a book. After years of attempting to and letting it fall by the wayside, I succeeded. After a decade of writing bits here and there, interspersed with short stories and poetry, Sin was complete.
But then what? But there where and how?
The tale told by many budding authors is "The Chronicles of Huh?" You've written a story, a book, a while series! What then?
Well, I found my way. I published. I wrote more and people said hey, it wasn't half bad.
So. Every three weeks or so I meet with a couple of other writers. It's nothing formal - just a drink in a pub and a laugh. We talk about all sorts, sometimes even about our writing. It was there that an idea was formed. The wonderful Lynette Creswell, author of the acclaimed "Magic" trilogy, suggested we help others. We could give tips and guidance to others who were in the situation we found ourselves, once upon... Well, you know...
A. E. Murphy (the "Little Bit of" books)and myself were more than happy to dive in and lend our support. We knew there's a whole lotta talent around and were more than happy to help nurture it. It's difficult to know where to turn and each of us had differing paths we'd wandered. We'd scaled the cliffs and leapt the snake pits and still had a mountain to climb. But we had the tools to help. And we wanted to share.
So, the Author Day was born. A day where we could hand out handouts (no, really?) and chat to anyone who might have a question or ten. Yes, we'd also be there to sign our books, but we were there more to shine a torch into the abyss of (self) publishing.
Freshney Place Shopping Centre in Grimsby kindly sponsored us and gave us the space to set up. With plenty of information on such sites as Smashwords, Amazon KDP, Indies Unlimited and the differences between traditional and self publishing, we were armed to the teeth.
We were meant to begin at 10 am but there was a throng of people already there whilst we were setting up at 9:30. Apart from a brief lull, we were fully engaged all day! It was wonderful to see those who had visited me before, such as Matthew and his wife and the talented Jordan. Matthew came to my Waterstones signing and I met Jordan at Humberston Academy where I saw some of his excellent work. Matthew actually made my day by asking me to sign a two pence piece!
The range of budding authors was widespread - all ages and walks of life. Almost all had something in common. A passion to write and a need to let the world see their work. It was a genuine pleasure to, hopefully, help them.
We also had the company of the wonderful David Lane, radio personality and journalist for South Humberside Community Radio. David has been kind enough to support each of us and our event with unflagging drive.
Lynette's son, Alex,stayed with us for the day too, taking lots of photographs and videos, often without us knowing. He produced this film of the day, which is simply amazing. And he's part of a group too (Raw Kadence), which is going from strength to strength. Look him up on Facebook: Crezwell Urban Artist and on YouTube under CrezOfficialMusic. You won't be disappointed.
The day was gone before we knew it and it was with a heavy heart that we had to pack up. We met a couple of days later, still buzzing from the event and so ready for the next. We really can't wait to do it again!
Watch this space!
If you'd like to get in touch with our group, please drop us an email at aspiringCW (at) hotmail.com and we'll be happy to respond. We hope to meet you at our future events.
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