Chapter lips

With the fifth draft now half complete and hurtling towards a due date of the 24th August (aw congratulations, Mr Curran, it’s… a book!) I find it comforting to strike out certain important events between now and then.
Last night it was the turn of my last scheduled publicity event, at the Bakewell Arts Festival – a small, cosy event with a small, cosy audience. It was great fun and the first time I’ve been interviewed in front of an audience I could see and interact with. Annaliese Connolly (lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University and close friend) did a sterling job of interviewing me, throwing in a few surprises, and there was a fantastic Q&A session to wrap up the whole thing.

In the end, I sold just a few books (most of the audience having already bought copies), but really I went into it with the view to having fun regardless of how many books were sold. The warm summer evening in Bakewell and a great unplugged-blues session that followed my talk was a big bonus. And I did a bit for the Sheffield Flood victims fundraising-event at Haddon Hall, by donating a free signed, lined and dated copy of The Secret War for their charity auction/raffle (which I suppose is ironic bearing in mind the title and subject matter of my next book, The Isles of Sheffield).

So, a great big thanks to Keith and Sue at Bakewell Bookshop for organising the whole thing, and BAF Director Janette Hockley-Webster for running the Bakewell Arts Festival too.

And if you’re looking for signed copies of The Secret War in the north of England, head to Bakewell Bookshop (I signed their stock for them at the event).

Right then, I must really get back to this writing malarkey; the 24th isn’t that far away you know…