UKYACX in Newcastle

Posted on September 19, 2016 by vgemmell

On Saturday I got the train down to sunny Newcastle to appear at the UK Young Adult and Children’s Extravaganza event, held in Newcastle City Library in conjunction with Seven Stories bookshop. The last time I was in Newcastle I was about 12, and I had forgotten how beautiful this city is. I’ll definitely be going back soon so that I can spend more time exploring.

The best part of doing events like this, (apart from meeting readers), is getting to spend the day surrounded by great authors and hear about their books and writing experiences. I was on a panel with YA authors, Roy Gill (that’s him reading about werewolves in one of the photos), Sara Grant, Olivia Levez and Liz Flanagan. I read from FOLLOW ME and realised just how short 2 minutes is when you have lots you want to say!!Fellow Scots based authors, Kirkland Ciccone and Alex Nye, were also there for the day (that’s them sitting at their signing table in the photo above). Kirkland treated us to a catwalk show as part of his panel. I thought it might turn into a Kanye West fashion show type disaster when he donned his fur coat in sauna like conditions, but he strutted his stuff like a pro!

What struck me as I listened to all of the authors during the day is the diversity of fiction available for children and teenagers – so many imaginative books stretching across a wide range of genres. It also highlighted the importance of events such as this to get the word out there about the breadth of talent which exists across the whole of the UK. I think it’s brilliant that Emma Pass and Kerry Drewery invited along debut, as well as more established authors, from a mix of big house publishers and small indie publishers. Thanks to them both for taking the time out from their own busy writing lives to organise such a brilliant event.

I managed to fit in a quick visit to the Laing Art Gallery which was directly across the road. When I was standing at the top of the library stairs I spotted an Alice In Wonderland poster hanging outside the gallery and realised there was an exhibition so nipped off to get lost in Wonderland for a quick 10 minutes.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the white rabbit, running away from Alice in a silent film. The great thing about being a writer is that you never know what or where your next adventure might be…

UKYACX Blog Tour

Posted on September 15, 2016 by vgemmell

Yesterday I appeared on the Enchanted by YA Blog as part of the UKYACX blog tour. You can read that post here where I am once again talking about the wonderful world of libraries.

I’m really looking forward to appearing at Newcastle library this Saturday 17th September where I will be joining lots of other brilliant authors…and there will be cake

Next Tuesday evening I will be visiting Eastwood High to talk to pupils and parents about the joy of reading as they launch their “Read to Succeed” scheme. Can’t wait for that!

Brilliant Librarians

Posted on September 5, 2016 by vgemmell

At the end of August I had a great time at the Inverclyde Booked! Festival where I introduced authors Teri Terry, Rosalind Jana, Alex Wheatle and Chris Mould to groups of pupils from local schools. I loved getting an insight into the authors’ creative process and what inspired them to write. Rosalind and Alex had particularly honest and gripping stories to tell, demonstrating how words and books can provide an important escape from harrowing life experiences. I also loved how Rosalind had made the most of any opportunity which came her way, entering competitions and approaching editors, demonstrating the importance of not just waiting for success to happen, but to pursue it with determination and confidence. You can see a collage of photos from the two day event above.

Why I have titled this piece ‘brilliant librarians’ is because I got to work alongside a team of very friendly and enthusiastic Inverclyde librarians during this event. One librarian, Katharine, has stayed in touch with me since my event at Gourock library earlier in the year and she has been particularly encouraging and supportive of my work and got me involved in this festival which means so much. Librarians are the unsung heroes of the literary world and are so so important for inspiring young people (and older people!) to read. What better magic can you introduce someone to, than the wonderful world of story telling?

I also got to attend the fabulous Teen Titles party in Edinburgh where i got to speak to some more enthusiastic librarians. I love speaking to people who love books! The party took place in the reference section of Edinburgh Central library which is quite a spectacular space – unfortunately the battery of my phone died just as I arrived so I only have one photo from the event (below) where I got chatting to some very stylish readers. The Irn Bru wasn’t mine by the way, that belongs to the photographer (a.k.a teen author/watermelon Kirkland Ciccone) Teen Titles is a book review magazine for teenagers, with the reviews written by Edinburgh teenagers. I’m looking forward to being interviewed for the magazine in October when I visit Portobello High during their book festival.

Another shout out to the greatness of librarians – the careers adviser in Largs Academy noticed Follow Me on display in the school library. He kindly took a photo – I love seeing photos of my book on display!

Lastly, I’m delighted to announce that I will be one of the judges for a local short story competition, around the theme of ‘My Paisley Adventure’ which the Paisley writing group, Oak Tree Arts are organising. I will be judging alongside other writers: Susan Kirkwood and Leona Gary. Here is a poster for this with more details:

UKYACX2016 and other news

Posted on August 7, 2016 by vgemmell

Hello all! This evening on Twitter I could finally share the news that I am going to be part of the UKYACX 2016 event at Newcastle Library on Saturday 17th September alongside some other brilliant YA authors. With the tagline, ‘Books, Authors, Readers, Cake’ this event has to be a winner!! What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon? I’m looking forward to going to Newcastle as it’s been a while since I’ve visited that neck of the woods.

Below is a list of the other YA authors I will be joining on the day. It’s so nice to see some fellow Scots on the list!

Roy Gill Cat Clark Kirkland Ciccone Olivia Levez Lindsey Barraclough

Nicole Burstein Fletcher Moss/Martin Griffin Jane Brittan Sara Grant

Perdita Cargill Honor Cargill Donald Hounam Paula Rawsthorne Leo Hunt

Kerry Drewery Emma Pass Liz Flanagan Sue Wallman Rachael Lucas

Ellen Pheathean Katherine Corr Elizabeth Corr Alex Nye Patrice Lawrence

In other news I am going to be a sort of ‘Writer in Residence’ at the Inverclyde Booked! Festival (Edinburgh International Book Festival on the road!) which will take place at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th August. I will be helping out during both days, facilitating creative writing workshops with local High School students and I get to introduce some big YA authors on stage (and hang out with them in the Green Room where, if I’m lucky, there might be more cake…) You can find out more about this brilliant book festival here

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back on here with more updates soon!

Pop, Cakes and Creativity!

Posted on June 12, 2016 by vgemmell

I had a great time yesterday at the Pop Art Tea Party in Kilmacolm Community Centre, hosted by Creative Communities. I had fun talking to the young people about my writing and the ideas behind my book ‘Follow Me’ and influences of the Pop Artist, Andy Warhol.

My favourite part of the day, (apart from eating cake and drinking pink lemonade), was when I got the young people to take part in a story-building exercise. Each of them was given a specific part of the story to create and it was amazing how it all fitted together at the end. I really hope one of them writes a book about Lucy and her enchanted house and mirror, as it sounded like an adventure packed with magic and suspense which I would love to read!

In other news, congratulations to Karen Mikusak who won a signed copy of Follow Me in the Book Bites giveaway promo!

I have also added an ‘Events’ page on to my website where I will post updates on up-and-coming events. Watch this space for more details on the Beacon Arts Book Festival in Greenock, which I will be taking part in at the end of August. Can’t wait for that one!

Pop Art Tea Party this Saturday!

Posted on June 9, 2016 by vgemmell

Hello! This is the first June I can remember where it actually feels like summer. And summer is a perfect time to have a tea party, with cakes and some pop art and some writing chat. I’m really looking forward to this event which Creative Communities are organising and hosting for me at Kilmacolm Community Centre this Saturday from 1.30pm – 3pm.

If you live in or around Kilmacolm and want to hear me talking about Follow Me – come along and join in the fun!!

Reviews, Gryffe and a give-away!

Posted on May 15, 2016 by vgemmell

Hello!

It has been far too long since I gave an update on here. At the end of April I had a very enjoyable visit to Gryffe High, where I was introduced to the whole of 2nd year, by the school’s reading patron, author V.Campbell (you should check out her Viking Gold book!). It was fun talking to the pupils about my writing journey, ideas and inspiration. My favourite part was when the pupils started to create their own story, aided by my prompt cards, where I encouraged them to come up with an interesting character, a setting, a fear, an object…I wish we had more time to hear about what sixteen year old Penelope, who had a fear of libraries, got up to in an abandoned theatre in New York…

In the past couple of weeks I received brilliant 5 star reviews for Follow Me. You can read these on the Our Book Reviews Online Blog and the brilliant Paisley Piranha blog (this blog will introduce you to loads of great YA fiction).

Paisley Piranha also interviewed me for their Book Bite newsletter. You can check this out here AND Most Importantly you can see details at the end of my interview of how to WIN a signed copy of Follow Me. If you tweet about it you get more entries into the hat. Good luck!

Yay! YA+ 2016

Posted on April 25, 2016 by vgemmell

I’ve always wanted my own dressing room and that’s exactly what I got last Thursday when I was invited to take part in Yay! YA+ 2016 at Cumbernauld Theatre. Over 200 school pupils across the West of Scotland were invited to the event and I got to take part in a reading relay, along with authors Alexander McCall, Estelle Maskame, Elizabeth Wein and Martin Stewart. Alex Nye and Kirkland Ciccone presented in the large theatre. Kirkland organised the event and he did a wonderful job! You should check out his website here

As I was NON-STOP reading all day long I unfortunately didn’t get to see any of the authors present or read. Instead I got to meet with loads of young people, and their teachers and librarians, and I had lots of fun. I now know parts of my book Follow Me off by heart, and I don’t think I’ve ever spoken quite so much about Andy Warhol in the one sitting…

I got asked lots of brilliant questions. This is one of my favourite parts of doing an event. I also like to occasionally fire back questions to my audience, and once again was blown away by the dedication shown to writing from a lot of the pupils.

We were served an impressive buffet at lunchtime and it was nice to get to chat to some authors I had never met before. It was also brilliant getting to chat to some of the pupils and do a book signing. What with that and getting to hang out in a dressing room, with lights round the mirrors, I almost felt like a celebrity for the day…

Here are some more photos from the event:

The staff at Cumbernauld Theatre were brilliant and kept everything ticking over so smoothly. I loved this quirky little theatre and wished I had more time to explore all of the nooks and crannies. I did get lost a couple of times ‘backstage’ when trying to find my way back to the main area. And despite some reports that the dressing rooms may be haunted I sadly didn’t come across any ghosts…

Next stop Gryffe High on Friday!

In the Press

Posted on April 10, 2016 by vgemmell

Last weekend I was delighted that Follow Me got a mention in Shari Low’s Bookclub in the Daily Record.

Bookclub

I’m also in the members’ news section of this month’s Writing Magazine. As I say in my piece, I’ve been subscribing to this magazine for years and always enjoy reading writers’ success stories. It always spurred me on to keep going when submitting my manuscript and it was also a helpful way to find out about publishers you might not have heard of. The magazine has lots of great information about where to submit novels and shorter works. I found out about a lot of online journals thanks to WM, as well as being inspired by the many articles. I’m sure it was here I first read about the idea of keeping an ‘observation diary’ which is a great way to generate story ideas!

And I was also delighted to see another 5* review popping up for Follow Me on Amazon:” I read this book over a week or so because I wanted a little bit every day. I know exactly why this book was a wonderful read because as soon as I finished it, I was hungry for more…”

Victoria

Inspiration

Posted on April 5, 2016 by vgemmell

Here’s one of the great things about doing events with young people – as part of my presentation I talk to them about inspiration and by the end of my session I leave inspired by them.

A couple of weeks ago I was at Gourock library talking to 4th year pupils from Clydeview Academy and I got them to do a little creative writing exercise at the end. They could choose to use some of the images and newspaper headlines I’d taken along to help generate ideas, or simply come up with stories from their imagination. Mostly they just used their own imagination!

It was brilliant seeing their enthusiasm and how quick they were at constructing stories. As I walked round the room some of them told me about poetry they were writing, inspired by personal experience, and books they were working on. It reminded me of the buzz I used to get when I first started to construct novel length work (and in my teens I also wrote a lot more poetry!).

I loved doing an event in a library, surrounded by books, as it was my love of reading which inspired me to write in the first place. My parents always took me to the local library to pick out books and it’s one of my favourite memories.

It was great talking to the librarians before and after the event who were also very enthusiastic and shared interesting writing chat.

Here’s a montage of photos: (*I asked permission from the pupils and their teacher to post their pictures on social media!)

A couple of days later I took part in another great event in a local cafe, Ta Ta Bella’s Tea Room, in Paisley, where I got to meet with the Oak Tree Arts creative writing groups, and their tutor, Susan at their End of Term gathering.

The group was a mix of ages and after talking to them about my writing process they asked me LOTS of interesting questions. As we sat eating the brilliant brownies, (which Hilary had baked), I got to quiz them a bit about their own writing. I was blown away by how much they all write. One twelve year old boy was already 20,000 words into his novel and he had only been writing it for about a month, saying he wrote a bit every day, after school. It’s amazing to see such commitment to writing at such a young age and it gave me a boost to get cracking with my own writing! Here’s a photo from this event:

I have no doubts that I will soon be reading books penned by some of these young authors!

After such great events I’m really looking forward to taking part in the Yay! YA festival later in the month. Here is an updated poster showing the running order of the day:

I’m pleased to see that I get to hang out in the dressing room when I talk to the pupils as I think if there are lights on the mirrors that will make quite a dramatic backdrop for reading!