AFTERNOON AT THE OLD SWAN WITH THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME WRITING FESTIVAL

 MID-MORNING TO LUNCH AT THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME WRITING FESTIVAL

I left the ‘Gung-Ho Action Hero event to Michelle and she came out of that wanting to read more authors and buy more books. The collection of authors were Simon Kernick, Steph Broadribb, Holly Watt, AA Dhand and they were kept under control by Charles Cumming. He was the only one one that I have read and I will continue to read. I spent that hour writing my bog on Herron.

Noon was the showdown for Historical Crime Fiction with Antonio Hodgson, SG Maclean, SJ Parris and two that I have read, Laura Shepherd-Robinson with ‘Blood & Sugar’ and Abir Muckherjee and his stories of The Great British Raj. I had not read the blurb in the programme and found that the conversation was based around the now deceased author, Phillip Kerr and his series with his main character Bernie Gunther. These were set in Germany when Hitler was coming to power. I will now have to look at his books.

The panel of four women to one man did raise the issue of women in past decades and centuries and concentrated on ‘the way women have been portrayed over time’. Abir Muckherjee spoke of, when writing about the injustices of history, that it was a therapy for him but it was all about politics. That subject gets everywhere. It was stressed the importance of political  background.

They really gave a very good slant on history and one more thing that I can take away is the need for emotional accuracy. I shall remember this when I pick up my first Phillip Kerr book.

PLANNERS V PANSTERS

Then after lunch another panel event of Planners v Pantsers with Mark Edwards, a multi-million selling author, Sarah Pinborough, Helen FitzGerald and Erin Kelly. Luca Veste had been pinged and so Martyn Thwaites took the chair.

I was not sure that I would get anything out of this hour but I gave it a go. Writing techniques  were spoken of and the basic premise of how it was going to end was a target for Mark Edwards. For some it was considered a natural way of working. Some would know the beginning and the end. That left the guts of it to be imagined and written. Some found that a structure inhibits and one found it liberating.

Basically it was a chat with a few jokes and laughter. Each including Thwaites have their own way of constructing a book and for anyone wanting some clues the evidence was light.

I thought what could be helpful was use of Network Project Techniques

ANN CLEEVE AGAIN

At 5pm Steph McGovern chatted to Ann Cleeve and again they were a joy to listen to. She is so good to hear and her point is she has no plan. That differs from the previous event send she and her character go on a journey together and i like that. She starts to write and the book flows from there on. There is not much more i need to say except I have enjoyed all of her books.