Auchterarder Book Festival

What a lovely day I had on Saturday! My husband acted as my lovely assistant by carrying books and driving me to the Auchterarder Book Festival which took place in the Aytoun Hall in Auchterarder.

We arrived early and were made most welcome by the volunteers manning the hall at that time. One of the most fascinating things about this excellent festival is that it is entirely run by volunteers. The organisation is exemplary and everything ran to time. The festival even runs its own book stall with browsing table so authors don't need to worry about selling their books and readers can have a look at a copy of the works first before they decide to buy. It is incredibly well run.

The first event I took part in was 'Meet the Authors' where authors and readers got to know each other. It was a bit like literary speed dating and great fun. I spoke about Hunter's Rules which was published by SpellBound Books earlier this year and The First Cut, the first book in the series of Jane Renwick Thrillers.

After a short break for a coffee and a biscuit, provided by the Festival organisers, my husband and I went to listen to four authors speak about their newly published books. There was a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and authors known to me while others were new. It was a most interesting session.

The next panel was one on which I took part. Killers -v-Hunters where my novels in the DI Hunter Wilson Crime Thriller series were pitted against the excellent Killer series written by Wendy H. Jones. It was a fun panel to do because Wendy and I know each other and our respective works well. The panel was ably chaired by Sheena Macleod who writes her own fabulous historical fiction novels.

After that my husband kindly went out to get us a sandwich for lunch before we went to listen poet Chris Tait and members of various local writing groups read their poetry and short stories. What a variety of styles and performances there were!

I then collected my unsold books and was pleasantly surprised that there were relatively few to gather. That is always gratifying. This was the first time I had been invited to attend the Auchterarder Book Festival, but I hope it will not be the last.

Val Penny