New Voices 2019 Headline Event

So last night I finally made it to a blogger/author/publicist event, it has only took me nearly eight years!




The venue was stunning, lit beautifully with candles, book display of our authors #newvoices2019 food, drink and the actual authors and fabulous folk from Headline, it was just perfect. Everyone was so welcoming, I know a lot of bloggers can find meet ups, especially with established bloggers, authors and people in the business, really frightening. Certainly not the case for Headline, the staff made sure no one was left alone and folk who were nervous and didn't know how to approach anyone found themselves being welcomed, chatted to and having the authors pointed out to them.




A wee programme was available, giving information on each author, a wee piccy of them and their book, gutted mine got lost on route home!





It was very laid back, a wee drink on arrive, hot food provided, bar easy accessible and then the lovely Becky took to the mic and gave some info on what the night entailed, the authors, their books and who they were. It is really nice when you know exactly what is going on and then everyone was just free to mingle and chat.




Headline very generously provided copies of the authors of the evenings books except Rhik's whose wasn't ready as yet but we got a print out with a bit about the book, when it is due and it sounds brilliant, "I Never Said I Loved You" out in August.





The authors were so friendly, happy to chat, sign the books and mingled with everyone, it was a really good turnout.




I met not only some of the lovely publicists and people behind the amazing books and book pr but also some other bloggers, some I have chatted to online for a while and some brand new. I never fail to be amazed just how lovely and friendly some people are. Kelly from LOVEBOOKSGROUP and Joanne from Portobello Blog have been so supportive especially when I have went to events. Kelly met me at the station this time and both ladies always help put you at ease, I am a gab and pretty loud/out going but in situations like these I am a bit off my game and I can't say shy as my pals would faint, lmao but I do withdraw a wee bit. They made sure I was introduced, include and helped me to relax and just be me, loud, chatty, gabby - it really makes a difference and they did the same with others, book people are really the best! I saw Joanne get a piccy by the candles and thought oooh that looks lovely so I have to too.




The books are:
Blood Orange by Harriet Twice

The six Loves of Billy Binns by Richard Lumsden

The Girl in the Letter by Emily Gunnis

The Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah David-Goff

Past Life by Dominic Nolan

I Never Said I Loved You by Rhik Samadder





A brighter piccy so you can see the covers, of course Princess Trixie has to wake up as I am taking a piccy, never one to miss a moment, all about the cat!. You can find the authors on Twitter:
Rhik Samadder
Harriet Tyce
Dominic Nolan
Sarah Davis-Goff
Emily Gunnis
Richard Lumsden

Tonight the event is in Liverpool and tomorrow Bath, if you have been invited absolutely head along, these people are fabulous, friendly, professional and very welcoming. If like me you are a bit nervous you will honestly be put at ease, such a lovely bunch and it is an event you won't want to miss. Remember when taking pictures or if you are covering the event to use the #NewVoices2019 so we can share the experience/event with you all. Thanks again so much to the Headline folks for inviting me, the authors/publicists and fellow bloggers for making it such a great night, y'all rock <3 Now I am off to bed for a wee pre nightshift nap, hope you all have a lovely day. xxx

And that's a wrap - Edinburgh book festival

This is later than I meant to post, the festival finished last week then me and the o/h went on a wee mini roadtrip and seen some family.





This was my first ever book festival, it won't be my last, if you have been following the blog you will have seen the coverage of the days I went to and events I attended.


I went through to see Denzil Meyrick who was sharing the stage with Kjell Ola Dahl, the event chaired by Philip Ardagh. I was hoping to meet up with a fellow Crime Book Club member but I missed her, I did meet the beautiful Mary from Live and Deadly blog and Karen from Orenda Books lovely ladies and very welcoming.





Denzil comes to the stage with a dram of whisky and took a wee live video of the audience (full room guys, pow!) before we begin. Kjell writes Nordic Noir, police procedural "The Oslo detectives" and is from Norway. Kjell's novels are now translated in english and available to buy (what are you waiting for). Kjell finds it inspiring to explore differences in his writing, classes, politics, oil, money, society and what people are affected by. Kjell has a very quiet manner, soft spoken but you find yourself leaning forward, taking in every word, whilst his volume is low his words/vibes are loud and riveting.





Denzil started writing when he was ill and didn't expect much to come of it. After a bit of a palaver with another publisher he was rescued by Polygon and the rest is history. He writes about Daley and a wee place called Kinloch (really Campbeltown) a unique place in Scotland that has a sense of 50s or 60, an otherness and means a lot to him, everyone should visit. Denzil has an ease and jokey manner making everyone at ease and was a good combo with Kjell's quieter presence. Denzil spoke about his career (he used to be a police officer) and how different things are now compared to then (he joined in the 80s) and how policing is different in the city compared to small towns. His books are all police investigation, murder, relationships, dynamics of the team and people with a bit of swearing and infused with Scottish banter.





Kjell's book brings in a lot of artifacts, important folklore and likes to play with the idea "you don't know everything", he enjoys mysteries himself. Denzil likes to bring a bit of humour into his books and engages with his fans on Twitter and Facebook, we may also be getting a Brian Scott twitter feed, how awesome would that be! Kjell is on social media, you can find him on Twitter and read about him on Orenda's website, he is on Facebook and Instagram. Talking of social media he admits he doesn't sell himself on there as he feels a bit of shame in it. He is such a nice well spoken man and whilst you all know I am not a fan of translated novels, after listening to him and recommended by both Mary and Karen I have bought his newest book "The Ice Swimmer" this is part of a series but I am assured I can read it not having read the others. Bargain price too and only brought out this year. Denzil's new book "The Relentless Tide" is out in two days, 6th of September but available to pre order now. I have jst read book one, I have all of his books waiting and cannot wait to get stuck in. Book one is Whisky from small glasses, fantastic opening to a series so if you haven't read him yet series grab a copy and then catch up with the others for the new book coming.





Friendship with other writers seems to be important to both writers, Kjell talks of a big group meet up with other crime writers at least once a year and at events like this, he feels he learns a lot from them. Denzil regales us with a meeting just before the event with Ian Rankin, a quick turn and some spillage of bodily fluid, whats happens at the festival stays at the festival, no one was hurt lol! He has a laugh about the ego maniacs that are authors, Douglas Skelton was in the audience and got a special nod for that then tells how he is limited in meetings due to his health issues. His next book, the one he is writing next, will see Daley visit some health issues and will be drawing from his own personal experiences. Humour aside, discussing juts how bad things got for him, facing his own mortality and his wonderful wife by his side. What a man! So much positivity and humour in the face of what would have been a terrifying time


An hour was just not long enough to listen to these gents, I would have happily sat there all day. I came away with a few books, some gifted, some bought and two new totebags (like I need more of either!).





Trying to get the perfect shot is never easy when you have a kitty cat, let alone a diva like Princess Trixie.





It took a few attempts (more than ten photographs) before I came to the realisation that if I wanted a proper piccy I would need to wait til miss paws was asleep, so I did.





A fantastic festival, the staff were lovely, helpful and couldn't have done anything better. I had a wee sample of the food and you know how much of a fussy riot I am, lovely. Everything else I addressed in my original post so if you haven't been to a festival but holding back, please check it out. I cannot wait til the next and aim to go to as many other book events as I can, book people are the best!

First ever book festival - Edinburgh book fest

If, like me, you have tons of reader, blogger and author friends/people you follow on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram you always see when book events come up. Lots of people go, have fun, meet amazing authors, bloggers connect, book pals have liquid lunches and generally a blast! I see them all the time and want to go, but have never went, until today that is!


So, why haven't I made it to any? Firstly I didn't really know what it was about, is it free to enter, if you need to pay how much, what happens. The Edinburgh Book Festival is FREE, free to enter guys. There have a ton of events on and the events you do pay for. You can go on your first day, pick up a programme (also free) which gives you a day by day run down of what is on, how much it costs and you can buy online or call. There are wee parts you can buy food and drink, not masses of choice but enough to keep you happy or you can nip outside as it is bang in the centre so you can get food you fancy. There are wee book shops inside you can browse and buy, there is also bars, places you can buy drinks and sit and chill with your book, people watch (I loved I saw so many folks with books, reading or gabbing books).





Getting around from event to event, now I get really anxious about this is I have never been before and don't know layouts (an issue many of us have. Well right in the middle is the whole lay out on a big board and honestly, even with my recovering foot it was no issue at all. The walk from the train station to the festival was a wee bit of a trek (under a mile and flat pavements, maybe 0.7 miles) but there are loads of taxis and bus stops so you can get there no issue.





Whilst it is outdoors with tents, the top over the walkway is covered so even with weather like today where it was chucking it down, once you got inside you were grand.





The toilets are really good, I was worried it was going to be those portaloos you get at concerts and gigs *twitch* I really hate them. Nope and they have ramps as well as two stairs so caters to all. Also available are water stations dottered about.





As well as having issues going to somewhere huge like that I hadn't been to before, the train journey had me a bit twitchy too. However, the train terminates at Waverley station so if like me you fret you will go past your stop you are grand as it is the last stop (from where I travelled from, just check with one of the train staff who are lovely and helpful).





Edinburgh is so beautiful and on route to the festival are some stunning buildings and lots of shops so you have plenty to look at as you go. One thing that helped me was meeting friends there, some first time in person, some I had met before, the lovely Kelly from LOVE BOOKS GROUP Mary from Live and Deadly Joanne from Portobello blog and Katherine from Bibliomanic UK. and author Jane Simpson Anderson joined us for lunch, I owe that lady a drink! If you are a blogger or reader, just reach out, there is always someone going to these things and when you have someone to meet you it takes so much stress/pressure off you. One thing I can say, hand on heart, book folk are some of the best humans out there. I know I will be back at more of the festival, was meant to be tomorrow but I didn't manage to get tickets for the things I wanted to see and I hurt my foot trying to ensure I didn't miss my train. However, I could go otherwise much less stressy because these lovely ladies took me under their wing and showed me what it is all about.


I loved my first day at the Edinburgh book festival, I will do another post about the three events I went to but I cannot recommend it enough. If you are a book lover, get yourself out there, you will love it. Hope you had a great day, I sure did!


My side kick has blagged my press pass :P

Lets Talk Reviews and Bloggers

I love social media, there is so much good on it but lets face it, there is also a lot of negative stuff out there too. Lately there has been a lot of negativity surrounding bloggers, blogger bashing has been rife and the old chestnut of SPOILER REVIEWS! So lets talk about it a bit, strap in guys this could get long!




So, why so much hate for bloggers? The thing I hear over and over is "I want to hear from REAL READERS, not bloggers!" So I will address this first and why it causes upset. We ARE REAL READERS, we are real people, we have lives, families, jobs, pets, obsessions but when anyone is called fake, and repeatedly so, it does get upsetting as we are human beings. I think the problem is some people confuse book bloggers with say life style bloggers, beauty bloggers and the like who DO GET PAID to do reviews, book bloggers do not. There are a handful of book bloggers out there who charge, and some do so underhandedly which is always wrong. If you are paid to review something, you need to declare it. Some authors are still getting caught out with this, over at Book Connectors (a group for authors and trusted bloggers), one of our members, the lovely Amanda from Go Book Yourself created a logo (see on the left hand side). We do what we do because we love books, reviews are honest and FREE, please do not pay for reviews. I think maybe the confusion is they think we get paid so we must be lying, or they only see the books we love so assume it must be a lie? Trying to engage people about this is frustrating because certainly on Facebook the most vocal wouldn't engage in the why. As BT used to say, it is good to chat and the best way to get to the root of a problem is to gab, communicate, talk, some of my fav things!





So what is a Book Blogger? A book blogger is a real reader, a person who loves reading but where some readers would read a book and move on or tell a friend over a cuppa, a book blogger will write about it, shout about it on their blog, tweet etc. Now here is where we differ a wee bit, some book bloggers only post about the books they love on their blogs, I tend to do all of mine. A lot of book bloggers got into blogging for different reasons, for some it is a hobby, some to keep tags on what they read, some it has helped with social/health issues. We all blog for different reasons and that is ok, some will only blog the books they loved and again for different reasons. Yes they read books they didn't like and some may still rate them on Goodreads, some will just delete them from their shelves. Some feel that an author has spent so long writing a book they have loved they can't bring themselves to say anything if they can't say anything positive and that is ok too.





Me and mine is a wee bit different. I try to review all the books I read and if it is a review copy I feel I owe it to the author, if I DNF (did not finish) I now private message publisher or author instead of reviewing a book I didn't complete. I used to review absolutely everything, even DNF books however after many debates, chats, discussions I no longer do. I once was party to a chat with authors who said they gave out over 300 copies (downloads) of their books out to readers for honest reviews and got a handful of feedback, reviews and the silence was the worst. Had folk hated the books? Downloaded but not got to yet? (review piles easily get into the hundreds) Was it not for them? Silence they can't work with and I personally think all reviews have their place, excluding trolls, author bashing and spoiler reviews (I will come back to them!). If you are constructive, most authors are happy to have feedback, something didn't work for you, why? It is ok to not all love the same thing, we never will, even classics, well known authors, masterpieces have critics and low ratings because even if you are Picasso you will never please everyone, ever! However, it doesn't hurt to be polite, I do reviews from 1-5 star ratings, I make sure authors read my review policy before asking for a review. I will always be honest in my reviews and what doesn't work for me can be hugely popular for others. But I would never bash an author, no one should, you are not what you eat and an author is not what they write. Whilst I think everyone should be allowed to review a book how they feel slagging an author and questioning their morality because they write horror or graphic scenes/books is unacceptable. Be honest not rude.





And now, the SPOILER REVIEWS! Oh guys it doesn't matter if you are "just a reader" or "just a blogger", we are as well to just burn the books to be honest if we are dropping spoilers.





I cannot imagine why anyone who loves books (or movies) would do this. Speaking to an author this morning and someone left them a review saying they had seen a spoiler for their book and as a result won't be reading ANY of their books! How horrible is that, for the reader having a whole series or author ruined for them, for the author, having all those weeks/months/years of work ruined because someone decided to giveaway the plot.





Read your books, if you review please think about what you write, low or high ratings just please do not include spoilers, only a handful of people will go on to read a book that has been ruined for them. Don't be that person. If you don't know about bloggers, ask, but in short, we are readers who just geek a wee bit more by being more vocal. Support your authors, buy their books, if finances are hard (we have all been there) use your libraries. We are still supporting our authors and keeping libraries alive. Book Bloggers are people, we love chatting books, if you want to ask them something just do it, we love books and most of us love gabbing. I love meeting fellow bookworms and met so many great folk through virtual book clubs, book events (LOVE THEM) are great, get involved. But above all, just do what you do, enjoy reading, we are all book lovers and book worms whether we blog/review or not and spread the love for the printed word xxx

Edinburgh Blogger Author meet up

Yesterday I finally made it to one of the bigger planned blogger/author meet ups, arranged by the lovely Joanne from Portobello Book Blog nip over for a wee visit, she is a great blogger. Our table only had myself and Joanne as bloggers and we were otherwise surrounded by authors. The table over from us I think had a good mix of both. It is so nice to see people you have been chatting to online for so long and finally put faces to and get a chance to gab. Sadly because we were so very many I didn't get to gab to everyone but there is always next time, I definitely will be going to another.


Hosted in Edinburgh, I traveled through on the train and only got lost 3 times when I left them, I took the travel opportunity to get out Alan Jones Bloq bookmarks for the tour..




I met and had a chat with the lovely Triona Scully, seen here with her new book, check it out!




Here is the lovely Wendy H Jones with the 1st in a series of books she has written, Wendy very kindly gave me a copy and I got it signed so once I get around to reading it, we will have a signed copy giveaway *squeel*.





And the beautiful Helen MacKinven with her book baby, no stranger to SMBSLT and you can find my reviews of both books on here and on Goodreads. Still pushing and hoping for Senga to get her own book, c'moan Helen.




Here is the lovely Annemarie Allan with her book Charlie's Promise. I also came home with a wee copy of this.




Always time to take notes, even if we are lunching, writers are always working or hatching a plan.





And here is Natalie Fergie with her beautiful new book, The Sewing Machine isn't it a lovely cover!




I may not have got a chance to gab to everyone but I did get a quick hello with most and some of their fab blog/website cards, including the lovely Kelly from LovesBooksGroup.




I can't believe I don't have a picture of Joanne :O there was so many folk to mingle with I also didn't get a chance to get a group picture. Definitely get full shots the next meet up, was a great day, food was lovely and the waiters did well to keep on top of so many. xxx Oh and to top it off, afterwards I went to meet o/h and friends and I saw a fire juggler outside the pub and got to clap his gigantic dog, bought books and a Guns n Roses totebag, absolute bliss.