I was lucky enough to be able to see Sarah Waters on Saturday night, as part of World Book Night and the Glasgow Aye Write! book festival.
I was also lucky enough to be able to go to a craft fair, see a film, eat East Asian food several times, meet friends, go to a second and even more fantastic author event (more on that later) and generally indulge myself all weekend. But back to Sarah Waters.
It was a memorable night. A free copy of Fingersmith was thrust into my hand after I had taken a seat next to none other than... Lizzy Siddal of Lizzy's Literary Life! She had kindly kept an eagle eye out for me and my husband and grabbed us as we were heading towards the back of the queue.
What fun! My first book blogger encounter! Looking at Lizzy's giant bag of books she had brought to get signed, I felt stupidly empty handed. Why didn't anyone remind me to bring my Sarah Waters books to get autographed!?
It's been so long since I've been to an author event, I forgot the routine.
Bring (or buy) books, stand in queue for ages, nervously swallow as front of queue approaches, nearly drop books on own feet, stand idiotically feeling like a schoolgirl in front of famous author, blush and forget how one's own name is spelled, thank profusely, gush to friends, kick oneself for hours afterwards about some stupid thing said.
You'd think I would have remembered how it worked.
Sitting next to Lizzy, scribbling furiously away in her notebook, I was obviously a hack. Even more so than Sarah Waters, who accused herself of being same at one point.
Sarah Waters was saying all sorts of interesting things -- I finally had to bring out the envelope with my tickets in it, and a pen, and start scribbling notes too. The envelope crinkled unpleasantly, and was too small. The notes got all jumbled. Ah well! Better than nothing.
Here they are:
Books become part of us when we really love them
We all slightly rewrite a book when we read it -- we all have our own Jane Eyre... our own Mr Darcy...
Class-cross-dressing in Fingersmith like gender-cross-dressing in Tipping the V.
Revises as she goes along -- circular process.
Revising process of putting it through ever-finer sieves.
Research -- reads fiction & diaries from the period. To get to know the era.
A sign of a character she likes a lot is that they get all the best lines
Interest in paranormal/supernatural -- what do ghosts mean to us -- unfinished business. Psychological landscape.
Writing currently -- domestic story -- London 1920s
It was all over much too quickly and then we just had to wander back to our hotel in a bit of a daze! Thank you, Lizzy, for being wonderful and sharing your book festival know-how!
Oh, I must read more Sarah Waters! I read Fingersmith last year and loved it -- I keep wanting to read more of her but my TBR shelf makes me feel so guilty. How exciting that you had a book to sign -- don't author events usually have copies for sale (though I know it's frustrating when you have books at home). And I feel exactly the same way when I'm in line for a signing -- I usually end up saying something idiotic. Hopefully they don't remember!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great event! I loved Fingersmith when I read it, quite a few years ago now.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy hearing authors talk about their books and their writing process.
An author event I went to a few months ago, I actually took a few pictures (yes, that was scary as I was sitting in the front) but didn't take any notes. I did remember most of it for my blog post. Oh, it's fun, these author events!
Karen, It's so nice to have an unread Waters to save for a future treat!
ReplyDeleteLeeswammes, It's been a long time since I saw an author speak but I always enjoy it, even when (or especially when) it's an author I haven't heard of before.
Sarah Waters is such an interesting speaker isn't she? I'm really excited that she's writing a novel set in the 1920s, my favourite historical period! What a great night you all had!
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