Filtering by: Digital
Digital Workshop: Writing Fantasy Poetry
May
31
2:00 PM14:00

Digital Workshop: Writing Fantasy Poetry

In this generative workshop on fantasy poetry, we will explore using other worlds to inspire our poetry, bring magic into the everyday and have a go at persona poetry (writing from a different character's perspective). This will be a chance to try out different ways of approaching fantasy in poetry as well as looking at some different poems to provide inspiration. All the exercises will be a jumping off point for an area of poetry that isn't always acknowledged or explored, and a fun chance to get fantastical in a relaxed setting!

This workshop is for people with any level of writing experience - whether you've written lots or whether you have never written at all! There will be a break in the workshop and the workshop will be auto-captioned. 

Your Workshop Leader
Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet who is interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body through writing, as well as writing about joy and happiness from a marginalised perspective. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Too Hot to Sleep, is published by Written Off Publishing and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s 2023 Poetry Book of the Year Award. Her debut novel, These Mortal Bodies, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster in 2025. She can usually be found in or near the sea.


About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Gods and their Mortals with Vajra Chandrasekera and Vaishnavi Patel
May
31
5:00 PM17:00

Gods and their Mortals with Vajra Chandrasekera and Vaishnavi Patel

 

Vajra Chandrasekera is a writer, mostly of speculative fiction, from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors is nominated for the Hugo, Lammy, and Nebula awards, won the Crawford Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023, and his second novel Rakesfall is out in 2024. He has published over a hundred short stories, essays, reviews, articles, and poems since 2012, in half a dozen languages and in publications from the US, UK, India, China, Pakistan, and France among others, ranging from Analog and Clarkesworld to West Branch and The Los Angeles Times. His short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and collected in prestigious anthology series including The Best Science Fiction of the Year, The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, and The Apex Book of World SF. He has worked as an editor for Strange Horizons and Afterlives: The Year’s Best Death Stories, and as a judge for the Dream Foundry Writing Contest and the Salam Award.

He is online at vajra.me and probably on whatever social media still exists at the time you’re reading this.

Vaishnavi Patel is a lawyer focusing on constitutional law and civil rights. She likes to write at the intersection of Indian myth, feminism, and anti-colonialism. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Kaikeyi. Vaishnavi grew up in and around Chicago, and in her spare time, enjoys activities that are almost stereotypically Midwestern: knitting, ice skating, drinking hot chocolate, and making hotdish.

Find Vaishnavi on X and Instagram @vaishnawrites

This event will be chaired by Vida Cruz.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £5 digital ticket.

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War/Peace with Edward Ashton and Premee Mohamed
May
31
6:30 PM18:30

War/Peace with Edward Ashton and Premee Mohamed

 

Edward Ashton is the author of the novels Mal Goes to War (available April, 2024), Antimatter Blues, Mickey7 (now a motion picture directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Robert Pattinson), Three Days in April and The End of Ordinary. His short fiction has appeared in venues ranging from the newsletter of an Italian sausage company to Escape Pod, Analog, and Fireside Fiction. He lives in upstate New York in a cabin in the woods (not that Cabin in the Woods) with his wife, a nine pound killing machine named Maggie, and the world’s only purebred ratrantula, where he writes—mostly fiction, occasionally fact—under the watchful eyes of a giant woodpecker and a rotating cast of barred owls. In his free time, he enjoys cancer research, teaching quantum physics to sullen graduate students, and whittling.

Find Edward on X and Instagram @@edashtonwriting

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, Locus, British Fantasy, and Crawford awards. Currently, she is the Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence and an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod. She is the author of the ‘Beneath the Rising’ series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on her website at www.premeemohamed.com.

This event will be chaired by Cat Hellisen.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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The Secret to a Successful Partnership with Megan Bannen and Gabby Hutchinson Crouch
May
31
8:00 PM20:00

The Secret to a Successful Partnership with Megan Bannen and Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

There’s no I in teamwork!

Join authors Megan Bannen and Gabby Hutchinson Crouch to find out their ingredients for a successful (ish) partnership.

 

Megan Bannen is a former public librarian and an award-winning author of speculative fiction. Her work has been selected for the RUSA Reading List, the Indies Introduce list, and the Kids’ Indie Next List, along with numerous best-of-the-year compilations. While most of her professional career has been spent behind a reference desk, she has also sold luggage, written grants, collected a few graduate degrees from various Kansas universities, and taught English at home and abroad. She lives in the Kansas City area with her family and more pets than is reasonable.

Find Megan on X and Instagram @meganbannen

Gabby Hutchinson Crouch (Horrible HistoriesNewzoidsThe News QuizThe Now Show) has a background in satire, and with the global political climate as it is, believes that now is an important time to explore themes of authoritarianism and intolerance in comedy and fiction. Born in Pontypool in Wales, and raised in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, Gabby moved to Canterbury at 18 to study at the University of Kent and ended up staying and having a family there. Her novel Cursed Under London is the start of her new Elizabethan romantasy series.

Visit Gabby’s X @Scriblit



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

 

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Digital Workshop: Writing Immersive Fight Scenes
Jun
1
10:30 AM10:30

Digital Workshop: Writing Immersive Fight Scenes

Whether you’re writing a brawl in a saloon, transporting readers to an underground fight club, or designing the martial art of an ancient alien race, this workshop will help you write convincing and compelling fight scenes. This workshop is relevant for writers of any level and genre, from established novelists to those who want to write their first ever fight scene.

By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

  • Understand and convey the influences of character on fighting style

  • Use setting to inform the creation of fictional fights

  • Write believable and compelling fighting techniques and strategies

  • Understand and convey the thoughts and emotions of those involved in fighting

  • Assign believable fight injuries and damage outcomes to their characters

  • Avoid common misconceptions and mistakes that can break the reader's immersion

Your Workshop Leader

Josh Holton is a writer and a fighter with more than a decade of experience in mixed martial arts and street fighting. He has studied and coached in a variety of martial arts and has befriended and fought fighters from all over the world. His writing has been published in numerous lit mags, anthologies, and podcasts, and he placed in Streetcake’s Experimental Writing Prize, Spread the Word’s Life Writing Prize, and the Writers’ and Artists’ Working Class Writers’ Prize. Find him on X @JHoltonWriter


About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Digital Workshop: Getting Your Book Ready For Submission
Jun
1
1:00 PM13:00

Digital Workshop: Getting Your Book Ready For Submission

Agent Caro Clarke breaks down how to craft a query letter and make your submission shine.

They will go through what information to include, how to catch an agent's attention and some of the Do's and Don't's to help you on your road to pitching your writing to agents and publishers.

Your Workshop Leader

Caro Clarke is a literary agent with over thirteen years' experience in publishing – at Transworld (PRH) and at Canongate Books as a Senior Rights Manager. They were named Rights Professional of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2021. In 2019, they co-founded the Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented nature writers, which kickstarted a passion to demystify the publishing industry and help emerging writers to develop their craft and build their writing careers. Portobello Literary was established in 2022 to build on that work.

Writers they have worked with have won or been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Saltire National Book Awards, Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize, Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, Forward Prize, Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour, Mo Siewcharran Prize, Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, Northern Writers Award, Nan Shepherd Prize, Laurel Prize, Nature Chronicles Prize, Wasafiri New Writing Prize, Eric Gregory Award, Women in Journalism Georgina Henry award, SI Leeds Literary Award and the Frank Allen Bullock Creative Writing Prize.



About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Creating Legends with Kate Heartfield and Sophie Keetch
Jun
1
5:00 PM17:00

Creating Legends with Kate Heartfield and Sophie Keetch

We love a fresh retelling, especially those in a non-classical canon.

From Kate Heartfield comes a glorious, lyrical retelling of one of Norse mythology’s greatest epics. Brynhild, Gudrun and Sigurd are destined to be lovers, fated as enemies. But here on Midgard, legends can be lies. For not all heroes are heroic, nor all monsters monstrous. And a shieldmaiden may yet find that love is the greatest weapon of all.

With My Name is Morgan and its sequel Le Fay, Sophie Keetch give us an atmospheric, feminist retelling of the early life of famed villainess Morgan le Fay, set against the colourful chivalric backdrop of Arthurian legend.

 

Kate Heartfield is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Embroidered Book, the Aurora-winning novel Armed in Her Fashion, and the Nebula-shortlisted novella Alice Payne Arrives, along with dozens of other stories. Her interactive fiction projects The Road to Canterbury and The Magician’s Workshop were shortlisted for the Nebula in game writing. She lives in Canada.

Find Kate on X, Instagram at @kateheartfield, on Bluesky at @kateheartfield.com and her facebook page

Sophie Keetch has a BA in English Literature from Cardiff University, which included the study of Arthurian legend. She is Welsh and lives with her husband and son in South Wales.

Follow Sophie on X @SophKWrites and on Instagram, Thread and Bluesky @sophiekeetchauthor



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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Love Stories with Sylvie Cathrall, Sangu Mandanna and S. A. MacLean
Jun
1
6:30 PM18:30

Love Stories with Sylvie Cathrall, Sangu Mandanna and S. A. MacLean

 

Sylvie Cathrall writes stories of hope and healing with healthy doses of wonder and whimsy. She holds a graduate degree in odd Victorian art and has handled more than a few nineteenth-century letters (with great care). Sylvie married her former pen pal and lives in the mountains, where she dresses impractically and dreams of the sea.

Sangu Mandanna was four years old when an elephant chased her down a forest road and she decided to write her first story about it. Seventeen years and many, many manuscripts later, she signed her first book deal. Sangu now lives in Norwich, a city in the east of England, with her husband and kids.

 

S. A. MacLean is a romantasy author from sunny California. Infatuated with magical worlds since her days of brewing mud potions in her childhood garden, she fell in love with the romantasy genre after realizing all her favourite fantasy novels had kisses in them. Her stories invariably feature quirky humour, sassy animal companions, and queer casts who represent her voice as a chaotic bisexual woman. ​

Sarah received her BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University and a PhD in Environmental Science from UC Berkeley. If you think that sounds overly pedantic, well, she agrees! So she left the research track to teach environmental science at her local community college, inspiring the next generation of students to save the planet. Her ecology background seeps into her fantasy worlds as odd plants and an obnoxious number of bird references. ​

She currently lives in California with her partner, two cats, and a growing saltwater aquarium.

This event will be chaired by Alice Tarbuck.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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Opposites Attract with Sarah A. Parker and Chloe C. Peñaranda
Jun
2
10:00 AM10:00

Opposites Attract with Sarah A. Parker and Chloe C. Peñaranda

Love is in the air with these two Romantasy debuts.

 

Born in New Zealand, Sarah A. Parker now lives on the Gold Coast with her husband and three young children. When she’s not reading or tapping away at her keyboard, she’s spending time with her friends and family, her plants, and enjoying trips to the snow. Sarah has been writing since she was small, but has only recently begun sharing her stories with the world. When the Moon Hatched is her debut.

Chloe C. Peñaranda is the USA Today bestselling author of The Nytefall Trilogy and An Heir Comes to Rise Series.

 A lifelong avid reader and writer, Chloe discovered her passion for storytelling in her early teens. Her stories have been spun from years of building on fictional characters and exploring Tolkien-like quests in made up worlds. During her time at the University of the West of Scotland, Chloe immersed herself in writing for short film, producing animations, and spending class time dreaming of far off lands. 

 In her spare time from writing in her home in scenic Scotland, Chloe enjoys digital art, graphic design, and down time with her three little dogs. When the real world calls...she rarely listens.

Originally self-published, The Stars are Dying is Chloe’s traditionally published debut.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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Digital Workshop: Recycling Magic - The Craft of Turning Old Tales into New Stories
Jun
2
10:30 AM10:30

Digital Workshop: Recycling Magic - The Craft of Turning Old Tales into New Stories

 

Traditional tales – myths, legends, folktales, fairytales – are the inspiration for most fantasy stories and lots of other genre and literary writing. 

 Lari Don, author and storyteller, will discuss using aspects of old tales to create new stories, which might be close cousins of the original sources, or such distant relatives that only the writer knows which old tale first sparked the idea.

She will help you explore ways of rethinking, recycling and interrogating the narrative, characters, creatures, magical lore and even plot-holes of old tales, to come up with original and intriguing ideas of your own. 

There are no absolutely right or wrong ways to be inspired, to work with ideas and to write your own stories, so this isn’t a workshop about how to do things, more a chance to discover new paths and experiment with magical notions.

 

If possible please arrive at the workshop with one or two old stories in mind, traditional tales that you’re familiar with and keen to play with.

 Your Workshop Leader

Lari Don is a Scottish children’s author and storyteller. Lari has written more than 30 books for children, ranging from picture book retellings of fairy tales and folklore (eg The Secret of the Kelpie, The Legend of the First Unicorn) through fantasy adventures for 8-12 year olds (eg First Aid for Fairies, the Spellchasers Trilogy) to collections of traditional tales (eg Girls Goddesses and Giants, The Dragon’s Hoard) and a YA thriller (MindBlind) which was inspired by a story about the fairy queen, though it’s impossible to spot any fairies past the fight scenes and chases. Lari also loves telling traditional tales to live audiences, preferably in caves and forests. But she’s currently writing very slowly and telling tales only very occasionally, because she’s having to learn to do it all differently round long covid.



About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Digital Workshop: The Author As A Brand
Jun
2
1:00 PM13:00

Digital Workshop: The Author As A Brand

And how to use your brand on social media to connect with readers

This session will cover the essentials of author branding, book marketing, and using social media. Run by Anna Caig, a writer and marketing professional, the workshop will look at tools for exploring and pinning down your author brand, the version of you you’ll share with potential readers, in an authentic way which banishes the cringe.

We’ll also cover the practicalities of how to share your brand, and the content themes that come from this, on social media. As we know, ‘here’s my book, buy my book’ doesn’t cut it - so what can you talk about, and how can you create effective content?

We'll look at:

  • How to develop an authentic personal brand which reflects your passions and inspirations, including the development of content themes (what to talk about on your social media and other marketing channels)

  • An understanding of marketing strategy – a clear structure to follow to find readers who’ll love your work

  • Support to find confidence in your marketing and banish the cringe factor

  • Learn “what buttons to push” on social media: content creation practical tips and advice


Your Workshop Leader
Anna Caig trains creative people to do their own marketing. She works with The Society of Authors, Jericho Writers and The Literary Consultancy, as well as one-to-one with many writers. She’s worked in communications for over 20 years, specialising in media relations and strategic marketing campaigns, and is an experienced and engaging public speaker.
Anna also writes historical crime fiction and her debut novel was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger prize. She reviews books for The Sheffield Telegraph and on her blog.

The former Head of Communications at Sheffield City Council and tutor on The University of Sheffield MA Journalism course, Anna began her training business to support writers to build their brand and reach more readers. She now works with traditionally, indie and self-published writers, as well as helping creatives in any discipline find a wider audience.

Please note Sheila M. Averbuch is no longer able to co-run this workshop but it will go ahead as planned.



About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Lost in Space with R.W.W. Greene and Emily Hamilton
Jun
2
3:30 PM15:30

Lost in Space with R.W.W. Greene and Emily Hamilton

Things are just not going to plan for the protagonists of the new books by R.W.W. Greene and Emily Hamilton.

In Earth Retrogade, the sequel to R.W.W. Greene’s novel Mercury Rising, Brooklyn Lamontagne doesn't remember saving the world eight years ago, but he's been paying for it ever since. The conquered Earth governments don't trust him, the Average Joe can't make up their mind, but they all agree that Brooklyn should stay in space. Now, he's just about covering his bills with junk-food runs to Venus and transporting horny honeymooners to Tycho aboard his aging spaceship, the Victory. When a pal asks for a ride to Mars, Brooklyn lands in a solar system's worth of espionage, backroom alliances, ancient treasures and secret plots while encountering a navigation system that just wants to be loved...

In Emily Hamilton’s debut The Stars Too Fondly , Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship's missing captain, Billie.

Rob Greene, who writes as the search-engine friendly “R.W.W. Greene,” is a recovering journalist and high-school English teacher. He writes science-fiction novels and short stories in a little house in southern New Hampshire where he lives with spouse Brenda, cat Jack, and a hive or two of honeybees. Greene is the author of four books -- The Light Years, Twenty-Five to Life, Mercury Rising, and Earth Retrograde -- all from from Angry Robot Books. He keeps a website at www.rwwgreene.com.

Emily Hamilton is a science fiction author who writes about women kissing in space. Her debut novel, The Stars Too Fondly, is forthcoming from Harper Voyager (US) and Gollancz (UK) in June 2024. She is also an award-winning staff writer at the alt-weekly newspaper Seven Days. She lives in Burlington, Vermont with her wife and their tiny dog Mimi.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £5 digital ticket.

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Unleashing Chaos with Jane Flett and Kelly Link
Jun
2
5:00 PM17:00

Unleashing Chaos with Jane Flett and Kelly Link

Prepare to have your quiet existence interrupted by authors Jane Flett and Kelly Link.

In Kelly Link’s debut novel The Book of Love, supernatural beings and chaos descend on the small seaside town of Lovesend, Massachusetts, in the wake of the unexpected return of three missing teenagers. Laura, Daniel and Mo disappeared without trace a year ago.

Meanwhile in Jane Flett’s debut novel Freakslaw, a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem comes to the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw.

 

Jane Flett is a Scottish writer based in Berlin. Her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4, featured in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and awarded the New Orleans Writing Residency. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry and received the Berlin Senate Award for non-German literature. She is represented by Marina de Pass of the Soho Agency and her debut novel Freakslaw is forthcoming from Doubleday (Penguin Random House) in June 2024.

Kelly Link is the author of the collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, Get in Trouble, and White Cat, Black Dog. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She was a 2018 MacArthur Fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is the owner of Book Moon, an independent bookshop in Easthampton, MA.
Link was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her family, dog, and chickens in Northampton, Massachusetts.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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Cassandra Clare in conversation with V.E. Schwab
Jun
2
6:30 PM18:30

Cassandra Clare in conversation with V.E. Schwab

We are excited to welcome bestselling author Cassandra Clare to talk about her latest creation, Sword Catcher.

A boy lives to protect his Prince with his life. A girl is destined to return lost magic to the world. A Prince must choose between his heart and his duty. And thrumming beneath it all, the heartbeat of a city unlike any other. Welcome to Castellane.

Cassandra will be in conversation with fellow writer V.E. Schwab.


Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.

Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and  which later inspired her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

City of Bones was her first novel.

VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, the Villains series, the Cassidy Blake series and the international bestseller The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Her work has received critical acclaim, translated into over two dozen languages, and optioned for television and film. First Kill – a YA vampire series based on Schwab’s short story of the same name – is currently in the works at Netflix with Emma Roberts’ Belletrist Productions producing. When not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters.



About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.


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