Legendary Authors

Hopping mad

 First off, just wanted to say congrats to Josie on the publication of Silence and the launch. It was good to meet Cath and Carys again and to meet Alys for the first time - she's really funny. We now have our first ever book signed by the author. (Not counting the copies of 8 Hrs we signed to each other. Still can't figure out whether this is sad or not.) So, well done Josie and hopefully, one day, we'll be inviting you to our first novel launch. We've already been planning it. We're thinking Halloween decorations, live band and maybe holding it in a haunted place like Llancaiach Fawr or Castell Coch.

Speaking of novels, we've been really busy recently. We've just sent off 3 novels for a first novel competition. There wasn't a limit on entries and we had 7 to go, but when we learned they wanted the full MS with 1 inch margins and double space, we decided to cut it down to 3. We've also sent off about 8 short stories to various competitions and magazines, and have just finished writing another one, so fingers crossed.

We've also just started a novel each and are about 38 chapters in. Cat's is about demons who escape from hell to collect souls for Hades' army against god and Lynx's is about ghost hunters. So we decided that for authenticity, we'd get ourselves a book on haunted places in Cardiff and go exploring. We've already been down a supposed haunted lane off Caerphilly mountain. We deliberately went in the dark after watching an episode of Supernatural. The thing is, we don't actually believe in ghosts or demons or any of the dark stuff we write about, but it still fascinates us, so we know the ghost hunting's a waste of time, but we're still gonna go. Next on the list is a road in Aberbeeg where a policeman was murdered in 1911. We've just finished watching the film 1408, about a sceptical writer who stays in a haunted hotel room. It was recommended by the cool cashier we mentioned in the blog about our cars. He said we had to watch it just before ghost hunting, probably so we'd be completely freaked out. Except the film wasn't scary, but it was funny. He mentioned the film was based on a story by Stephen King, so we were telling him about our ambition to knock King off his throne by the time we're 30, but we're now half way through being 25 and realise this is a bit ambitious. So we figured the only way we're gonna acheive this is to run him down and take him out of the game. (Joke. Although the last time this happened to him, he wrote the brilliant Kingdom Hospital programme whislt recovering. What if our attempt makes him into an invulnerable genius? We need a new plan.) Luckily, he laughed, which is a good sign. Usually you can see people smiling politely whilst they're trying to figure out how they can reach their phones and call for the chuckle wagon without attracting our attention. So King, next time you see a raven, watch it's not driving a car.

C L Raven, preparing to hire a Cadillac

Being a Legend in London

They say being a writer is a lonely business. I think this is especially true if you're a writer who doesn't live in London. Please don't misunderstand...this isn't a moan. As a woman who has turned being anti-social into an art-form at times, I don't necessarily see being 'lonely' as a negative. Indeed, shutting myself away in a room with only a laptop for company is a bit of an indulgence for me. Especially as I don't get the chance to do it that often these days. However it is nice, once in a while, to catch up with a few fellow Legends and other literary types. Again, a bit of an indulgence: the day job and the distance means I don't get to go to as many Legend bashes as I would like. So, it being the summer holiday and all, I grabbed my opportunity to head down to The Smoke on last Thursday.

Admittedly the trek from the provinces wasn't all plain sailing. Our train broke down and we were booted off in Bedford and ushered onto another very overcrowded train which eventually heaved it's way into St Pancras over an hour late (Yey!) However, it was a lovely sunny day in London so we weren't disheartened. Even with the delay we'd still arrived with a few hours to spare before the 'do'. We headed down to Covent Garden for a spot of light refreshment and a spot of shopping.

All was going swimmingly until some oaf trod on my heel and...disaster...

They managed not only to pull my flip flop off my foot but completely detach the top bit from the bottom bit. Alas my footwear would neither flip nor flop and I was left in the middle of London with only on item of functioning footwear. Excellent!!!!

A barefoot trek to the nearest tube station followed. Gadding about on the Piccadilly line with only one shoe is quite an experience too, I can tell you. At last, I managed to reach Accessorise back in St Pancras and treated myself to this new pair of spangley flip flops to wear to the party. Astonishingly, after explaining to the shop assistant that I really didn't need a carrier bag for my purchase, we got to the appropriately named 'Yorkshire Grey' on time. Had a few glasses of vino to cool down with before the main business of the evening. The re-launch of White Summer - written by my much missed co-author Luke Bitmead and the award of the writers' bursary set up in his name. The finer details,

I'll let you read about on the Legend Press website. However, a good evening was had by all, despite the rather precarious journey there. Was great to meet up with Legends I'd not met before and to catch up with those I'd met previously. Here's looking forward to the next one!