NAWG Festival

The Babe Magnet and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time at the National Association of Writers' Groups Festival of Writing at the weekend. The weather was warm and sunny and so we grabbed a chance to spend some time in the lovely old city of Durham where we walked around by the Cathedral and the river before heading to Collingwood College where ther Festival was being held.

I wrote a book - Give and Take - set partly in Durham way back in 1991 and so lots of memories came back as we wandered around - hard to believe that it was actually 20 years ago!

The Festival was busy and buzzy with each of us doing 4 workshops from the Friday evening to the Sunday morning. Thanks to everyone who came to my workshops - I had a lot of fun as well as some really interesting discussions. Specially on the Sunday when the Writing a Sex Scene workshop was so much fun. Thanks to everyone who joined in, coped with 'sex changes' and even got involved in a threesome (on paper only) .

Saturday evening there was the celebratory dinner where we enjoyed the company of the delightful novelist Denise Robertson and her charming husband. The food was great and the staff of the college were warm and friendly. Our thanks to Nicolette Ward the chair of NAWG, Steve Bowkett and all the members of the committee who were so welcoming.

But on a personal note my favourite moment was when one of the college cleaners spotted my books on the Festival bookstall and was thrilled to discover that one of her favourite romance authors was in Durham. It was a joy to sign some books for her and to receive a great big, enthusiastic hug of thanks for the pleasure my writing has brought her.

Now that's just why I write and the best possible reward for slaving over a hot (or at times not so hot) keyboard.