All The Fun Of The Festival

You writer types like to squirrel yourself away for most of the year to do your thing, I understand that. But building a career as a writer is also about getting yourself out there. Meeting other authors, building a platform, making connections and chilling,

You don’t need some idiot on a blog to tell you that, so you’ll know there are a couple of festivals on this weekend – they start today, in fact.

For the crime writers and readers among you, Bloody Scotland runs from today to Sunday in Stirling. Ann Cleeves, Arne Dahl, Denise Mina, Lee Child and Quintin Jardine are among the many authors attending the event.

Cleeves and Mina, of course, have been nominated for the Deanston Scottish Crime Book Of The Year 2013, which will be announced at the gala dinner.

Here’s the full list of nominations:

Ann Cleeves – Dead Water

Gordon Ferris – Pilgrim Soul

Malcolm MacKay – How a Gunman Says Goodbye

Denise Mina – The Red Road

Val McDermid – The Vanishing Point

Ian Rankin – Standing in Another Man’s Grave

There are crime writing masterclasses and a whole host of talks and events to keep you scribbling notes all weekend. And this being a crime festival I’m guessing there’ll also be a fully-stocked bar should you inexplicably require such a thing. For more details check out the link I have cunningly inserted above.

Aspiring writers will also get the opportunity to mingle with agents, publishers and editors at the Festival of Writing in York this weekend. Whether you write literary, romance, crime, sci-fi – whatever’s your bag—there are genres panels and workshops, mini courses and one-to-ones, competitions and a gala dinner – and the chance to network like mad.

Every year, apparently, a number of the delegates come away with agent and publishing deals, and that’s got to be good, right, after all that hard work, the highs, the lows, all those late nights and early mornings, that hour grabbed at lunch scribbling away.

Booking has closed for this year’s festival, but think about it for next year. Because whether you’re interested in the craft of writing, keeping up with the constantly-changing publishing environment, or just hanging with other writers, it’s the perfect jumping-in point to get to know the industry and the other crazy souls who are impelled to write shit down. And, who knows, you may even get to meet me there.