Some Great Events at Hull: Kate Mosse
Now that I'm back online (I hate BT, did I mention that?), I thought I'd let you know about some of the great things that happened during my forced absence from the computer. Thanks to a suggestion from a new friend from the RNA, I went to hear Kate Mosse (the author, not to be confused with Kate Moss, the fashion model) talk about her bestselling first novel. The book is called Labyrinth (not to be confused with the film Labyrinth, which is one of my favourites, or the film Pan's Labyrinth, which I've never seen). I wanted to ask her whether sharing her name with a fashion model, and having a book which shared its title with a popular film, helped or hindered her marketing, but I didn't quite dare!
Kate Mosse was speaking at Hull University as part of a series of events, and was great to listen to, despite some problems with the sound system, which meant that the interview went something like this:
Interviewer: hmmmm mmm fmmmm bmmmm gaaaa?
Kate: It's very interesting you should ask that, because...
Me, under my breath to my neighbour: What did he just ask her?
Neighbour: *shrug*
Despite having no idea what the questions were, I found her answers fascinating. She talked with self-effacing humour about the journey from researching her local area of France, to writing a book about it, to finding the book an unexpected bestseller. One thing I found really interesting was that she felt writing 'Labyrinth' was a very private experience. At the end, the audience had a chance to ask questions, and although I didn't have the nerve to ask my silly question about naming, I was able to satisfy my curiosity about whether becoming a published, bestselling author made a difference to her experience of writing the later books. Apparently, it hasn't changed the writing process, but she's had to become more conscious of marketing and her audiences in addition to the writing. (Or something like that - I'm paraphrasing horribly!). She also talked very interestingly about how she uses her website to connect with her readers.
Next month, as part of the same series of events, there is a talk from David Almond, the author of Skellig, who's also a fantastic speaker (he came to speak to the Creative Writing Students at Bath Spa University when I was there). If you're in the area, do try and get along - I'm sure he'll be well worth it. I might even make it over to Hull again myself.
Kate Mosse was speaking at Hull University as part of a series of events, and was great to listen to, despite some problems with the sound system, which meant that the interview went something like this:
Interviewer: hmmmm mmm fmmmm bmmmm gaaaa?
Kate: It's very interesting you should ask that, because...
Me, under my breath to my neighbour: What did he just ask her?
Neighbour: *shrug*
Despite having no idea what the questions were, I found her answers fascinating. She talked with self-effacing humour about the journey from researching her local area of France, to writing a book about it, to finding the book an unexpected bestseller. One thing I found really interesting was that she felt writing 'Labyrinth' was a very private experience. At the end, the audience had a chance to ask questions, and although I didn't have the nerve to ask my silly question about naming, I was able to satisfy my curiosity about whether becoming a published, bestselling author made a difference to her experience of writing the later books. Apparently, it hasn't changed the writing process, but she's had to become more conscious of marketing and her audiences in addition to the writing. (Or something like that - I'm paraphrasing horribly!). She also talked very interestingly about how she uses her website to connect with her readers.
Next month, as part of the same series of events, there is a talk from David Almond, the author of Skellig, who's also a fantastic speaker (he came to speak to the Creative Writing Students at Bath Spa University when I was there). If you're in the area, do try and get along - I'm sure he'll be well worth it. I might even make it over to Hull again myself.
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