Bryony's Blog

Master Class

Bryony — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:24:22 +0000

I keep meaning to blog about a Master Class I went to at Sheffield Hallam University in November -

A talk by Hilary Mantel, it was wonderful, so inspiring, I’m not sure anyone else other than writers would have understood what she was saying. She talked about how she found the voice for her latest novel – to find the voice you just have to keep writing until it comes.

Totley Library

Bryony — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:31:15 +0000

I did a reading at Totley Library on Friday 23rd of October at 7pm. Would you go to a reading at 7 pm on a Friday night? Well thankfully some kind people did including a book group from Edale - Berlie Doherty is a member and they are reading my book next, thanks to her recommendation and so they had come along to hear me read.

There was also a man in the front row who had come along on his bike – his trousers were tucked in his socks – If I had put a plant in the audience I couldn’t have picked a better one. After I had finished reading he said I had done a very rare thing – made him cry

Thesaurusing

Bryony — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:19:42 +0000

Was going to write this blog earlier but didn’t know how to spell Thesaurus and nor did my spell checker when I asked it!

I love thesaurusing – still doesn’t look as if it is spelt right – chasing a word; I know there is a word I want but what is it? So I look up one word that is similar and that gives me a list of other words and from those I choose another word and chase that one and then look at the new list and chase that one and eventually I find the perfect word. I used to think it was cheating – maybe that’s why I liked it so much – but now I realise it is a great way to enrich my writing.

Ilkley Festival

Bryony — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:09:09 +0000

I read at the Ilkely Festival fringe – 9pm on a Monday night – what did I expect? A full House? Well it wasn’t but the crowd that was there was great and I felt honoured that so many had turned out to see me. I talked about how my time spent in the Leeds tailoring trade had influenced my writing, people were really interested in the subject and asked me loads of questions. And now onwards and upwards to the next Festival. I have one on the 23rd as part of the OFF THE SHELF Festival in Sheffield and after that – watch this space

Mental Health Week

Bryony — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:59:21 +0000

I went to a poetry reading last week in aid of Mental Health Week. It was good except that we had to fill in three forms before we could get through the door. One form wanted me to state my ethnic background – they didn’t have a tick box for Klingon and so I left it blank.

People got up and read some very poignant poetry about their mental health problems and in some cases they obviously found it difficult to read – now that’s what I call courage

Both myself and my partner Bill Allerton got up and did a reading and when I was getting up the presenter mentioned that I had recently had a novel published. Afterwards a man was asking Bill – how did your partner get her novel published – I would so love to get my novel published. When Bill told me I felt very humbled.

Friday night

Bryony — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:36:51 +0000

What do you expect when you go to the pub on a Friday night – to have a drink? To chat to old friends? To listen to the session? I did all that. What I didn’t expect to happen was to be accosted by people telling me they’d read my novel, ‘The China Bird’ and two people paying me for copies in advance and asking me to leave them behind the bar. How wonderful is that, and slightly weird because the strange thing is It doesn’t really feel like me that wrote it anymore. It is a bit like having a grown child who has gone out into the world to make their own way

Andy Leigh -pathway coaching

Bryony — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:44:04 +0000

I can’t believe I’ve allowed myself to become blog dogged again. The whole of August and now most of September and no postings, I can’t believe it, and so many nice things have been happening so watch this space a might have to do some retrograde blogs – I wonder can I cheat and back date the dates? This afternoon the said Andy of above spent a very patient hour + if an hour can be patient on the phone with me sorting out the mysteries of blogging and finally a begin to see a chink of light – so watch this space

novel comments

Bryony — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:02:31 +0000

You know the most wonderful part of getting a novel published is, if you are lucky, and I have been so far, getting comments from people who have read The China Bird. It is amazing how many I get and how generous people are in their comments. Jo Beville phoned me last night to tell me how much she and her partner Mike had enjoyed the novel and how her book group were going to be reading it and on Monday Kate Pinder told me how she was a bit nervous about reading it as she knew but how she had loved it!

I think my blog dog got me yesterday, but it wasn’t fear but a headache and having not finished the Hypnotherapy article yet

uncontactable journalists

Bryony — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:39:30 +0000

Does anyone out there know the secret of contacting journalists. You go to the newspaper website, no numbers for the paper or journalists. You go on yellowpages – get a number – aah at last I am getting somewhere, but no what in fact you get is the fax line and having got rid of my fax years ago I can’t even send a fax. You google the journalist you want to contact, articles she has written come up, very interesting, but how do you get hold of her? I finally compose an email and put her name and the newspaper name and .co.uk and send it off into the ether. Will it come back? – watch this space. Will I get a reply? Damn forgot to tick the box to see if she at least reads it? So the question is how do journalists get any work if they can’t be contacted? Do they do all the contacting and if that is the case doesn’t that make the news rather skewed?

amazon

Bryony — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:32:49 +0000

I am really pleased that I have got some good reveiws on Amazon. Funnily enough Amazon, this huge giant, is in someways a friend to the little man, so to speak, If someone says they are having difficulty purchasing my book I know I can say to them with confidence – you can buy it on Amazon. It is very difficult now for the small publishers to get books on the shelves in the multi national book shops. Did you know that in certain airport book shops it costs £100,000 just to put your book on their shelves. Does this mean that we are having our books pre selected for us on wealth or quality?