Recovering From Evesham Festival 2023

After my rather gloomy post last time, you’ll be pleased to know I’ve cheered up!

Here’s a picture of last night’s swanky Harper Collins party (at the V&A in London). As you may remember, I was invited but I did not go – AGAIN – but there’s always next year!

And (unrelated to the HC party), today is my fourth wedding anniversary! Hurrah!

Actually, we only remembered because my sister-in-law sent me a text.

Have I been showered with linen and/or blue topaz, which are apparently “The Gifts” for a 4th anniversary? Erm, no.

Have I been whisked out for dinner? (Obviously not). No, he is watching the Murray match and I am in another room, writing this but I do have wine and he has cooked me chicken and chips, so all good.

Evesham Festival of Words

Last weekend was the main ‘Evesham Festival of Words’ weekend and although I’m no longer on the Steering Group, I’d booked lots of events and was directly involved in another two, so it was hectic, to say the least.

My my pal Chris and I – along with our trusty team of 3 – ran the quiz for 10 teams and a jolly night it was too and on Sunday afternoon, I interviewed Sunday Times bestselling author and all-round lovely person, Joanna Cannon at an event for 45 people (a sell-out event, as was the quiz!).

I actually interviewed Joanna four years ago (yes, less than a week before my wedding. I remember someone saying to me, ‘What are you doing here?! Don’t you have lots of things to do?!’)

She was the very first person I ever interviewed and now…she’s still the only person I’ve ever interviewed! But I think I’ve improved and here are my top tips for Interviewing an Author In front of An Audience:

1. Don’t think of it as an ‘interview’. If you think of it as a chat, or a conversation, that feels less scary.

2. Remember, your job is to allow the interviewee to shine. They are the star of the show, they’re the one that everyone’s come to see/listen to. The audience honestly doesn’t care about you (which is quite comforting, actually).
I told myself that my job was to encourage Jo to talk as much as possible. That was it. Simple.

3. Do your homework! It will be obvious to everyone if you’re blagging it and haven’t a clue about any of the author’s books.

I brought all 5 of Joanna’s books with me and put them on the table at which we were sitting (literally ‘Cannon’s canon’) and I’d read them all at least once. The collection of 12 non-fiction, mental health stories that she’d edited, ‘Will You Read This, Please?’ was particularly fresh in my mind, because I’d only just finished reading it.

4. Don’t focus solely on the books/writing. I follow Joanna on Twitter, so I asked her about golf (which she’s recently taken up) and her dog, Lewis. Asking a few of those kinds of questions is fun and helps everyone relax and gives the audience an insight into the author as a person, not just a writer. (It also shows you’ve done your homework. See 3 above).

5. If your author has a new book you could ask them (with prior consent/warning) to read a passage.

That breaks things up nicely and most people find it interesting. I didn’t do that this time with Jo but back in 2019, before ‘Breaking and Mending’ (her memoir about being a junior doctor) was published, we had a ‘sneak peek’ because she read us the opening couple of pages.

It also felt quite special because this was a book that no-one outside the industry had seen. She also gave away a copy to whoever asked ‘the most interesting question’ (that was her idea and she judged it!).

6. Ditch the List

I wrote a huge list of questions that I practised asking but, on the day, I resisted the temptation to bring that list to the ‘chat’ with me. I had a list last time and there was no time to look at it!

So, instead, I had a couple of cards, with some prompt words on them. And that was it. Things like ‘Easter eggs?’ and ‘Inspiration?’ But I hardly needed to look at them because I listened to Jo’s answers and tried to ask her more questions based on her answers. Just like a real conversation, in fact.

It probably sounds like an obvious thing to do, but it’s quite scary to decide to ditch the list of questions (which feels like a safety harness) and simply listen and respond. And there were a couple of moments when I went completely blank for a few seconds! Eek! But overall, it worked well.

7. Give the audience advance warning that they’ll have a chance to ask questions (if that’s what you’re going to do), so that they can think of some. And don’t rely too much on them!

I’d allowed 15 minutes for audience questions at the end of my 45 mins. When I last interviewed Joanna, we had loads of questions to get through but this time, we only had a handful and when I said, ‘Right, we’ve just got time for one more question!’ Jo said, ‘Oh, no, that’s the kiss of death: there won’t be one!’ (and she was right).

I then had to think of something on the spot and luckily I had my ‘easter egg’ question* so that filled the last few minutes and ended the interview very nicely. Phew.

And although it was a tiring weekend (I’m still recovering!), dashing around, it was also great fun and I loved being amongst writers and writerly-folk again. It had been too long!

*Easter eggs are a little extra something that authors hide in their books for their fans to find. There are links between all 3 of Jo Cannon’s novels, she told us – if you can spot them – and she also puts in references and names that will only mean things to certain people.

2023 page 100 competition

Very sadly, Louise Walters has recently had to close her indie press but she’s still doing lots of other things (like editing) and still running her fabulous ‘Page 100’ competition. Details here and it’s just £5 to enter, so if you have an unpublished novel or novella, why not give it a go? (It closes 20th August).