EVERYONE’S got one book inside them, apparently.
Some people even have it written and nestling in a bottom drawer. So how to get it published and into the hands of readers?
Four people who have the answer will be at Newcastle City Library (Bewick Hall Annexe) at 10.45am today and will be happy to spill the beans.
Taking part in the session called I’m a writer, I want to get published! will be authors David Williams and Roz Southey and publishers Ed Handyside, owner of Myrmidon Books, and Rod Glenn, author and founder of Wild Wolf Publishing.
This is just one event in the free Newcastle book festival, Books on Tyne, which is taking place at the City Library this weekend and Monday.
John Grundy launches the festival at 10am and will be followed by a procession of authors and publishers eager to meet the reading public.
Crime writer Ann Cleeves will be in the library’s Bewick Hall at 10.45am to talk about her creation, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who is to be the star of a new TV series.
Detective turned novelist Graham Pears will follow at 12.30pm to discuss crime fiction. At 2.15pm it’s the turn of Roz Southey, author of the Charles Patterson series set in 18th Century Newcastle, and at 4pm you can meet David Williams, author of the thriller 11:59.
At 12.30pm in the Bewick Hall Annexe you can meet Noreen Rees who will talk about writing a children’s book and at 2.15pm poet Katrina Porteous will talk about Northumbrian fishing communities and new collection The Blue Lonnen.
At 4pm talented young writers from the Northumbrian University Writers Society will read their work and premiere a new play.
In the Local Studies room on Level 6, playwright Peter Mortimer will lead a play-writing workshop (10.45am), Tim Murgatroyd, author of 12th Century epic Taming Poison Dragons, will host a creative poetry workshop at 2.15pm and Keith Armstrong, the “Jingling Geordie”, will read his Newcastle poems.
Harry Pearson, author, columnist and sports fanatic, opens proceedings on Sunday at 11.30am and will be followed by architectural historian Grace McCombie at 1.15pm and Lord Armstrong expert Henrietta Heald at 3pm.
And there’s much more ...
The festival is sponsored by Newcastle College.
Full details via the website www.tynebridgepublishing.co.uk