There is lots to say, and I’ll probably spread it over two (or more) posts. We are currently recovering from an intense week, packed full of readings and events. It’s still not over, of course. I shall be going to see Roddy Doyle this afternoon…

First up we visited the Lowry, taking part in the fantastically organised “Independent’s Day”. I was asked to take part in a debate about the role of writing schools in the production of magazines. It was fun, although my advice about not going to a writing school if you only want to be published did not go down well. Paul Neads was on hand to break up my doom-casting by reading from his Transmission published story, “Car Trouble”.

The Lowry was a fantastic venue and we met plenty of people/magazine publishers. Thanks must be passed on to Cathy Bolton and the folks at Literature Northwest for organising such a belter.

Next up, we met the contributors we featured in the newly-published Transmission #09. This was a fantastic night, and everyone in attendance was thoroughly excellent company. It should be said that it did devolve into a particularly drunken game of Scrabble in a very busy pub (results pictured). Here Chris Killen, author of Issue #09’s “Detective Story”, secured his first victory of the week…

Chris’ second triumph came in the shape of a well deserved Blog Award. He also read from Day of Moustaches at the event organised by top blogger, Kate Feld. Also on hand to read were A Free Man in Preston, Airport Diaries, Elizabeth Baines and Caroline Smailes. Caroline’s blog was noticed by The Friday Project, and this lead to the publication of her novel, In Search of Adam. This event showed that there is a varied (and literary) breadth of writing on blogs, and the form should not be dismissed.

It was also The First Transmission & Salt Literary Oktoberfest on Thursday, which went very well indeed. I will write about this, with pictures, in a later post, so stay tuned…