In the studio

I’ve had a lovely week.

On Wednesday, I went to Quince Studios for the recording of Flight to Freedom. Flight to Freedom is a prequel chapter I’ve written to Love & Freedom, preparatory to  Love & Freedom being published on 1 June. So, through the good offices of Ian Skillicorn of Short Story Radio and National Short Story Week, actor Penelope Rawlins was engaged to read Flight to Freedom and I went down to London to the Quince Studios for a photo call. I really enjoyed the entire experience and it was eerie to hear Penelope bring Honor, Love & Freedom‘s American heroine, to life. Penelope was the perfect choice, having been brought up both in the UK and the US – and she can switch between the two accents effortlessly.

Flight to Freedom will be available as a free audio file and download, in due course, as part of the promotion for Love & Freedom. A great application for the emerging technologies – and a freebie for readers.

Matt Walters, who owns Quince Studios, was really welcoming and let me into Mission Control, as you can see (but I didn’t touch anything, honest).

There’s a massive amount of technology involved in recording and it was fascinating to get some insight. Thanks, Matt and Ian.

And, of course, to Penelope Rawlins, who, apart from being incredibly sweet and lovely to meet, is Talented with a capital T.

I can’t wait to hear the finished product. From the point of recording on, I have no idea what magic Ian or Matt will accomplish with it! I just know it will be good.

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Yummy London Book Fair

I spent yesterday on the Choc Lit stand at the London Book Fair with fellow Choc Lit author Christina Courtenay and Lyn and Paul Vernham from Choc Lit. It was great!

The buzz was incredible.

We were approached by representatives from all kinds of countries and Lyn and Paul were in and out of meetings all day. This left Christina and I in in sole charge of the chocolates, provided by the lovely people at Montezuma’s. As you can see, I positioned myself strategically …

The London Book Fair is a real event. I’m sure that if you’re in whatever business a trade fair caters to, you’re familiar with the browsers, the focused visitors, the people who are fed up with the business of the day and just want to stop and talk for a few minutes. The queues for the loo/food/places to sit, the back/foot ache, the feeling (by lunch time) that you just want to go to sleep.

And maybe, like me, the next day’s feeling that you want to go back and do it all again!

It’s a glittering affair. I loved the opportunity to speak to all kinds of people in the parts of publishing with which I generally don’t interact, like distribution and education, publishers from other countries. Choc Lit books have just been launched in Australia – Starting Over came out there on 1 April – so we’re keen to expand further.

We were also able to meet the sales team both from the UK and from Australia. We had to pass on going for a drink with them because of my train, unfortunately …

Christina Courtenay and I have recently agreed to run a workshop at the Ladies Who Love Literary Festival in Bromley on 25 June 2011 and were really pleased when the organisers sought us out to say hi.

My thanks to Christina for providing these pix and I hope everything goes as well for the Choc Lit team today as it did yesterday.