On Saturday I went to the Authors and Bloggers Meet Up at the Bacchus Bar in Birmingham. (Being writers we had to meet up somewhere alliterative!) This is the fourth or fifth such get-together I’ve attended and to be honest, I was debating whether or not to go. I’m ‘between-novels’ at the moment; my last one came out 14 months ago and it will be 3 months before the next one – The Banjo – will be ready. And, after all, I’d been to all the others, hadn’t I? I’d enjoyed them and found them worthwhile, but, in my conceited complacency, well, I’d been there, done that and got the t-shirt, hadn’t I?
But I DID go along and, to be honest, this was the best one so far.
As soon as I walked into the Bacchus Bar I could hear the buzz of conversation, which became a cacophony by the time I got to the section that had been reserved for Kim Nash. And here is the photographic evidence!
‘Our’ reserved area!
It is no exaggeration to say that the air was electric. Looking round, I saw a sea of faces, many of them highly recognisable, chatting animately and laughing loudly. And needless to say, I was so glad that I went.
It was wonderful to meet up again with such a dynamic bunch of people, especially the marvellous Barbara Copperthwaite who is always so encouraging, kind and helpful. Being an indie author is hard sometimes – no make that most times! – and it’s always great to share experiences. But there are so many other great connections that I’ve made at these meet ups and last Saturday was no exception.
With two of my favourite people – Bloggers Shell Baker and Linda Hill xx
So – if you are debating whether or not to go along to the next ones – London 19th March and Birmingham 30th April – I can’t urge you enough to JUST DO IT!! I, unfortunately, won’t be able to make either of these as I’ll be in Antigua, but I’m thinking of asking Kim if I can attend via Skype. And I have to say here that we all owe a huge THANK YOU to Kim, who really is Superwoman. Not only is she a lovely person, she’s been a huge support to me along my wobbly, stony path of indie author and I’m proud to say she is my friend. I’m just sorry we didn’t get much of a chance to chat on Saturday.
So, yes; go along, join in, make contacts, network and feel loved and supported. You know you want to and you know it makes sense. 😉
It was so lovely to meet you Elaine. See you at the next one!
Lovely to meet you, too! X
Great blog, thanks for sharing, hope to meet you another time later in the year.
Thank you, Sue. Look forward to that. X
Aw, thank you for the special mention! Saturday was wonderful, and it was really lovely to catch up with you, too xx