Leeds, Katy Regan and Me

Preparing to sell our house has seemed to take precedence over everything else at the moment, so much so that I almost forgot to blog about my road trip to Leeds.

I've never been to Leeds, well that's strictly not true. I have been to Elland Road and I once spent a rather horrible afternoon trying to find a training course in a building that no-one had seemed to have heard of, but never to Leeds city centre. So when I saw the 'How To Get Published' roadshow organised by Marie Claire, I saw the perfect way to indulge my two loves, shopping and writing.

Having survived driving through a monsoon to get there, I found the parking very reasonably, although asking someone if I could possibly have a 5p, as I was 5p short in order to buy a ticket, seemed to be the equivalent of asking someone in Nottingham to give me £10. I mean, come on it's only 5p for God's sake! The shops were also jolly nice, although the location of a Louis Vuitton near a Dorothy Perkins, seemed a little bizarre!

The road show started in the Malmaison Hotel, complete with a glass of champagne, which unfortunately I could only gaze at lovingly. There was about 40 people squeezed into a smallish room, which was scary, especially if you saw the person that I was sat next to. What was also scary was the fact that writing is such an isolated activity that you somehow forget that so many other people are also trying to get published as well and there in very close proximity were at least another 40 people chasing my dream.

The next hour was spent in the company of Carla Bevan, Claire Boyd and the lovely Katy Regan author of 'One Thing Led To Another', discussing different aspects of the writing process. It seemed quite weird, as I sat there, knowing that after attending so many of these events, I was actually one step nearer to getting published - the nearest I had ever been. The only down side of the night was the fact that Katy's Agent was a no show. Securing an Agent is my next step, so I was looking forward to gaining some much required knowledge on that process.

All in all, an enjoyable evening, one which left me feeling motivated and thinking, wouldn't it be fantastic if I could gain a publishing deal this year and cross another task off my list?