Last week, I attended the book launch for The Vodka Trail, the fourth book by thriller writer AA Abbott and her first sequel.
I have read and reviewed all three of Abbott's previous thrillers, so I was excited to learn about her new release. I was also excited about the event itself because Abbott is fantastic at putting together a shindig. Incredibly, she organised three back-to-back book launches in Birmingham, Bristol and London!
Abbott chose the basement of Bodega Bar, a firm Birmingham favourite, and plied her guests with complimentary Prosecco and, in honour of her new title, shots of vodka. There was an informal speech and a reading, but mostly the evening was about fun and networking.
Abbott is unrivalled when it comes to assembling a guest list and I chatted to lots of fantastic people:
Katharine D'Souza - Katharine is a fellow Birmingham writer and chair of PoWWoW. Katherine and I deliver a talk on self-publishing at the annual Book To The Future festival at the University of Birmingham. She recently finished her third novel, No Place, which will be launched in September.
David Massey - I first met David on an Instameet at the University of Birmingham last July. I have since seen him frequently on Twitter due to his involvement with Brum Radio, @Brumhour, and Birmingham Social Media Cafe. Dave used to work at several bookshops, so he knows his stuff about book-selling.
Margaret Egrot - Margaret is a member of Coventry Writers' Group and attended my Meet The Authors event at The Big Comfy Bookshop in January 2015. She will also be contributing to the Festive Cheer anthology which I mentioned last month.
Phil Ellis - Phil hosts Tall Tales on Brum Radio, in which short stories by local authors are performed and broadcast. I had heard about Phil from several authors so it was great to put a face to the name. I have entered three stories in the latest round of submissions.
David Wake - I initially met David at a spoken word event at Brewsmiths. David co-founded the New Street Authors, a group of self-published authors who rally together to help each other with editing, publishing, artwork and marketing. I told David that I was a Marketing Manager and was soon fast-tracked to his mailing list!
I have read and reviewed all three of Abbott's previous thrillers, so I was excited to learn about her new release. I was also excited about the event itself because Abbott is fantastic at putting together a shindig. Incredibly, she organised three back-to-back book launches in Birmingham, Bristol and London!
Abbott chose the basement of Bodega Bar, a firm Birmingham favourite, and plied her guests with complimentary Prosecco and, in honour of her new title, shots of vodka. There was an informal speech and a reading, but mostly the evening was about fun and networking.
Abbott is unrivalled when it comes to assembling a guest list and I chatted to lots of fantastic people:
Katharine D'Souza - Katharine is a fellow Birmingham writer and chair of PoWWoW. Katherine and I deliver a talk on self-publishing at the annual Book To The Future festival at the University of Birmingham. She recently finished her third novel, No Place, which will be launched in September.
David Massey - I first met David on an Instameet at the University of Birmingham last July. I have since seen him frequently on Twitter due to his involvement with Brum Radio, @Brumhour, and Birmingham Social Media Cafe. Dave used to work at several bookshops, so he knows his stuff about book-selling.
Margaret Egrot - Margaret is a member of Coventry Writers' Group and attended my Meet The Authors event at The Big Comfy Bookshop in January 2015. She will also be contributing to the Festive Cheer anthology which I mentioned last month.
Phil Ellis - Phil hosts Tall Tales on Brum Radio, in which short stories by local authors are performed and broadcast. I had heard about Phil from several authors so it was great to put a face to the name. I have entered three stories in the latest round of submissions.
David Wake - I initially met David at a spoken word event at Brewsmiths. David co-founded the New Street Authors, a group of self-published authors who rally together to help each other with editing, publishing, artwork and marketing. I told David that I was a Marketing Manager and was soon fast-tracked to his mailing list!