I am happy to host a guest blog by one of my readers, Julie
Merrilees Watters. Julie has never written a blog post before, but when I saw
this on the Montrose Memories Facebook page, I pleaded with her to allow me to
post it. Happily, she agreed, and I haven’t altered anything in her post except
for separating it into paragraphs. So now I’ll hand the blog over to Julie.
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| Julie Merriless Watters |
It was great to be able to attend
Waterstones in Dundee for the launch of Chris Longmuir's new book Missing
Believed Dead, along with my Mum on Thursday night.
As book launch virgins, we weren't
sure what to expect. We were very pleasantly surprised to find an area in the
bookshop was set out with chairs; there were welcome nibbles & drinks to
keep any pangs of hunger or thirst at bay. Talking of welcomes - Chris, who was
at a desk at the front, spotted us coming in & she came all the way to the
back to say "Hello," have a wee chat & a hug, as well as take the
time to sign a few copies of her previous books for us.
I asked Chris if she was nervous
about the event. She had actually been anxious that nobody would turn up! However,
people trickled in & there were no seats left by the time Chris was due to
take the floor. Waterstones staff quickly had to bring in more chairs to try
& accomodate everyone.
After an opening welcome, Chris
gave us a hint or two about Missing Believed Dead's plot, along with few verbal
appetizers about some of the characters. She chose to highlight the D.S. in her
story & I was left with the feeling that I wanted to mother this chappie or
fend off some of the blows bound to come his way via his new boss.
Chris asked us if we wanted to
hear the first chapter read & shared some advice she'd been given as a
writer. That advice was to basically hook the reader in that first chapter. She
very cleverly set the scene & I was able to picture myself there witnessing
the event as it unfolded & thinking "which one is going to prevail
here?"
Later, Chris asked if anyone had
any questions they wanted to ask. There were quite a few ranging from "Do
you base your characters on real people that you know?" "How do you
keep track of your characters?" "Will you please sort out the D.S. in
the stories with a good woman?" "Do you write for 6,8,10 hour
stretches per day?" I asked on the quiet "Do you keep a notebook with
you all the time to write lines down, so you won't forget them?" Chris
held the interest of the audience easily & concluded her talk to a healthy
applause.
I had the pleasure of meeting
Chris' family afterwards & we had a lovely time discussing Montrose
Memories, the people we had met as a result of it & the things we had since
learnt about our town that we hadn't known before. It really was such an
enjoyable night. Well done, Chris! XX
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| Getting a hug from Julie |
And thank you, Julie, for such a wonderful description of a
wonderful night where I got to meet so many of my readers.
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