This morning the 20th November came the announcement that Hull had won the bid for the City of Culture 2017. What a glorious achievement that was greeted by a great cheer from those waiting at the Hull Truck Theatre and those who like me were listening in on Radio Humberside.
Congratulations are in order for the teams who were so actively promoting the city in the bid. Well done and well deserved.
I too have had a busy and exciting time in both October and this month of November. October saw in the Beverley Literature Festival with many celebrated faces and personalities and I was fortunate to be there hosting a panel of Romantic Novelists; Rhoda Baxter, Jane Lovering and Sarah Mallory. I think I can safely say that it was a success and we were pleased to see other novelists in the audience to support us.
On the last day of the festival we also saw the culmination of the Val Wood short story competition and prizes were kindly sponsored by Quickline Communications to very worthy winners. The successful stories can be read on my website.
November is always hectic as this is the month when a new publication comes out. His Brother's Wife is my latest offering and as it is twenty years since the publication of my very first book The Hungry Tide, to celebrate I also wrote a short story, The Maid's Secret, which came out as an e/publication on the same day as His Brother's Wife. It is intended as short prequel to the main novel and tells the story of why the young Ellen Tuke became the person she was in His Brother's Wife. I will say no more about her, but suggest you read His Brother's Wife first!
The launch at Waterstone's Hull was brilliant and once more the staff there produced a wonderful window display. The Town Crier in all his splendour rang his bell and made a proclamation and so many of my lovely readers came along to help us celebrate.
My signing schedule is almost over now with just one more bookshop to visit in Doncaster on the 29th and then dear me, we shall be in December. Where has the year gone? Well, I might say the same for the last twenty; it's gone on writing books.
