Tips for the budding ( writers that is) from the London Writers Cafe

Last night I went to my first meet up event for writers organised by the London Writers Cafe (http://www.meetup.com/londonwriterscafe/) a great resource for writers at all levels. There was a panel with 3 published authors and an editor from a publishing house.
Leigh Russell was on first and her energy and drive for writing resonated with my approach. She bypassed agents and sent her first book to a publisher which resulted in a meeting three weeks later and a signing. Now she has two books published ( her first only came out in June 2009) and a further one out next June plus three more works in progress-inspirational:) As if this wasn't enough she is a one woman PR and events machine traipsing to libraries and book shops to push the book out through signings and events and when that's all done there's still no resting to be done for she is online blogging ( http://leighrussell.blogspot.com/) and meeting people.Her quote "When you start writing you realise that life becomes either writing or thinking about writing"-so true , terrifying and inspirational at the same time.
Next we met lovely Sue Moorcroft -another hard grafter who had to publish 89 short stories before she climbed onto the ladder of published novelist. Her account of getting an opportunity to pitch for a how to book on writing romantic fiction involved a chance encounter and three bottles of wine-say no more. Truly network orientated and driven to make this a paying career Sue has been and is I believe a teacher of writing, a writer of short stories, serials, romantic fiction and now self help books as well as a blogger and tweeter.Sue's blog is full of handy tips and hints ( she promises) and news of competitions take a peek at http://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/
By the time we got onto Kaz Mahoney an enthusiast of all things vampirical, mythological and magical we loved her account of how her partner marched her off to a cafe at age 33 (soz Kaz) with the order to "write something" after weeks of her moaning that she was too old to be a writer -Exactly what all writers need at the start, that firm or brutal nudge that sends us over the edge into a crazy obsession that takes over our life.Again here we had bundles of energy, stories and a opportunity in the now defunct Murder One bookshop that led to her publishing a short story in a Vampire anthology.You can learn more about her forays into dressing up for an Italian meal with her publisher at http://www.kazmahoney.com/blog/

Then we got to the dreaded publisher who was lovely and not terrifying at all . From a small imprint at Harper Collins called Blue Door she gave us the authors dream a tip that made the event so worth it-http://www.authonomy.com/ Once you visit this website if you are an aspiring writer your aspiration will coalesce into inspiration when you see what's available there.

So there you have it -my contribution to writerville-get writing folks:)

Beauty is love and peace is fine.