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MSLEXIA'S NEW
ROADSHOW TOUR

From Laptop to Bookshop

is a series of literary events designed to help emerging writers get their work published.

TO BOOK A WORKSHOP OR EVENING EVENT on the tour, contact local box office (see listings in the latest issue of Mslexia for details)

• The next Mslexia’s From Laptop to Bookshop Roadshow event, a First Impressions workshop, will be held at the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival (23-31 May), Dumfries. The workshop is designed to help emerging authors make a good 'first impression' on literary agents and editors. Mslexia founder, Debbie Taylor, will assist fiction writers and poets to identify the characteristics of an intriguing, inviting title and how to apply them to a writing project. The workshop is subsidised by the Arts Council of England. Strictly limited to 20 participants (women only).
Ticket price: £6
Date and time: 24 May, 10.30am-12.30pm
Venue: The Studio, Rutherford McCowan Building, University of Glasgow Crichton Campus, Bankend Road, Dumfries
Bookings: 01387 245 566
Website: www.dgartsfestival.org.uk

FOR EVENT ORGANISERS
Following the success of our previous two Mslexia Roadshow tours, we have received a major grant from the Arts Council Touring Programme for a third tour, which commences in March 2006.

LITERARY FESTIVALS are offered a range of ‘getting published’ workshops led by Mslexia’s Founder Debbie Taylor, who is also a published novelist and travel writer.

ARTS VENUES are offered their choice of one-day or two-day ‘mini-festivals’, which will explore the ‘getting published’ theme in more depth, with writing workshops and masterclass events with top authors and literary agents about the road to publication.

Audiences for our previous two tours were excellent.
Almost every workshop was oversubscribed and we attracted up to 300 people to our big author events. Authors who have toured previously with Mslexia include Monica Ali, Helen Dunmore, Anne Fine, Maggie Gee, Joanne Harris, Hilary Mantel, Val McDermid, Michele Roberts, Sarah Waters and Fay Weldon.


TO PROGRAMME AN EVENT, contact our agent Gerry Wardle on 0191 266 2225 or email her at triplepa@blueyonder.co.uk

WHAT THE AUDIENCE SAID OF PREVIOUS ROADSHOWS:

'Linda Anderson was inspirational. I have never written anything this adventurous before.'

'This was a new way of approaching the whole writing workshop idea. I wish it could have gone on longer.'

'Very stimulating discussion. It was wonderful to get a chance to talk to Fay Weldon.'

'I came away buzzing with new ideas. I can't wait to get home to try them out.'

'Thank you for a fascinating day. Come back next year!'
Debbie Taylor's
New Novel

Hungry Ghosts (Penguin pbk original)

THE novel is about love, loss and life after death. It is based on Debbie’s experiences of miscarriage, infertility, cold-water bathing and (on a warmer note) renovating a tumbledown house in Crete.

It tells the story of infertile Sylvia, who moves to Crete in an effort to purify her body after a series of miscarriages. She becomes obsessed with Martin, the secretive builder she hires to work on the little house she buys – and starts to stalk him.

As their relationship develops, the story of Martin's disturbed childhood – and the shocking secret that brought him to Crete – is gradually revealed. He was raised in isolation by his mentally-ill mother, until police discovered him ‘in a house filled with dead animals’, and he was taken into care.

Martin’s story, too, is based on the true report of an 11-year-old boy who had never been to school, discovered living in an overgrown house in the Home Counties.

Debbie is available to talk about the novel and/or lead workshops on autobiography or travel writing.

TO BOOK A READING OR WORKSHOP, contact Helen Christie on 0191 261 6656 or email helen@mslexia.demon.co.uk

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