Winner of the Mills & Boon Prima Flirty Fiction competition, I am very pleased to have the lovely Louise Dove, author of The Chic Boutique on Baker St. as a guest author on my blog today. Rachel is a mum of two from Yorkshire. She has always loved writing and has had previous success as a self-published author.

Having recently returned from the Beaconlit Festival of Books and Writing, Rachel gives us a fascinating insight into how it felt to be one of the members of the New Voices panel.

BEACONLIT

Saturday 2nd July was another first for me, in this year of being a published author. My first literature festival ever, and I was lucky enough to be a member of the New Voices panel, with Angela Clarke and Jeannie Waudby, crime and YA authors respectively. I arrived dressed up, nervous, armed with books and pens. I had spoken to the organiser Dave Sivers, an author himself, and the other panel members beforehand on social media, and was looking forward to meeting them and our moderator, author and tutor Morgen Bailey in person.

The experience was wonderful. I felt like I had stepped back into my mother ship, and all the other like-minded people there were book loving aliens, lovers of the written word, like me. I was home!

The panel session flew by, I even raised a few laughs (intentionally, I might add) and the other panel members were a joy to chat and work with. I chatted about books, writing, agents and publishers with gleeful abandon, and very much enjoyed other talks too.

I sat afterwards in my hotel room, sniffing my goodie bag full of flyers, contacts and signed books (don’t tell my husband I bought books, ssshh!) and I am already looking forward to the next festival or writerly event. They are by far the best places to go to chat books and be inspired. I shall be putting pen to paper this very night and making the most of the renewed enthusiasm I feel. Beaconlit, I salute you. Beam me up, Scotty.

Rachel is currently working on a new novel and still submits regularly to magazines and competitions. You can purchase her novel here or alternatively contact her via social media (see below).

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