Hello everyone
How are you? It’s Friday evening and I’m sitting down with a cup of tea, catching up on the soaps. Roy scattering Haley’s ashes. #Sob!
This is the calm before the storm though, because I’ve a really busy weekend ahead.
Ever spent quality time with 22 hyper five year olds? Well, that’s me tomorrow! Cos’ it’s my daughter Amelia’s 5th birthday party. But you know me, I love a good party and I can’t wait to see her having fun with her pals from school!
Aside from birthday parties, this weekend Harper Collins also kick off their annual Romance Festival. It’s a free event, filled with author chats and book news, plus giveaways.
You can sign up for your FREE ticket here!
I’ll be there on Sunday. Saturday, it’s all about Amelia, but I’ll try pop my head in to say hello if I’m not passed out after all the excitement.
The full line up of authors that are taking part are listed here!
So what am I doing at the festival? Well on Sunday, I’ll be taking part in a Goggle hangout with some writerly pals.
Susan Conley, the Books Editor of The Evening Herald will be fielding questions from everyone on Twitter and Facebook and putting author pals, Hazel Gaynor, Clodagh Murphy and myself through our paces!
Once I have the link to the Google hangout, I’ll share! But please do come along. Will be fun I promise.
And if that’s not enough, my first VLOG will be launched at the festival too.
What’s a vlog, I hear you cry? Well, here’s the official definition …
Volga
vlɒɡ/
noun
noun: vlog; plural noun: vlogs
1a blog in which the postings are primarily in video form.
Clear as mud now eh?
If you look on youtube you will find gazillions of vlogs on every subject under the sun.
My fab editor has been saying to me for ages that I should do one and after a gentle nudge (ok shove) from her before Christmas, I agreed to give it a go!
What can you expect if you stumble across my vlog? Hmm….. Well, if you ever read my blogs, or indeed know me in person, you’ll know that I’m a talker. I’ve an opinion about lots of things …. parenting, love, marriage, children, dieting and of course anything to do with books.
Also, fair warning, I have what some might call a wandering mind. Always curious (never nosey!) and rarely asleep. So I’m likely to jump from one subject to another. When you think about it, it’s totally natural that it likes to go off in hundreds of different directions at the same time. Because when I’m deep in creation of a book I live in multiple worlds. That of my own wonderful, hectic life of course and that of my diverse characters.
Now I’ve made myself sound like a cadbury’s fruit and nut bar.
I’m not, honestly! The vlogs are likely to include ANYTHING! But it will always have a strong lean towards one of the big loves in my life – books!
On that subject I’m going to share some book recommendations with you. You never know, I might even persuade the odd author to join me for a little chat and interview. I’ll talk about the writing process and give some tips that I feel might help.
And my editor suggested I do an #AskCarmel section. I’m looking forward to this bit, cos’ I love giving out advice to people. If you have a question about books, writing, life, love or the universe, fire away. I’ll give it my best shot and answer on my next vlog!
Actually I get questions every week from writers and readers through social media, some of these will get answered now on my blog too.
If you have a question for me get in touch here at www.carmelharrington.com or on Twitter @happymrsh or Facebook.com/happymrsh
Hope to see you all over the weekend – virtually or otherwise,
For now, it’s time for another cuppa
Carmel x
