Scottish book event!

22nd-23rd August 2015 sees the third ever Crieff Arts Festival, with exhibitions, live music, arts and crafts sessions - plus a literary event hosted by arts hub Strathearn Artspace.

Crieff is home to the renowned Crieff Hydro with its Victorian spa and outdoor activity centre, the Famous Grouse distillery, MacRosty Park with its Pavilion cafe and children's play area, and near to it Lady Mary's Walk, an area of great natural beauty on the banks of the river Earn. A short drive also brings you to the Library of Innerpeffray, Scotland's oldest lending library. All these things attract visitors to the town. If you are thinking of coming, why not make it during Arts Festival weekend, when there are arty events to enjoy too?

I'm very pleased to say that I shall be taking part in a literary event at Strathearn Artspace on the Saturday, 22nd August. The plan is to have a "mini book festival" with a range of authors and poets reading from their work. I shall be reading a thrilling passage from one of my books! Doors will open at 10.00 am for a 10.30 am start, and run through until mid-afternoon. If you have a particular interest in one of the authors or one of the genres covered, you can drop in for that, or you can stay for the whole event and enjoy a variety of works. The full line-up is still being finalised but I will post it on this blog when it is all confirmed.

The event will conclude with a talk by myself about "getting published". (Like many other authors, no doubt) I am often asked questions about this - things like whether it is a better idea to send your work to an agent first or straight to a publisher, do you have to write the entire book before sending it to anyone, etc etc. In fact I think I get a lot more questions about this than I ever do about my own work! I've even run an evening class on it at Perth College UHI. So I'll be talking about that, and if you are able to come, and have your own work-in-progress in a drawer at home, come and ask me what you ought to do with it! NB I won't be looking at anyone's manuscript - the talk is about what to do with your finished work, rather than how to write it!

The event will finish mid-afternoon, after which there will be live music at the Artspace, and of course, continuing exhibitions to browse in the town. For further details check out http://www.crieffartsfestival.com and http://www.strathearnartspace.co.uk or see my future blog posts with the literary line up!