The Bloody Scotland Book Festival - Day 1
Coming across the Festival and deciding to go…
I came across a pamphlet for the Bloody Scotland Festival when I was in a shop and curiously picked it up. I hadn’t heard of the festival before and I hadn’t been to a book festival before. I flicked through the pages looking at the different events and how the festival was organised. Although, crime is not a genre I have often read, it seemed like a good opportunity to attend a book festival and to learn more about authors and writing. So, I thought why not go? It would also be an opportunity to visit the city of Stirling!
In preparation for the Festival, I decided to pre-book a number of events, so I would have a plan of what to see. There were lots of events to choose from and it was hard to know where to start. I decided to make the most of the Festival by booking three events for each day. This seemed like a manageable number to attend and would give me some variety. I chose some big names, such as Ann Cleaves and Irvin Welsh, who I thought would be interesting to see. I also tried to book names that I did not recognise, but which might be learning opportunities. It was all very hit and miss, but I had to start somewhere!
Travelling to Stirling
I travelled to Stirling by train from Edinburgh, which was super easy, as they have an hourly train which takes about 40 minutes. I had actually booked a ticket for the 1.30 pm train, but arrived at the station earlier than expected by 12.15, so was able to hop onto the 12.30 pm train to Stirling. The journey was beautiful, as we rode through open fields with blue skies and hay bails.
When I arrived in Stirling, I walked out of the station and was struck by the beauty of the city. I set off walking to my accommodation, which was a ten minute walk from the station. I was meeting my parents at the accommodation, who were joining me for the festival. As I walked through the streets of Stirling I continued to be charmed by the city and felt excited for the weekend ahead!
Once checked in, we headed to the Albert Halls, which was the venue where most of our events were taking place. It was a beautiful historic building at the bottom of the hill leading up to the castle. I was really impressed with the venue.
A chance encounter
When waiting for the first show, we had tea in the coffee shop at the Albert Halls. It was very busy, and there were no tables available, so we decided to ask a lady if we could share her table. Fortunately, she was very considerate and invited us to join her. We got chatting and the lady was called Linda, she was a retired Bookseller who had worked at Waterstones throughout her career.
Linda was familiar with book festivals as she has been visiting them for years as part of her role as a Bookseller. She was easy to chat to and knew a lot about the industry. She mentioned that her favourite book festival is in Harrogate (I will keep this on my list of places to visit). It was fun to start the festival off by chatting to another attendee, and learning about what had brought them to the festival!
Friday at 3 pm - JD Kirk and Rachel Abbott
The first event we saw was a discussion between two self-published authors, who had published their crime novels on Kindle, which went on to become best sellers. It was one of the opening-events for the festival and aimed to kick things off for aspiring writers visiting the festival.
There was a good juxtaposition between the authors, as they were different genders, ages, and came from different parts of the country. Hence, they were sort of opposites in terms of their identity. They both also had very different stories of how they got into writing, and differed in their approach to writing.
What I found interesting was that both authors had come up with pseudonyms to publish their books under. Rachel Abbott chose her pseudonym because she thought that it sounded sexy, young, and endearing to readers (she was 61 when she published her first novel). JD Kirk chose his pseudonym because he had previously been a children’s author and did not want his children’s books being linked to his crime novels, and so he felt it was appropriate to have a different name to publish under.
Both authors had published their books back in 2012-2014 sort of time, and at the time there were only around 2000 e-books on Kindle. So, when they entered the Kindle marketplace, readers were desperate for books. Hence, they self-published their books during a window in time where Kindle authors were part of a small pool and could stand out easier. Apparently over the last ten years Kindle has exploded and there are now millions of books on Kindle, so it’s a much bigger market place and not as easy to stand out as a new author on Kindle.
It was interesting to hear about the history of Kindle and how self-published authors have used it as a tool to grow a fan-base of readers and to publish their books without an agent or publisher.
Friday at 7 pm - Secret Histories with Hugo Rifkind, Colin Walsh, and Ellie Keel
The next event was a discussion between three authors who have just published bestsellers. Their books are all set in schools and explore themes of violence, bullying, and crime between pupils. The discussion was very much about the three author’s personal experiences of school and how their experiences led them to want to write fictional stories about school.
They all agreed that our time at school shapes us into the people we become and that our behaviours are very much affected by what we learn and experience when we are at school. I found it interesting to think about how adults seem to have a fixation on high school dramas and stories set in that formative period of life. These authors being an example of people who have grown into adults, but wanted to return to their school days and explore these feelings and memories through the characters in their books.
What I found interesting about this group of authors is that they were a younger demographic (in their 30s to 40s) and they all had a similar story of having always wanted to write a book, but not finding the ability to write their story until they reached their 30s or older. They also mentioned the concept of the “lock-down” book, where they had a time period in which they were at home and had time to start writing.
One of the writers, Colin, also talked about the challenges of writing and how it was a very isolating and long journey. He said that he thought there should be support open to writers who are going through the journey, as it can be very challenging to learn how to write and to prepare yourself for writing your first book. Furthermore, that when you are writing your book, you go into a sort of tunnel where you are trapped with your characters and your internal world is taken over by the story, which can make you feel disconnected from other parts of your life.
Overall, I found this talk very interesting and was impressed by the three authors and fascinated by their experiences of writing their books.
Friday at 8.30 pm - Richard Armitage
The final event I attended was an interview with the famous actor and author Richard Armitage. I had booked a ticket to see the event in person, but the line was so long and stretched up towards the castle, so I decided to watch it via a video link from my accommodation.
Richard was interesting to listen to and he spoke about his passion for stories, and how he has loved stories since he was a young child. He explained that his entire career has been about telling stories and continues to be his focus today, whether that is through acting, producing, or writing.
I was starting to notice a theme of story-telling emerging, which most writers referred to during their talks. I liked the idea of story telling being at the centre of the festival and the art of the writing, which is something I know I’ll be reflecting on after the festival. Another word that Richard used was ‘prolific’ and I noticed other authors using this word during their talks earlier that day. Although I have heard the word ‘prolific’ before, I don’t think I have heard it being used so frequently before, so I think this word must be one that writers or people in the book industry are familiar with using when talking about books and writers. Another word and concept I’ll be thinking about…
Winding down
I felt extremely tired after my first day at the festival. My brain was buzzing from the three events, which had each been an hour long and had delivered a lot of information and ideas to reflect on. Therefore, it took quite a few hours to wind down and get to sleep on the Friday night!
