Wednesday 19 October 2016

A Fabulous Night In

For ages now I've been wanting to attend a book event with Giovanna Fletcher, but with one thing and another have never been able to make them.  So, you can imagine how excited I was when I received a text from Sophie telling me about the Fabulous Night In event last Tuesday. 


I met with Sophie and Kate at London Bridge ready to head over to the News building in time for the event.  It is such a  swanky building and the events was really well organised.  We were greeted with wine and canapés, which was a very welcomed surprise and a perfect touch after a hard day at work.


The ticket for the event was £10, I didn't think this was too bad for an event in London with three well known authors, Giovanna Fletcher, Lindsey Kelk and Mahiri McFarlane.  To top it off, included in the ticket price was a book of my choice from one of the featured authors.



I decided to go for Giovanna's Billy and Me, it's a book I've wanted to read for ages now, but as I still have so many books on my book shelf, I've been good recently and have restrained myself from buying more until I've made a dent in my current collection. 


Books chosen and firmly in our hand (glass of wine in the other), we took our seats ready for the ladies to grace the stage ready to be bombarded with questions. 


I have to say, I felt totally inspired by all three ladies.  They shared many words of encouragement and wisdom both from their own experiences of writing and also pointers they have been given from other authors.  'If you want to write, then write' which was advise given to Gi by Dorothy Koomson.  It is so true though.  So many of us want to do things in life and yet we always find an excuse not to do it (I'm so guilty of this).  I guess this advise could really be transferred to anything, if you want to do it, just do it.   


Hearing them talk about their journeys was somewhat comforting and really gave hope that there is opportunity out there for all of us.  Another favourite quote from the evening from Giovanna 'Creativity is individual' I couldn't agree with this more.  Everyone is different and individuality is what makes us, so we should let it shine and just be ourselves in whatever it is that we decide to do. 


Mhairi McFarlane also made a great point in saying 'it's about what works for you'  We are all so different and that's a good thing, we shouldn't be trying to be someone else.  She also touched on writers block which as a blogger I have encountered so many times.  I loved her answer to it though '9 times out of 10 the problem is real but the solution doesn't have to be picked off the shelf, you can select your own solution'  Again I feel this advise can be used in any life situation.  We become so fixed on the standard solutions that we forget to look beyond them.


I pretty much spent the whole evening in awe of these ladies.  They each gave me food for thought and I can safely say I took away a lot from what they had each said.  The highlight for me though was getting to meet the lovely Gi.  She is just so down to earth and easy to talk to, a truly lovely lady.

 
It was a great evening catching up with blog friends and meeting some very inspiring ladies.

'The last page of a book is never the end'

~ Gem x

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