I’ve almost recovered from CrimeFest. It was an amazing four days of going to panels, meeting lots of friends, making new friends (Jen, Katherine and Sharon, in particular) and eating all the food I shouldn’t be eating at the moment. I’d like to be able to tell you that I wrote copious pages of notes but I didn’t write any! Instead, I live tweeted and you can tell how much sleep I’d had by their quality. Day 1 – lots of coherent tweets. Day 2 – quite a few tweets but often with mistakes so I had to delete them and write them again. Day 3 – pictures of the panels and nothing else. Day 4 – there were panels?!! So that was the only downfall – hardly any sleep. But a fabulous time otherwise in reasonably sunny Bristol. If you want a really good write-up to read, then check out Katherine Sunderland’s superb blog posts here . A massive thank you to Vicki Goldman who held my hand on my first residential festival (especially as I was so sleep deprived). We had a few scrapes together and you can read more about them on Vicki’s blog here.
But here are a few photos, just to prove that I actually did go!
Day 1
42 cookies taken to CrimeFest. They were very popular. One author (who shall remain nameless) had at least 6!Debut authors – (L- R) Mary Torjussen, Steph Broadribb, David Coubrough, Lucy V. Hay & Karen Robinson moderatingThink Andrea Carter is demonstrating to Rod Reynolds how one of her characters dies. Julia Crouch & Lucy Dawson also on the panel for Keeping Secrets and Telling Lies. Moderator (on left) Valentina Giambanco.The Dark Side of Nature. (L-R) Stanley Trollip (moderator), Luke McCallin, Johana Gustawsson, Doug Johnstone & Jorn Lier Horst.
At the end of day 1, I went on a lovely walk with Vicki Goldman and we discovered Harbourside.
Day 2
Partners in Crime: Male/Female duos. (L-R) Sarah Ward (moderator), Luca Veste, Sarah Hilary, Anne Randall Stav Sherez.Sam Carrington who did a talk about her former occupation, working with prisoners.Giving your protagonist family & friends. (L-R) Cally Taylor, Thomas Enger, Gunnar Staalesen, Louise Beech & Lucy V. Hay (moderator)Journalists: Characters who tell stories for a living. (L-R) Rod Reynolds (moderator), Anne Coates, Matt Wesolowski, Antti Tuomainen & Walter Lucius.
The weather was glorious on day 2 and I had lunch in Bristol Cathedral Café, in their beautiful garden.
And in the Marriott hotel, I found this gem with classic books
Day 3
Modern Police Procedural: Are we really the good guys and girls? (L-R) Elizabeth Haynes, Fergus McNeil, Alison Bruce (moderator),Valentina Giambanco & Sharon BoltonAnthony Horowitz gave a revealing interview to Barry Forshaw
When Your Protagonist Can’t Forget. (L-R) Thomas Enger, Katerina Diamond, Simon Toyne, Ragnar Jonasson & Elizabeth Haynes (moderator)
Day 4 – as I said earlier, I didn’t make it to any panels. But here’s a final photo.
The last 2 cookies for the journey home. I think Vicki and I deserved them!
