Ally Aldridge Festival, Goals, Writing

Uk Literary Festival tour dates

I wanted to do this post at the start of the year but January flew by.  So here is a list of the the literary (and book) festivals that have caught my eye and are coming up this year:

Winter Festivals.png

February

Romantic Author and Reader Events (#RARE18) 

  • Date: 24 February 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£40 to £70)

If you are a fan of Romance fiction this could be the event for you.  You can check the hundreds of authors attending to see if one of your favourites are going.  Then you can meet them and take your books with you for them to sign.  There will be book sellers to.

They have events all over the world so if you miss this one, check out some of the other dates/locations.

London School of Economics Literary Festival

  • Date: 20 February 2018 to 25 February 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  No – Free

Run with the Time Literary supplement, this event has a number of activities such as talks, discussions, workshops for writers through to activities for kids.

If you miss the event or can’t attend, they also offer free videos and podcasts from the event.

Spring Festivals

March

The Aldeburgh Literary Festival

  • Date: 1 March 2018 to 4 March 2018
  • Location:  Aldeburgh
  • Tickets:  Fee:  Various

This festival is made up of events and you buy tickets to participate in events.  Events vary between workshops, speakers and screenings.

If you miss the event, this seaside town is still worth a visit. They have one of the most beautiful traditional bookshops, a lovely beach and chip shops.

DIVA Literary Festival and Awards

  • Date:  15 March 2018 to 17 March 2018
  • Location: Birmingham
  • Tickets:  Register interest

This event promises to deliver a platform for underrepresented women writers such a lesbians.  This is sure to be a positive event that is making a difference to supporting diversity and inclusion.  Supported by DIVA magazine and The Guardian.

Write by the beach 2018

  • Date: 17 March 2018
  • Location:  Brighton
  • Tickets:  Fee (£139)

This event covers talks and workshops and you can book a one-to-one with an agent to pitch your novel.

If you miss the event, you can always attend Brighton’s Beach Hut Academy’s creative writing courses or mentoring provided by experts in the industry.

Eroticon 2018

  • Date: 17 March 2018 to 18 March 2018
  • Location:  London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£60 to £200)

If Erotica is your thing, then there is a convention just for you.  This event is in its 7th year and often sells out.  It has schedule of speakers and events and is a structured event.

This year has a talk on how to blog about sex for the shy writer – aghhh the world of an erotic writer.  One day I may be brave enough to write and share erotic fiction but for now the thought still makes my cheeks turn read (no, not like that!).  I would probably benefit from the ‘confidence’ talk.

Oxford Literary Festival (FT Weekend)

  • Date: 17 March 2018 to 25 March 2018
  • Location:  Oxford
  • Tickets:  Various

You buy tickets for the events you want to attend.  There are a lot of authors attending and giving talks and there are events for children too.  The event is not at one location but across the city so make sure you are able to get from one location to another if you booking multiple events.  Filter the events by the category you are interested in, i.e. Workshops, etc.

April

The London Book Fair 

  • Date: 10 April 2018 to 12 April 2018
  • Location: London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£45 to £100 + VAT)

This event is geared towards those involved in publishing but and has various talks on keeping those in the industry up-to-date with financial, legal and trending themes in the publishing world.  There are plenty of exhibits covering pretty much every type of genre you can think of.

May

The Bath Festival

  • Date: 11 May 2018 to 27 May 2018
  • Location: Bath
  • Tickets:  Fee (Various)

It is their 70th year running!  This 17 day event will bring the streets of Bath alive with music and literature.  Check the ‘What’s On’ page on the website to find events that take your interest.  Each event requires a ticket and the price differs.

Everyone I know who has been to Bath has always returned gushing about how amazing it is.  They are also home to one of the most well known and prestigious writing competitions (Bath Novel Award).

Summer festivals

June

Felixstowe Book Festival

  • Date: 27 June 2018 to 1 July 2018
  • Location: Felixstowe
  • Tickets:  TBC

At the time of writing, the tickets are not yet online.  But, from previous years there have been free events as well as events you can pay for a ticket.  The paid for events have not been expensive (under £10).  Events range from exhibitions, speakers, workshops and children’s activities.  Events are split between the library and the Orwell Hotel.

I’ve been a few times to this festival.  There have been some amazing speakers and engaging workshops.

July

UEA Festival of Literature (FLY)

  • Date: 9 July 2018 to 13 July 2018
  • Location: Norwich
  • Tickets:  Free*/Fee £3.50

This is event is for young people only (18 and under – hence the student price).   I had to include it because if I was young, I would go.  This event has a number of speakers, workshops and activities and as you would expect a focus on YA and children’s fiction.

My dream is to one day be invited to be a speaker but if I ever want that to happen I need to stop dreaming and get writing.

Young Adult Literary Convention (YALC)

  • Date: 27 July 2018 to 29 July 2018
  • Location: London
  • Tickets:  Fee (£19 to £55)

This  event is in addition to the London Film and Comic Convention.  The YALC have exhibit stands where you can speak to authors, agents and publisher and buy books.  They have agent one-to-ones, workshops and speakers at the convention and lots of space to sit down and read.  The focus her is on YA Literature.

The tickets include access downstairs to the London Film and Comic Convention.  If you are a fan of Marvel, DC, Anime or anything like that you can pop downstairs to see their exhibits and stalls too.

August

Cheltenham Literature Festival

  • Date:  TBC: 5 August 2018 to 14 August 2018 (Last year was 6 October 2017 to 15 October 2017)
  • Location: Cheltenham
  • Tickets:  TBC (Advanced booking for members)

The information for the site is currently about last years event which was aimed at families and young adult.  I recognised a lot of the names and books in attendance and the event is supported by The Times and The Sunday Times.  I expect it will be very promising again this year.

Edinborough International Book Festival 

  • Date:  11 August 2018 to 27 August 2018
  • Location: Edinborough
  • Tickets:  TBC

At the time of writing, ticket prices weren’t available.  This is a really big event with a lot of things going on simultaneously and something for every taste.  I have never been but would love to go one day.

Autumn Festivals

September

Children’s Bath Literature Festival

  • Date:  TBC (last year it was 29 Sept to 8 Oct)
  • Location: Bath
  • Tickets:  TBC

At the time of writing this years date and prices were yet to be confirmed. I included it because last years line up was full of house hold names (like Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Miranda Hart, etc).  I’m sure this year will be just as promising – this is one to watch!

Many more

There are loads more great festivals around the country and I have only highlighted a small sample.

Please let me know if you are or have been to any of these or have any to recommend.

Ally plus text

Ally Aldridge Goals, Writing

Blogging learnt the hard way

Happy Birthday to my blog

I can’t believe that today is my blogs first birthday.  I feel that I’ve learnt so much and yet, I still have so much to learn.

Here are the three lessons I have learned – the hard way:

1.  When three become one

I started with three blogs on Word Press. Three blogs!  I did it to split up the content:

Plus, I was still posting to Blogger as a back up plan… just in case I didn’t take to Word Press.

I now can see what a mistake that was. It was a lot of work to keep all of them running and current.  This year, I am planning to just post straight to ‘Alison Aldridge’.

2.  Be personal

I was trying to keep my blog professional and leave my personal life out of it. I didn’t think people would be interested in hearing about me.

But, when my life is busy, it’s hard to write about the other stuff and it would be easier just to share with my readers what I’m up to.  I can already see I’ve got an eventful year ahead so moving forward, you can expect to see a few more personal posts.

3.  Be brave

I’ve found that if I want to review something I should contact the company because sometimes they will support you with it.  Saal Digital posted on Instagram asking for bloggers and I applied.  I thought I had no chance but was happily mistaken and now I am the proud owner of a beautiful photo book of my son.

Bouncing of my previous success, I’ve bravely approached a company whose service I’d like to use and asked if I could review them on my blog.  They kindly awarded me ‘Gold Membership’.  Stay tuned to see my review of this – I will reveal soon…  (this is one for the writers).

The future

There is loads more I’ve learnt but the above are the three lessons that stand out the most.  I’ve also still a lot more to learn too.

I’d really like to get into vlogging too – I just cringe at the sound of my voice (and sight of my face – lol).  Plus, I’ve no clue about editing a video. Please comment with links if you can help me or to your vlog so I can see what you do and learn.

Ally Aldridge Goals, Writing

Goals for the year ahead – 2018

If you read my earlier post from today, you’ll know that I’ve reflected on how 2017 went.  This inspired me to set my goals for the year ahead.

Making 2018 even better

Blogging

I now absolutely love blogging.  I’m addicted.  It is has raised in my ranks of importance.  Here are my goals for 2018:

  • Categories:  Currently, I am running three blogs.  One for beauty review, one for anything related to writing and books and another that shares the posts by both.  It is very time consuming and exhausting!  I shall now be migrating them all to this blog and using categories to present content relevant to the readers interests.
  • Schedule:  
    • I was trying to post two articles a week and did pretty well but sometimes it was hard.   I need post regularly but once a week is sufficient and I can schedule posts.
    • I’ve been using loCal (free online calendar) to schedule my tweets.  I was unwell in December and never updated my tweets!  Aghh!  My poor followers had the same tweets for another month *cringe*.  Setting an end date is important.
  • Personal:  Keeping to my categories has meant that when life is busy I haven’t anything relevant to post whereas if I start sharing more about me (like being a mum or working in education), I could have more content and make my life easier.
  • Vlogging:  I did my first video blog this year and I was really impressed at how easy it was. I know I have more to learn to make my videos better but you’ve got to start somewhere.  I’ve also done some ‘unboxing’ videos on my instagram.
  • Product reviews:  I need to not be shy to contact brands that I love to see if they’ll support me reviewing their product.  I hope that in 2018 I will get the chance to review more products as I really enjoyed my experience of reviewing Saal Digital’s photo book.

Writing

My dream is still to be published and I still would love to go down the traditional route but not found an agent (or publisher) but some of that is my fault as I don’t query enough.

  • Drift/Jewel of the sea:  Stop editing and start querying!
  • Glide:  I know how this story ends and I need to finish it.  Readers who loved Drift (on Wattpad) want to read the next book in the series.  I have had so much support and encouragement and one user even sent me pictures of Scotland to help me.
  • Start a fresh new story:  I don’t want this to distract from the above goals but I’ve got lots of new story ideas and I really need to start something fresh.  I hope to make a start on this later in 2018.
  • Conventions: I love attending YALC and Felixstowe Book Festival last year and I would love to be able to go again.
  • Writer courses:  I’m very busy at the moment with a course for work but once that is out of the way I’d like to continue my studies with Write Story Books for Children and Write Romance fiction.  I’m enrolled on both these courses ready to complete when I have time.  I also would happily do another Curtis Brown Creative course online.
  • Reading:  I got a Kindle at last!  I plan to start reading more in 2018 and hope to discover some amazing reads to review on my blog (and Good Reads).
  • Twitter queries:  I need to learn when these are running so ~I

Ally plus text

Ally Aldridge Goals, Writing

Reflection on 2017

The year began by creating my first Word Press blog.  At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I’ve really enjoyed my crash course in learning to use the site.

Making 2018 even better.png

Here is what I learnt:

Blogging

  • Schedule posts/tweets: You can schedule posts so can write ahead of time and space posts out.  Use LoCalendar to schedule tweets (but make sure you set an end date so you don’t spam people).
  • Make it visual: 
    • Canva is a great site to create images for blog titles and other social media sites.
    • Google Drive Photos is an app you can download onto you phone and it  backs up images you have taken. You can then access these online from wherever  you are working to use them.
    • Instagram links can be added into articles and enables you to share pics from your own account and other users images.  I’ve used this to share professional brand images when I forgot to take a pic of the product I’m reviewing before it got all grubby.
  • Support others: 
    • You can share other people’s blogs on Word Press via the reader.  This helps support them and improves your content.  Follow people who write on similar subjects.  Can help when you are busy and hit a dry spell to keep your blog current.
    • As mentioned before, you can share pics by others posted to Instagram.  The image will have a link to their account so if a reader likes their pic they can choose to follow them.
  • Categorise posts:  It puts posts into collection of subjects and helps readers navigate your site or enables you to create pages.  I still have more to learn on this but I think I will be utilizing this in the new year.
  • Brands:  
    • Review brands you love to demonstrate the market you are interested in and to gain support.  Follow their social media accounts to be aware of blogger offers.
    • Offer to review brands you are interested in and you may strike lucky.  This year I got a free photobook from Saal Digital in return for my honest review.  I love the product and will cherish it forever – so happy!

Writing

  • Do courses:  If you can find time to do a writing course they are really good.  I did the Curtis Brown – Starting to Write your novel course.  This covered a lot of stuff I already knew but made me think about it again.  I really improved the start of two of my novels using what I learnt. See my review from earlier in the year here.
  • Enter competitions and query:  Take time to put your stories, poems or manuscripts out there.  Even if it is just a friendly competition – I won a few awards on Wattpad and it got me more readers and valuable feedback. I managed to enter one national competition but I am annoyed I missed the deadline for the one I really wanted to enter because I was taking too long editing – I edit too much!
  • Don’t over edit:  Guilty!  I am so guilty of this. I am my worst critique.  Every time, I think I am done editing… I start again.  I don’t even enjoy editing.  I must stop myself.  I wish I could afford an editor to do it for me.
  • Make time to be creative:  living a busy life can make it hard to find time to write but if you make time and do a little a day (even if it’s just plotting or researching), then you will keep making progress towards your goals.  I try to make sure I sit down at my PC/Laptop at least once a week to actually write.
  • Don’t force it:  If you force yourself to write you can cause yourself to burn out.   I think this was a side effect from NaNoWriMo.  I feel the writing bug coming back – phew!

Ally plus text