Firstly i must apologise for my blog absence recently. Health issues, along with an overwhelming sense of “i Just Don’t Know What To Say” Syndrome have hit me hard. Thanks to the 100k Challenge, I’m still writing, daily, and hoping that some of it, at some stage, might make it into the novel.

But why I’m really here today is to record/share my thoughts on Swanwick 2014…

Regular readers and FaceBook friends will know that last week i was in Derbyshire, for the annual Swanwick Writers Summer School, which takes place in August every year.  Each year I’ve blogged daily about what I’ve been up to while I’m there, but this year, the internet connection was non existent in my room 😦

So I’m afraid you’ll have to have a “highlight” post… warning…this post is very link happy, please do some clicking 🙂

Courses Attended:

Novel Editing with David Hough (David shared his system of how he breaks his novel down for edits).

Short Stories with Della Galton (Della was brilliant as ever! If you ever get the chance to attend one of her courses…DO!)

Scrivener with Kate McCormick (Im still trying to get used to all its whistles and nobs lol)

Writing For The Peoples Friend with Shirley Blair (What a lovely lady, and a very informative course…i may just give it a go now)

Lets Tweet with Karin Bachmann (Yeah yeah, I know, i really should Tweet more lol)

Bookselling in the Digital Age with Annie Quigley & Martyn Daniels of Bibliophile (Excellent information about how new markets are opening up for writers wishing to sell short stories)

Interest The Media with Simon Hall aka The TV Detective (where i learned how to do a press release)

Organising Your Writing with Andrew Marsh (Where i learned how to use spreadsheets to organise my writing…yeah yeah, i know i should be doing that already lol)

Crime Writing with Simon Hall (But Simons course covered general fiction too and was all about hooks and characterisation)

I bought way too many books (fiction and how to guides), was up at 5.30 every morning enjoying the peace and quiet of the grounds and writing in the inspirational surroundings, drunk far too much Baileys and spent more time than i should have done in the Smoking Tent lol

 

 

 

 

 

But it was great fun (as it always is), i learnt loads and have lots of notes and stuff buzzing round my head.

There were 2 memorable moments of the week…The first was discovering that my online friend and fellow blogger Sally Jenkins was there attending for the first time (was great “doing lunch” Sally!) and Simon Hall stripped down to his underpants…but if you want to see photographic evidence of that, you’ll have to join the Swanwick Facebook group 😉

Dates for next year are 8th to 14th August…i’ll be there, will you?