Elizabeth Chats With…Phil Collins
My guest this month was never, as far as I know, the drummer for a well-known rock band. But he is a musician and singer, a writer, and someone whose […]
#Swanwick70: Who’s In The Book Room?
For the next week, this blog is moving to Derbyshire, to the little town of Swanwick, for the annual Writers’ Summer School. And this year, it’s a biggie: our seventieth […]
Going Away To Get Away
“Have you booked a holiday yet,” friends have been saying all year. “When are you going away?” “We’re not,” I reply, “at least not in the sense you mean.” […]
Who You Gonna Call? The Professionals
Last week we talked about informal networks and especially the support we can get not just from the writing community but also from other small businesses. Today, we’re going to […]
Who You Gonna Call? Informal Networks
I’ve just returned from a packed weekend at my first Winchester Writers’ Conference. This event, which has been running for the past 33 years, was the brainchild of the wonderful […]
Swanwick 2012: day 7
…and in a flash, it was gone!
Swanwick Day 6: It Doesn’t Happen By Magic
It’s all a bit of a blur: Malcolm Chislholm showed us how to use Twitter and Facebook; how to set up a website for free – and how to publish […]
New-Time Publishing and Old-Time Music Hall: Day 5 at Swanwick
Wednesday already! Normal weather conditions have been restored; it poured at Swanwick today — there was no sitting outside this afternoon. The inspiration, enthusiasm and chattering are still evident —but […]
Authorpreneurship and Fish-Nets: Swanwick Day 4
It’s been another brilliant day at Swanwick, but I can’t help thinking that when I said at lunchtime I’d enough material to write today’s blog — I should have actually […]
Titantic Tweets and Furious Facebooking
Well, it’s been a strange day and a long one. It started with a (virtual) Welsh Male Voice Choir in ‘Lift Up Your Hearts’ and finished with Elvis and family […]
Swanwick: Scurrilous Rumours and Graphic Murders
A delegate has been caught in bed with one of the lecturers at Swanwick just minutes after an “individual tuition” session. Half the class walked out of the Enticing and […]
Swanwick: Intelligent Silliness and Thelma’s Pants
This posting should have been a detailed account of how hard we’re all working and all the writerly activities we are getting up to. As the title suggests, I may […]
Swanwick: S Day minus 1
Every year, during the second week in August, around 300 writers gather in Swanwick for the Writers’ Summer School, which has been running for more than sixty years. I don’t […]