Aww, look at the puppy.  Baby Harvey…

Thought that would get your attention.  I know how you work, internet…  It’s cute animals or boobs.

So, I’m finally making a post about the conference on Saturday.

It took a while to find the place and it turned out to be one of the smaller campuses of the John Moores University and it was a smaller conference than I had been wound up about.  I was right in thinking it would be closer to 30 people attending than a few hundred.  There were about 50 people there, excluding the speakers.

The first talk of the day, which was with two publishing houses (bluechrome and Comma) and a chap from the BBC about short stories on radio 4.  Interesting stuff.  Think I need to stick to writing novels if I want to make any money, though.  ^^;

Didn’t go to any of the talks after this first one and spent the hour talking to A. from bluechrome and his cohort for the day. Was really nice and I got to pin him down about a few things that I’ve wanted to know. He can be a bit of a sod with email, sometimes. It looks like the image I pitched for the cover of ‘Dolls’ that Simon took is the one that’s going to be used. They’ve just got to work out font things. So, my first book and his first ‘published’ photograph. We’re both very pleased. Also got a few legal questions answered, and to my favour, which was ace. It was a lovely chat, actually, and time well spent.

So, more coffee and then onto the final hour… There were three rooms being used so I stuck in mine so that I’d be there when my slot at the end came. Had nearly 30 people in there and first on were two poets talking about their process and work. So, quite tame, quite nice; very civil. Onto me…

I stupidly got into ‘public speaking’ mode, which is quizzically more offensive than my normal state. Picked up the free standing lectern behind me and stuck it down, announcing that ‘this is my first time and I’m really going to kick the arse out of it by doing it properly, damnit’. Que raised eyebrows and the pink-headed gal getting stared at.

Then, my paper started. Spoke a bit too fast but slower than I could have, and I’m so glad I took the time to learn it beforehand as it came across well for it. It was harder than I’d imagined it would be to start reading the second story extract aloud (Tasteless, which is about child abuse) as I really hate reading it. It’s horrible and I don’t like reading the words, particularly to a room full of people. No surprise that when people spoke to me afterwards, it was about that story and not the paper at all. Silence reigned supreme at the end and only a handful were looking at me. No questions for me at first and then they all were, so a few had to come up to me after we’d left the room for lunch.

One of them women told me that her daughter was raped and I just wanted to fall into a pit at that, but she was very congratulatory about the story and said I’d been very brave in reading it, and that it was well done. A few more people said that they had been very affected by it and that it was powerful. So, no shouting or demands of ‘why’ (I covered this point thoroughly in the end of the paper) and a positive reception by double the number of people that were in the other two rooms combined. One person said that they couldn’t believe it was my first time as I’d been very professional (…?), so on the whole, a very big success.

It was a small conference on the whole, but a good size to cut my teeth on. I’m looking forward to doing it again.

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