By Margaret Graham
How great is that
‘Make
it, and they’ll come’ or so Kevin Costner’s film
went. Well, we’ve ‘made’ the WforW LitFest for the 2nd year running,
at the Downley Community Centre and
the audience has come – from as far away at Lyme Regis in Dorset, Salisbury, and
London, as well as the immediate vicinity.
It seems that not only is my village of
Downley, High Wycombe, building a reputation for hosting arts events, but news
of the Words for the Wounded jamborees
is on the march.
As founder and administrator, I was, on the
day, momentarily tempted to behave, but that became a step too far. With my
other two grannies, Jan Speedie and Penny Deacon, plus the Graham family
catering team (including honorary Graham, Josh Edwards) we welcomed the
audience with Starbucks coffee and the day began.
Matt Pain, a trustee of WforW opened the
event, before introducing Elizabeth
Buchan, No 1 bestselling author and a patron of WforW. Elizabeth and I
chatted about her latest bestseller, the evocative and intriguing I Can’t Begin to Tell You, set in
Denmark during the war. It is an intricately plotted novel, and the audience found
it inspiring and encouraging to see how this excellent author worked.
Dick Graham, him indoors, was allowed out
for the day to act as taxi driver, though he was refused a uniform because
where would it all end?
He swopped Elizabeth at the station for Jemima Hunt, Literary Agent and Editor of
The Writers’ Practice who was
introduced by Penny. Jemima hammered home the need for editing one’s work. But
more than that, she talked about the books and authors she represented, explaining
how even memoir needed to be shaped and the core story drawn out, to create a
satisfying read.
Lunch was extended this year to 90 minutes.
This worked well, and gave more time for chatting networking and buying raffle
tickets.
Tracy
Baines, the hugely successful genre short story
writer swept aside the fug of lunchtime wine by explaining the need to accept
rejections and criticism as help, not as a condemnation of the writer as a
person, and how important it was to write to a market. She didn’t leave
aspiring writers dangling though, but instead loaded her talk with helpful
hints. Tracy and I are joining forces to offer a WforW Day Workshop in Short Story Writing on September 24th at Downley Community Centre.
Catherine
Balavage, author, owner and editor of Frost Magazine, spoke of blogging, and
how it is necessary to write in a different way for digital magazines. Apart
from the universal need to grab the
attention of the reader quickly, she emphasized the importance of images, and
keeping the text even more succinct and accessible than usual, as the attention
span wavers more than when reading print. (Please note the plethora of
photographs in this blog).
Paul Vates, well known actor and playwright, read excerpts of the speakers’ works before each talk, which really lifted the day, and Sharon Bennett and Julie Winters exhibited their art.
The raffle brought in over £250 thanks to
the huge, (honestly) generosity of our own Downley Tesco Express, and MyLocal,
and various well known companies, as well as pictures by our guest artists.
Arrow, my publishers, gave free books for
the audience.
We are truly grateful to the above and all
those who helped to make it such a good day.
The success of the day, and the money
raised, will help WforW’s work enormously. We are one of the few charities
where the expenses are absorbed by the team, which means that every penny
raised goes to where it’s needed.
Such was the interest in Tracy Baines talk,
that she has generously agreed to join me in holding a Short Story Day Workshop on 24th
September at Downley Community Centre, with all proceeds going to Words for
the Wounded. For more details: Margaret@margaret-graham.com or
01494 630713.
I will put up more information in a couple
of weeks.
