Saturday 14th April 2018
BUMPER Morning of Writing Workshops
Whitstable Community College
PROGRAMME
08.45am: Registration opens
Mystery Book Swap! Please bring a novel you are happy to give away (you can tuck a note inside if you wish to say why you're donating it -loved it/hated it, but no need to give your name) we wrap it up for you -then in the last break you have a lucky dip!
Mystery Book Swap! Please bring a novel you are happy to give away (you can tuck a note inside if you wish to say why you're donating it -loved it/hated it, but no need to give your name) we wrap it up for you -then in the last break you have a lucky dip!
09.30 - 10.30: Option A
So You Want to Start Blogging? - with Gemma Pettman
In this session, PR advisor Gemma Pettman will explain the benefits of blogging, with examples of who and what to follow, and how other writers blogs inform readers and remain relevant. Gemma will take you through the practicalities of setting up, with advice on how to plan content, share your posts and measure success. Short interactive exercises will enable you to start - and importantly, continue - to blog regularly.
So You Want to Start Blogging? - with Gemma Pettman
In this session, PR advisor Gemma Pettman will explain the benefits of blogging, with examples of who and what to follow, and how other writers blogs inform readers and remain relevant. Gemma will take you through the practicalities of setting up, with advice on how to plan content, share your posts and measure success. Short interactive exercises will enable you to start - and importantly, continue - to blog regularly.
09.30 - 10.30: Option B
Finding Your Writer's Voice: What is it? How to cultivate it - with Peggy Riley
Agents and editors say they’re looking for “strong voices” - but what is a writers’s voice? And - more importantly - how can you find yours? Is it style - or subject? Is it the words you write - or how you write them? This practical workshop will look at examples of voice in writing, with games and exercises to help you identify your voice, what makes it unique, and how to make the very most of it. This workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and writers at any stage on their journey. Bring a pen - and get ready to write!
Finding Your Writer's Voice: What is it? How to cultivate it - with Peggy Riley
Agents and editors say they’re looking for “strong voices” - but what is a writers’s voice? And - more importantly - how can you find yours? Is it style - or subject? Is it the words you write - or how you write them? This practical workshop will look at examples of voice in writing, with games and exercises to help you identify your voice, what makes it unique, and how to make the very most of it. This workshop is suitable for absolute beginners and writers at any stage on their journey. Bring a pen - and get ready to write!
10.30 - 10.50 - Tea/Coffee break
10.50 - 12.20 Option A
Perseverance to Publication - with Anstey Harris
In the acknowledgements of Anstey Harris's novel, 'The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton,' published by Simon & Schuster in January 2019, it says "When you see the names of loads of writers in an acknowledgement, it's not that the author has friends in high places, it's that they've scratched and slogged and kept on trying, and so have (some of) the people they met when they first started out. Never give up." Anstey's interactive session will walk you through the peaks and the pitfalls of the road to publication with exercises and advice to help you keep moving forward on your own journey.
Perseverance to Publication - with Anstey Harris
In the acknowledgements of Anstey Harris's novel, 'The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton,' published by Simon & Schuster in January 2019, it says "When you see the names of loads of writers in an acknowledgement, it's not that the author has friends in high places, it's that they've scratched and slogged and kept on trying, and so have (some of) the people they met when they first started out. Never give up." Anstey's interactive session will walk you through the peaks and the pitfalls of the road to publication with exercises and advice to help you keep moving forward on your own journey.
10.50 - 12.20 Option B
Following the Pen - with Marnie Summerfield Smith
Zuihitsu is a genre of Japanese literature known as Japanese memoir. Directly translated, Zuihitsu means: follow the brush. When we think of life writing we can feel overwhelmed by the material, with a whole life to write about, where do I begin? In Zuihitsu, we pick up our pens and follow them to see where they go, picking up a thread and following it; taking a contemplative walk through the mind. Musings can be philosophical - or daft and irreverent! In the Japanese tradition, our writings may never be seen, which gives us great freedom; or may lead us to harness and reveal the story that burns inside us. This workshop gives an opportunity to learn more about Zuihitsu and to give it a go.
Following the Pen - with Marnie Summerfield Smith
Zuihitsu is a genre of Japanese literature known as Japanese memoir. Directly translated, Zuihitsu means: follow the brush. When we think of life writing we can feel overwhelmed by the material, with a whole life to write about, where do I begin? In Zuihitsu, we pick up our pens and follow them to see where they go, picking up a thread and following it; taking a contemplative walk through the mind. Musings can be philosophical - or daft and irreverent! In the Japanese tradition, our writings may never be seen, which gives us great freedom; or may lead us to harness and reveal the story that burns inside us. This workshop gives an opportunity to learn more about Zuihitsu and to give it a go.
12.20 - 12.40 - Tea/coffee break - including your lucky dip into our Mystery Book Swap!
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12.40 -13.40 - Guest author Kate Mayfield and her editor at Point Blank Jenny Parrott.
Kate Mayfield is a novelist and memoirist. Her debut novel The Parentations is a work of speculative historical fiction published by Point Blank, an imprint of Oneworld. Peggy Riley will be talking to Kate and Jenny, her editor at Point Blank, about her journey to publication, the relationship between writer and editor, and the process from a publisher's offer to the finished book. |
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Tickets: £35.00pp
(+ £2.55 non-refundable booking fee)
Please see our terms and conditions
For a BUMPER morning of writers workshops and talks including tea/ coffee with the all important biscuits, a welcome pack, and your Mystery Book Swap please book here:
(+ £2.55 non-refundable booking fee)
Please see our terms and conditions
For a BUMPER morning of writers workshops and talks including tea/ coffee with the all important biscuits, a welcome pack, and your Mystery Book Swap please book here:
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Location: Whitstable Community College
Bellevue Road, Whitstable, CT5 1PX Free on-site parking |
SPEAKERS
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Gemma Pettman
Gemma began her career in local radio news before 'swapping sides' and joining a busy police press office. For seven years she worked for a charity in Yorkshire where she developed and led a new PR and fundraising team. Since then, Gemma has worked with charities, membership organisations and small businesses to help them tell their stories better and generate income. Gemma is an Accredited PR Practitioner and one of the team behind the Margate Bookie literary festival. |
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Peggy Riley
Peggy is a writer, playwright, and creative writing instructor. Her plays have been commissioned and produced off-West End, on tour, and for radio. Her short fiction has been published in magazines and anthologies, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Costa Short Story Award. Her first novel is Amity & Sorrow. Currently a sessional lecturer for the Creative and Professional Writing programme at Canterbury Christ Church, she regularly runs writing workshops in schools, libraries, arts centres and prisons. peggyriley.com |
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Anstey Harris
Anstey's novel The Truths and Tribulations of Grace Atherton is to be published by Simon & Schuster in January 2019, by Touchstone in the US in 2018 and in six further international territories. She teaches creative writing in Kent where she lives with her violin maker husband and two dogs. Her previous novel, under the pseudonym Ruth Ahmed, was published by Dalia in 2015. |
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Marnie Summerfield Smith
Ghost writer, editor, memoir writer and professional interviewer, Marnie is the director of Your Memoir and has worked on over 60 projects in 10 years with authors all over the world aged 22 to 96. Marnie's authors have written about everything from their darkest moments to their greatest joys. She encourages everyone, even those who might consider their lives to be ordinary, to record their unique stories. Marnie says, "I am passionate about memoir and I love my work. I feel privileged to be entrusted with my authors stories and am proud to provide a warm, nurturing but professional service." She leads workshops and memoir writing retreats. Details can be found on her website www.yourmemoir.co.uk |
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Kate Mayfield
Kate Mayfield is a novelist and memoirist. Her debut novel The Parentations is a work of speculative historical fiction published by Point Blank, an imprint of Oneworld. The Undertaker’s Daughter is a memoir about her childhood in the American South, published by Simon & Schuster UK and Gallery USA. Her father was an undertaker in a small segregated town where her family resided in his funeral home for thirteen years. Kate is the co-author of two non-fiction books: Ten Steps to Fashion Freedom and Ellie Hart Goes to Work, which was also published in Japan, Indonesia, and France. After attending Western Kentucky University, Kate moved to Manhattan where she graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She now makes London her home. |
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Jenny Parrott
After a career in journalism, Jenny Parrott has worked in publishing for over thirty years, and has acquired for Bloomsbury, Virgin, Little,Brown and HarperCollins. Currently she is publishing director of Point Blank, the literary crime and speculative imprint at Man Booker-winning independent Oneworld. She writes fiction under pseudonyms for Orion and HarperCollins. |
