Thursday, November 22, 2012

The RNA Winter Party, The Dutch Edition of The Cornish House and A Catch Up

My shoes!
Well, it has been a crazy time...from the Festival of Romance ( I blogged about it here), DS2's 18th birthday, and finishing my edits on A Cornish Affair (YAY!).

Today I am sitting in PJs wondering if I really have to venture forth from the flat or can I just be lazy all day...

Aside from what's been mentioned above, I was on Sue Moorcroft's blog yesterday sharing a romantic dream of mine here to celebrate the release of her latest book Dream A Little Dream...there's a free copy of the The Cornish House on offer for the most romantic story...

The fabulous Tracey Edges reviewed The Cornish House on her Saturday morning Radio programme Edges Review. You can listen to the programme here and the review of The Cornish House comes about a half hour from the end of the programme...

I will be signing copies of The Cornish House in Truro at Waterstones on Saturday 24th of November from 11...please come by and say hello...


I'll also be in Fowey at the Mini Du Maurier Festival called the  Cornish Compendium with the wonderful Veronica Henry talking about Inspirational Cornwall (and there's a cream tea!) on Thursday the 29th at 4PM The Old Quay House Hotel. Please come if you are around. Tickets can be purchased here.

Sterren boven Cornwall (stars over Cornwall), the Dutch edition of the Cornish House is out now...so exciting

Yesterday I sent off the edited version of A Cornish Affair to my agent and my editor...nail biting time but also relief...now a few days to catch up with life and begin writing the next book! I'll be entering NaNoWri a bit late!!!!



Saturday, November 10, 2012

Sharjah International Book Fair...a panel 'A Sense of Self in Writing'

HH Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi opens the book Fair
I'm just back from Sharjah International Book Fair. As happened last year, I am in awe of the scope of this event. Yes, it's about selling books - selling them in many ways...to publishers, to stores, to other countries and to ordinary people but it's so much more. I love the way they bring the book world alive with events for everyone but especially for kids...
Children enjoying the book fair

A cookery demonstration
I was lucky enough to be an invited author this year. I was both apprehensive and excited about being on a panel to discuss 'A Sense of Self in Writing'...what a fantastic topic but what were they looking for??? Having lived in Dubai in total for about ten years I have learned that what I may understand by something may very well not be what others do. This makes life interesting and makes a panel interesting too. It is also the scary part....

Liz Fenwick, Tahmima Anam, Marwa Al Agroubi (hidden) Said Kafrawi, Inaam Kachachi
So on this panel discussion was joined Inaam Kachachi, an Iraqi writer who lives in Paris. Her novel The American Granddaughter was shortlisted for for the IPAF in 2009. The was the esteemed Egyptian short story writer Said Kafrawi and Tahmima Anam from Bangladesh , who lives in London. Her first novel A Golden Age was shortlisted for both the Guardian and Costa First Books awards.

The chair of the panel was Marwa Al Agroubi and I wondered how she was going to lead four very diverse writers through the discussion but she did....

Here are a few of the notes I made...

Said and I agreed on all stories have been told but it what you the writer bring to them that makes the unique.
He also said that writing is about expressing passion of the old truths and dreams
Think of transforming real life into art and making more interesting

Tahmima spoke of
as a writer we get to live many lives through our characters
no characters is limited by her experience yet all have a part of her in them
be a chameleon

The question that kept coming back to was why as writers were we afraid to show ourselves in the writing...

I argued that we weren't...our choice of themes showed clearly what we were thinking, feeling and who we are. And like Tahmima each character had some part of me in them.

I spoke about the need to have characters who did things that went against our own beliefs...as that adds extra conflict to the story and we must be true to story. We read fiction to learn about others and about ourselves and that is true for the writer too....in writing the stories...

I'm afraid I was so busy trying to listen to the translations to note down more of what was said....

However I did when asked speak of the assumption of some readers ... readers never expect a crime writer to have committed a murder, but some readers assume that a writer of women's fiction will have done almost anything in the book that they have written.... especially if it deals with sex.

It's clearly not safe to let me out at night to talk about writing. However the room came alive after that comment and the chair quizzed me on this topic several times!


Monday, November 05, 2012

The Cornish House is Shortlisted for Best Romantic Read at the Festival of Romance

The Cornish House
I am thrilled that The Cornish House has been shortlisted as Best Romantic Read at this year Festival of Romance in Bedford. Here's the shortlist here.

If you are in the area there are some tickets left for the events. I'll be at the Coffee and Cake event on Saturday morning and at the free Romance fair in the Howard Room at the Corn Exchange in the afternoon...do come and say hello.

The lovely Catherine McNamara interviews me over at THE VIEW FROM HERE about  The Mind Matters of a Debut Novelist here.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Business Breakfast on Dubai Eye with Brandy Scott...talking about the business of being a writer

Yesterday morning I was on Dubai Eye's Business Breakfast with the wonderful Brandy Scott. She even made me sound coherent! I was talking about the business of being a writer today. If your curious about my take on it you can listen below - if the link works...
listen to ‘Liz Fenwick’ on Audioboo

And if you're in Dubai or Sharjah next week...I'll be at the Sharjah International Book Fair (on panel on Thursday the 8th at 19:00...) and at WH Smith in Dubai Mall from 18:00 signing books and chatting...