Christina Courtenay Blog Story Detail

Yesterday I had the huge pleasure of taking part in the Worcestershire Lit Fest, thanks to fellow author Alison May. She had invited me, Sue Moorcroft and Liz Harris to form a Romantic Novelists' Panel, being held at St Swithun's Institute in Worcester in the afternoon. It sounded like fun so we all said yes!

I had never been to Worcester before (only Worcester, Massachusetts, New England - which is an entirely different kettle of fish!) and loved driving into town over the magnificent bridge that spans the river Severn. The venue wasn't hard to find either, being right in the centre of town.

Despite the wonderfully sunny weather, a small but lovely audience came to hear us answer questions on everything to do with writing. Alison proved to be the perfect compere, skillfully keeping the conversation flowing, and it was fun to hear how differently the three of us approach everything from research to the writing itself. There really is no right way of going about it obviously - it's whatever works for each individual author!

Before the talk began, the audience was asked to write down questions they would like the answers to, which I think was a brilliant way of doing things. It ensured - hopefully - that they got to hear what they wanted to, rather than topics that didn't interest them.

A huge thank you to Alison and the organisers, who very kindly provided some absolutely delicious cakes with tea afterwards - a wonderful end to a lovely afternoon!

The Lit Fest runs from 20th - 29th June, so for anyone wanting to attend other talks and events, there is still time.

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