Farnham is currently holding its first Literary Festival. Given Farnham’s craft credentials, I was surprised there’d never been one before. Still, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. And, when Mirinda found out about it (through me) she instantly started circling events we (she) wanted to go to.
Of course, before booking, I had to find out what the mask situation was going to be. There were three venues we wanted to visit. Two of them answered with something definite, the third, sadly, waffled and passed the buck higher up. I then heard nothing from them. Which was a shame because we would have really enjoyed attending the opening and seeing Sophie Hannah.
Still, we booked into a load of others and, this evening, was the first.
The session was called From Beginner to Best Seller. It was in the wonderful Oxfam Bookshop and featured local author Suzanne Goldring who has, so far, clocked up an amazing 400,000 sold copies of her first published novel, My Name is Eva.
Suzanne told us how she did it. How she wrote seven novels before hitting on the one that was published. How she found a publisher. In short, how she created a bestseller.
It was fascinating hearing about her journey. Apparently, the secret to her success was twofold. Firstly, the fact that she just wrote and wrote and wrote. Secondly, pure chance. With a shrug, Suzanne told us that there are mountains of novels out there just waiting to be published and you just have to be lucky that yours is chosen.
My Name is Eva was randomly picked up by a junior editor at a publishing house who then took it to her boss, saying she’d really like it.
All up, it was an excellent talk with a good Q&A session afterwards. Interestingly, all the questions were asked by women though there were a fair few men there.
As an added bit of interest, Suzanne was very involved in the No Wey Incinerator movement. We thanked her for her excellent work in getting it stopped.
Afterwards, we were on our way home when Mirinda suggested we pop into the Nelson’s Arm for a drink. I wasn’t going to argue with that.
There were quite a few people inside, enjoying a drink and a chat. We sat by the fire. It really is my favourite Farnham pub.
