If you like a lot of books on your shelves, join our club

A quick post tonight, as the witching hour is approaching and we're busy preparing for tomorrow - day two of the Royal Manx Agricultural Show at Knockaloe. We're with our friends from the Bridge Bookshop in Port Erin and have a stall in one of the main marquees, selling books by authors appearing at this year's festival and tickets to a few events.

The big move today was sending artwork for the first batch of Friends of Manx Litfest membership cards off to our partner printer - Bridson & Horrox - and they should be with us next week, to send out to those very kind book-loving souls who have signed up to be our Friends.

It's a cracking deal - just £15 per person per year, and for that there's a range of benefits, including discounted Litfest tickets, a 10% discount on all purchases at the Bridge Bookshop, an invite to our informal launch event on the evening of Thursday, September 27 (where you get to meet some of the authors) and two free tickets to selected Litfest events.

If you're interested in signing up, drop us a line at manxlitfest@gmail.com and we'll send you a form. Or, if you're around the Royal Show tomorrow, you can drop by and pick up/complete a form. We'll soon have the form and information about the Friends on our website.

A most welcome surprise in the post...

There are certain things guaranteed to put a smile on your face first thing in the morning. Opening some mail from the previous day and finding a cheque for £100 made payable to Manx Litfest and an accompanying note saying 'every little helps!' is right up there with the best of them.

The kind-hearted soul who sent the cheque and note asked to remain anonymous, so we can't divulge any details, but it is a most welcome donation towards the costs of putting on Litfest 2013.

Fast forward to tonight, and we're looking at the first typed up, day-by-day draft schedule for the festival weekend of September 26-29. Much of it we've already thrashed out with those involved, but there are still several aspects to be finalised and some venue issues to sort out.

There have been emails today from visiting guests with information about their flights/airports, and so our spreadsheet of authors/poets/performers continues to be filled out as each part of the festival planning slots into place.

We're also turning our eye to the schools day on the Friday of Litfest (September 27). We have a team of authors and poets ready to go out around schools (25 at last count) to deliver a host of talks, readings and workshops and we're about to launch into the job of marrying the authors and poets up with the schools. Last year most of our team visited three schools each during the day - it will most likely be a similar situation again this year.

Our other eye is well and truly focused on the Royal Manx Agricultural Show at Knockaloe this coming Friday and Saturday (August 9/10). We'll be there with our partner bookseller, Bridge Bookshop in Port Erin, and as with the Southern Show a couple of weeks ago, we'll have tickets to some events on sale and books by Litfest authors.

If you're in the west over the weekend, feel free to pop in and talk books. We'll happily indulge you.

Lingua Franca joins the Litfest sponsors' team again!

Our trip to the north of the Island on Saturday morning was to meet the lovely Franca Fritz, whose translation business Lingua Franca sponsored our talk on The Hobbit by Colin Duriez last year.

Franca was keen to support us again and we're thrilled to announce that Lingua Franca will this year be sponsoring the talk by historical author Victoria Lamb, who you may also know under her real name Jane Holland, under which she writes poetry and literary fiction.

For Victoria (pictured below) it's a return to the place she called home for many years - her mother was the prolific bestselling romance author Sheila Holland, who was best known for writing as Charlotte Lamb. The family lived at Crogga on Old Castletown Road until Sheila passed away in 2000.

Pic by Anna Rybacka

Victoria's most recent novel is Witchfall (published last month), the second in her young adult Tudor series, which picks up the story started in Witchstruck, which earlier this year was named Young Adult Romantic Novel of the Year by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

 So a huge Litfest thank you to Franca, who, alongside husband Heinrich, has translated well over 200 books - indeed she took a break from meeting a novel translation deadline to discuss Litfest over a brew. Franca has also translated for companies, museums, media outlets and sports organisations, including FIFA, UEFA and America's Cup. Among the long list of novelists she has translated for are Ethan Hawke and Faye Kellerman.

Be sure to check back here and on our website for details of Victoria's schedule over Litfest weekend (September 26-29).

A peek behind the curtain...

As of yesterday, there are just eight weeks to go until Manx Litfest 2013 rumbles into action. We've a rather cool line-up of authors and poets taking part, some visiting from across the waters, and others who live on this fair isle.   

Manx Litfest author Matt Haig

We're conscious that we've not been updating this blog anywhere near as often as we ought to be. Slapped wrists for that. Time is a factor, as is the ease of firing snippets of news and info out via social media. But not everyone bothers with Facebook and Twitter.

In order to do a Frankenstein and breathe new live into this blog, we'll be updating on a regular basis (daily, where possible) in the run-up to the festival weekend of September 26-29. We'll use this blog to provide an insight into what goes on behind the scenes as the Litfest committee collectively goes grey from stress and nails are bitten down to the quick.

Today has so far seen a meeting with an IOM-based author regarding potential for launching the print version of his novel during Litfest weekend (it's already out as an e-book), speaking with a potential sponsor (and arranging to meet them tomorrow morning) and developing an idea to give as many Isle of Man authors as possible a platform during this year's festival.

From here on in the planning does get pretty much full on. Plans have developed at a good pace over the last six months, but this is where the screws start to turn and we're conscious of deadlines looming for specific elements of the festival - programme design and sign-off, finalising travel and accommodation for our visiting writers, devising the questions for our Book Fanatics' Quiz Night, making sure there is enough PG Tips teabags at Litfest HQ (seriously, we ran out the other night. You couldn't make this stuff up).

Tonight, it's all about emails. Hundreds of the blighters to send. Well, tens at least. Tune in tomorrow for the latest Litfest shenanigans.

Now, go read a book. Everyone. Yes, that includes you.

Ben Haggarty returns for Manx Litfest 2013!

As we've mentioned before, this year's line-up of visiting authors and poets will see different faces from last year... with one or two exceptions.

One of those exceptions is the obscenely talented performance storyteller Ben Haggarty, founder and artistic director of the Crick Crack Club, who has confirmed he will be back again to entertain spellbound audiences this September.

Last year Ben performed Fairytales for Grown-ups on the Saturday night and a family show on the Sunday - The Devil, The Tsar and the Three Dry Biscuits - and the feedback we received from punters for both performances was incredible. This year he'll be dazzling us with different shows, and we'll have full details very soon.

Ben will be based at The Studio Theatre at Ballakermeen High School, again with a show aimed at older children and adults on the Saturday night, and one for the family on Sunday afternoon. What's more, he'll be staging workshops over the weekend for anyone (young and old) interested in studying the craft of performance storytelling.

Make sure you book early - Ben really is one name who is not to be missed.

Manx Litfest Reading Club - March focus on Andrew Taylor

With our 2013 festival seven months away, we're in that exciting period where we secure authors/poets/storytellers and announce their participation to our growing pack of eager literary fans.
The first name to be announced, earlier in February, was Andrew Taylor - and what better way of kick-starting the Manx Litfest Reading Club in the run-up to September's festival than by choosing Andrew as our reading choice for the month of March.
So, for the next 31 days, indulge yourselves in Andrew's work. No set book - if you're new to his work, then perhaps a standalone or the first in one of his series; if you're a fan, then find one of his books you've not got round to reading.
One thing's for certain - Andrew has a long enough back catalogue to choose from.
His first novel Caroline Minuscule, published in 1982, won the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey Memorial Award - and the awards kept on coming.

He is the only author to have won the CWA's Historical Dagger twice, with The Office of the Dead and The American Boy - the latter, a gothic mystery linked to Edgar Allan Poe's childhood years in England, was a Richard & Judy pick in 2005. Andrew also won the Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing and over the years has been shortlisted for a host of leading awards.
Other landmarks include the Lydmouth series - eight crime novels in total - set in a 1950s fictional town (Lydmouth) on the England/Wales border, and his Roth trilogy, which was adapted for television as Fallen Angel and broadcast on ITV1 in 2007, starring Charles Dance and Emilia Fox.
The chilling Bleeding Heart Square was named winner of Sweden’s Golden Crowbar, the Martin Beck Award 2009, and also shortlisted for the CWA's Historical Dagger.
His latest offering, The Scent of Death, has just been published.
So take your pick - you're spoilt for choice. Feel free to post your thoughts on this blog post or when you see discussions start on our Facebook page.
We'll announce the Reading Club's choice for April in due course...

Thursday's sponsors... ManSat & Manx Dyslexia Association

One thing we know at Litfest HQ is that without our sponsors and supporters, our inaugural literary gathering - which kicks off this Thursday, September 27 - wouldn't be taking place.

On Thursday, we have two events which are sponsored...

Ulla Corkill's talk 'The Life and Times of Sir Hall Caine' takes place at 12.30pm at Greeba Castle, his home for many years which is still owned by his family. It was a sell-out affair pretty quickly, as there were only 24 seats available, not to mention the fact that Ulla is an authority on Caine and a respected speaker.

Sponsor for the talk (and light buffet lunch) is ManSat Ltd, the pioneer in the Manx space industry on its creation in 1998, which now works with the Isle of Man Government in preparing orbital filings to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for all satellites.

The second sponsored event sees poet Gez Walsh talk about dyslexia in the main marquee within our festival hub in the Villa Marina Gardens. Gez started writing poetry to encourage his dyslexic son to read and he's now one of the UK's leading children's poets, travelling around the UK visiting schools, libraries, festivals and theatres delivering his own unique brand of humour. The talk on Thursday evening - starting at 7.00pm - is aimed at parents of children with dyslexia and is a free event, open to all.

The Manx Dyslexia Association is generously sponsoring this event, along with a second talk on Saturday lunchtime (September 29), which will see Gez give a talk/performance for youngsters. That starts at 1.00pm and is another free event.

Our sincere thanks to ManSat and the MDA for backing our first festival - their support is very much appreciated by everyone involved with Manx Litfest.