Friday 11 July 2014

Winchester Writers Festival

A weekend of masterclasses and feedback from an assortment of publishers, agents and authors. It's not cheap but it is worth every penny. Take a wander over to The University of Winchester Writers' Festival.

Saturday 7 June 2014

Abingdon Town Music In The Park and other adventures

Saturday started out miserable. It was raining and neither of us wanted to get out of bed but by 10am I had stirred, found tea for Jane and managed to microwave the remnants of last nights take-away for my breakfast. The light improved as clouds dispersed and we decided to proceed with our Plan A for the day, the tickets Jane had purchased for Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council Music in the Park being held in the Abbey Gardens. We reasoned if the weather turned back to rain we could come home without too much effort.
Our stroll to the Gardens was interrupted as I spotted a narrow boat trying to pull another off the silted shallows in the Thames. They were canal cruising folks who didn't understand any vagaries of river navigation, indeed the smaller boat was barely capable of moving upstream against the current. I got a coffee for for my help getting them off and met a lovely chap called Peter who owned a small cruiser which was moored further up-river.
Jane and I went to Abingdon Fun in the Park where we did maggot racing, spent a small fortune on tombola's and treasure hunts without winning and generally spent money supporting good causes. Then time for a wander over the large weir to Abingdon Lock where Jane and I watched more boats messing about including one poor thing which wouldn't re-start and had to be dragged out of the lock by the chaps on board.
Then a wander back towards the Gardens, being transformed in our absence for Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council Music in the Park except we got a distracted in the Water Garden by meeting Peter with his family who spent a lovely afternoon regaling us with various nautical tales mainly involving things not to do in kayaks and essential boating supplies vis a corkscrew.
On to the Gardens where we bought pork roll, pizza, egg roll, chips, tea and coffee to be followed by more tea and coffee then crepes. Can anyone guess we were hungry? Suitably refreshed, nothing to do with the alcohol that had lubricated Peter's tales at all, we spent a lovely evening listening to some wonderful music from local bands followed by Abingdon's own prom programme and finishing with fireworks.
A restful day with lovely people, wonderful sunshine and good music. Life doesn't get much better.

Thursday 1 May 2014

Chipping Norton Literary Festival

A wonderful weekend of first-class literary events. I was delighted to get my first attempt at a romance novel critiqued by uber-scary-agent Carole Blake as part of the Wannabeawriter TV Show Critique Event. Jane and I met our ever-delightful friend Morgen Bailey who attended and blogged about some of the events. The event ran smoothly thanks to the army of cheerful volunteers deployed. Now let's see .. places to catch up with me Chez Castillon‎ in May, Winchester in June . Otherwise you'll find me lurking at a keyboard somewhere.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

My photo is in Jane's weight-loss book

100 Ways to Fight the Flab and still enjoy wine and chocolate by the ever-lovely Jane Wenham-Jones includes my very own diet tip with full credit and a photo. Roll 6 for chocolate is my one. Go buy your own copy to see the other excellent 99 and some lovely anecdotes. Available from all good Amazon's near you. PS. Being mentioned in Jane's book has inspired my own weight loss programme.