Adele Parks

By PJH

I particularly liked Adele Parks because she seemed like a woman in touch with reality. I know some would say that, as a writer of chick lit., (as she was frequently reminded) that she may be a hopeless romantic, someone with her head in the clouds or in Cloud Cuckoo Land maybe? I think not. She was down-to-earth, friendly, honest and witty.

Her feelings for the term 'chick lit.' are mixed, she feels this is a name given to the genre by men. This is a patronising title, to a large extent, and can unnecessarily cut off a large percentage of the potential readership (i.e. men). She then, with a broad grin, told stories of rather embarrassed men telling her, at book signings, that they were only buying for their wives / girlfriends. This was OK until she asked to whom she should address the signed copy - here came the problem - an embarrassed throat clearing and an abrupt change of mind, ' Oh no, it's OK...er, I'll leave it for now.'

She said that she has always been drawn to Romance, even doing her dissertation on seduction. Even more interesting,then, to be told that she has never read a single Mills & Boon story - preferring instead to go her own way, find her own romantic voice. She reminded us that her contract states that she is a 'writer of contemporary women's fiction' rather than of chick lit., and that, anyway, she doesn't find glamour comes easily enough to live up to the latter brand. She feels so much more comfortable in jeans and her naturally curly hair in frizz mode, rather than the sleek straightened glamour puss the media seem to clamour so hotly for. Well done to her too.

Whatever she's doing, never mind the critics, it is working. Here is a very successful writer, with 8 books under her belt and over a million copies sold - and across 15 languages too. A book a year since 2001 is not to be sniffed at.

To top it off, I brought her latest book 'Tell Me Something' and took it to her, after the lecture, to be signed. I then had a charming little conversation with her about how much I looked like one of the characters in one of her books (not the one I'd brought apparently). I felt very honoured and stood there blushing ridiculously with pleasure - just hope now that the character she had in mind was very good looking and, of course, extraordinarily intelligent... Or not?

Joshua Mowll

By PJH

Time for me to get real. No more dreaming of easily achieved fame and fortune (well, not too much anyway) and back to reality. Joshua Mowll spoke thoughtfully and realistically about the perils and pitfalls of being a writer of children's books / graphic artist for the Mail on Sunday.

His down-to-Earth manner was refreshing, telling of his first inspiration from doing solely illustrative work to story writing as well. This came about by his boredom in drawing, of all things, dog training graphics. The idea of a Tin Tin style adventure came to him through these canine diagrams and he decided he should really start writing his ideas down. Hey presto, a writer is born - well, after several million hours of gruelling hard work and, apparently, screen-staring related sciatica into the bargain. What a lot to look forward to.

He also spoke more seriously about his career, starting with 'The Guild of Specialists', his series of illustrated children's novels with Walker Books and, also, about his forthcoming book 'The Great Space Race' - set in the 1920s and very much in Indiana Jones mode. I looked carefully at some of these books after the lecture and I thought they were amazing. To have the writing talent alone is wonderful enough - but to be able to draw so brilliantly as well? Mind blowing.

Next on the agenda was the presention of tips for budding writers and warnings of what not to present to prospective publishers / agents. His tales of editing woes worried me mercilessly - regurgitating scary memories of creative writing workshops, being told "no, cut it, scrap that, start again!" Is this really what I have to do? Ouch. All this is true said Mr.Mowll. He added, with a wry grin, that cutting a 70 000 word novel down to only 40 000 is just a case of, 'well, you gotta do what you gotta do'. Scary indeed.

So - has this put me off being a writer? Well - it did for a moment, possibly for as long as half a minute. But being the glutton for punishment that I am, I walked out of that lecture theatre inspired rather than depressed. What is wrong with me?