- Venue - Christopher's Restaurant, The Peel Hotel, Aldergate, Tamworth have kindly let us use part of the restaurant that is separate from the main seating area. We all purchase a lovely coffee, pot of tea, cake of the day and/or stay for lunch after 12.30 pm. The waitress service is pleasant, quick and helpful; the surroundings are welcoming, clean and friendly. It is central to the town centre with parking both at the venue and across the road in a public car park.
- Speakers - They are sooooooooooooo interesting. First we heard from Kim Nash, Publicity Manager of Bookouture. This fast growing publisher has obtained awards, top sales of new and already published authors and has a very wide following both in the UK and abroad. Kim told us all about her role, how she just loves her job and is "living the dream" - doing what she likes doing most - reading new novels, reviewing and promoting them. Her blogs and other social media entries are exciting, encouraging and makes you want to buy every book she promotes. Check her out on Twitter at @bookouture or @kimthebookworm, Facebook, Blog: Kimthebookworm.co.uk.
- Next we met Sharon Rose, Author of four self published books journeying through her life's difficulties, in particular breast cancer. (You can read my review of these lovely books by scrolling down through previous blogs). Sharon's warmth and openness gave us an insight into living life in adversary and how to turn a negative situation into positive joy. She raises funds for so many charities through the sales of her books and later this year she will be staging her own written play - Split Second - details on Twitter and Facebook.
- At our third meeting we learnt all about Blogging from Noelle Holten aka Crime Book Junkie. Her passion for books, authors, blogging, writing reviews etc. oozed out and encouraged those of us who blog to do more of it! Working full time doesn't stop Noelle from spending a very disciplined time in the evening on her laptop. This was her first 'talk' to a group after blogging for two years and she conquered her fears of speaking out about her journey through blogging on Wordpress. You can find Noelle on Twitter and Facebook and her blog Crimebookjunkie.co.uk.
- The second hour of our gathering sees some of the readers sharing what they have been reading since we last met, swapping books, titles of books, tips on apps, information about courses and competitions for writers, and Tina Williams, from Tamworth Literary Festival, tells us of dates for our diaries of events coming up in the months ahead.
We leave having been fed with enthusiasm, excitement, joy, friendship, food, drink and an ever growing love of all things bookish. Do come along if you are in the area. You can book in on Facebook - search for Readers & Writers, Tamworth.
- Thank you for reading this blog, do leave a comment below.
