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Friday 23 May 2014

Crimefest: Emerging Indie Voices

Emerging Indie Voices Panel Crimefest
I have recently returned from Crimefest in Bristol, and I had a whale of a time. I met old friends, virtual friends, and new friends, and we rocked. But what I wanted to talk about in this blog was the introduction of the first ever indie panel – Emerging Indie Voices.

Amazon.co.uk
I have been on several author panels at Crimefest over the years, but up to now they have been mainly composed of authors with traditionally published books. I suppose I was included by default because I’m a hybrid author, that is, I publish both ways. I have my indie books and my traditionally published ones. But I really root for the indie author because there is so much good stuff published by them nowadays. And if you don’t believe me take a look at my new nonfiction book Crime Fiction & the Indie Contribution, where I highlight the best of indie writing from a total of 61 authors.

Anyway, back to the inclusion of indie authors at Crimefest. As I said previously, this was the first year we have had a full panel at Crimefest devoted to indie crime fiction, although last year there was a 20 minute Spotlight session with Joanna Penn which paved the way. This panel was so energetic it was exhausting to listen to them, and their enthusiasm for what they do was apparent. Joann Penn was in the hot seat as moderator of the panel, and it really was hot. She sizzled in her presentation, and I was impressed with her energy levels as she bounced around in her chair and brought out the best in her authors.

A bonus for me was that two of the authors I highlight in Crime Fiction & the Indie Contribution were on that panel, and I was disappointed I hadn’t included the other two because their books sounded so interesting. Oh, and I’d never met any of them before because the indie examples in my book were totally random choices. So, who was on the panel? Well, I’ve already mentioned Joanna Penn, but her panel members were Tim Cooke, Carole Westron, and the two who are in my book were Eva Hudson and Mel Sherratt.

It was a stimulating panel and the authors represented indie writers brilliantly. By comparison the two following panels were positively sedate. In my view the Emerging Indie Voices panel was the highlight of Crimefest.

Chris Longmuir







3 comments:

Rosemary Gemmell said...

That sounds fantastic, Chris - I get Joanna's newsletter which is always inspiring.

Dorothy Johnston said...

A fascinating write-up. I wish we had something like this in Australia!

Chris Longmuir said...

Thanks Rosemary, and I'm glad you managed to get your comment up, Dorothy.