Things have been quiet for me on the events front lately, but two forthcoming talks about all things “mullet” are now confirmed and I’m excited to be able to tell you all about them.
Firstly, Sandstone Press, my publishers, have commenced a series of monthly events featuring their books, and I will be doing one on Thursday 5 May at 7.30pm at The Greenhouse, in Dingwall. Yes, that’s the date of the Scottish Parliament elections, but with any luck you’ll have voted by then and will be able to make it along. In fact, it’ll be finished in time for you to vote afterwards if you like (assuming your polling station isn’t miles away).
Anyway, enough mention of politics, because the event will of course be nothing to do with the elections. I’ll be doing a few readings from Up The Creek Without a Mullet, answering questions (there’ll be an “in conversation” format) and there’ll be copies for sale and even some refreshments, you lucky people. But just in case you’ve been to one of my past events, don’t worry – it won’t be a simple repetition of what you’ve seen before. I’m delighted to say that among a couple of other extra fun things we’ll be doing, I’ll be reading some “hot off the press” extracts from the intended sequel, an exclusive preview if you like, which should hopefully give you a bit of a flavour of what will be coming next.
The second event will be in Edinburgh on Monday 13 June (time and venue to be confirmed), and is organised by the author and adventurer Alastair Humphreys. Besides doing all sorts of interesting and exciting things, Alastair runs fundraising events for Hope and Homes for Children featuring other adventurers doing talks on their travels.
But they are talks with a difference: each speaker presents twenty slides, each automatically progressing after twenty seconds – a method apparently called Pecha Kucha and originating in Japan. This is the first time that Alastair has brought the format to Scotland (though you can read about others here), and other speakers will include round-the-world cyclist Mark Beaumont, so I shall be in intimidatingly prestigious company. While twenty slides for twenty seconds sounds on the face of it like a simple concept, it will be an incredibly difficult 400 seconds to deliver well. It should be a real challenge but it will be a privilege to help raise money for such an excellent cause (and because it’s for charity, tickets will cost. I’ll provide details on that once I know).
Please do come along if you’re able, or spread the word to those you think might be interested. I’ve created an event for the Dingwall bash on Facebook here, will do one for the second event once I have the confirmed details, and of course have updated this website’s events page.
