I received an email from the Scottish Book trust recently which made me very happy. The Family Legend story I wrote about my granny in Dundee had been chosen for inclusion in the book!
Allan and I headed along to the launch night, which was held at the BBC Headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow
The evening started off with a few introductions and statistics, including the writer-affirming fact that over 700 people had submitted a story and, of those, 67 were picked for the book.
After that there were a few readings, including two published authors, a writer/comedian and one of the winners. Both of the two published authors had got into writing late in life and included Mae Stewart a writer from Dundee . She had originally self-published a book of stories about growing up in Dundee , but it had been so successful she’d been taken on by a publisher and now has two books available. I tried to speak to her during the event due to our Dundee connections, and the fact that I’d actually bought her books for my mum’s Christmas, but she was too popular and I didn’t get a chance. I did email her after the event and she said she’d been attracted to my story on the train home because she saw the word Dundee , so it felt good to be noticed!
The writer/comedian had a lot of good things to say about the book. She finished by reading out a story which she’d created using a line from the first paragraphs of everyone’s stories. It was really clever the way she’d merged the stories together and I enjoyed listening out for my line.
The last reader read out his poem, which had been used at the front of the book and had everyone laughing. What made it even more amazing was the fact that he told us he suffered from mental health problems and couldn’t even leave the house two years ago. He used writing as a way of trying to help with his problems. Throughout the course of the evening, I spoke to others who used writing as a means of therapy and it emphasised to me just how healing writing can be.
After the readings we were all presented with a free copy of the book and there was wine and pizza. We got our photos taken too. See if you can spot me (and my glassses glare!).
The Dundee appreciation society also continued as it seemed that there were a few Dundonian writers in the book. We all gravitated towards each other and ended up signing each other’s books. One lady had originally written a story which she’d deleted by mistake. She ended up writing another one about her son who has down syndrome. It turned out to be a flash of good fortune that she’d lost the first story, as it was the one about her son that got chosen. Her son was there looking very proud. It really was quite humbling.
It was a great event and I felt very privileged to be a part of it. Some of the writers were just starting out whereas others were more serious about their writing, but everyone was enthusiastic and appreciative of the stories included in the book.
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