Mold BookFest weekend – Meet The Authors event on Saturday

As part of BookFest weekend, Mold Library is hosting a Meet The Authors event on Saturday, May 21 between 10am an 4pm

The free all-day event will allow people to have chat and a cuppa with professional and amateur writers.

Those attending will get the opportunity to listen to writers’ presentations and meet people who can give advice on different aspects of reading and writing, from learning to write and pointers to getting published.

Bob Gaffey, ex-Mayor of Mold and Chair of The Campaign For The Protection Of Rural Wales Clwyd will be launching Volume 1 of his ‘Gaffey Book Reviews’ (50 Ways to read your novel) with proceeds to the Ukraine Fund.

Bob said:  “When we heard from the Mold BookFest committee that their programme had closed but were told we could stage our own event, we didn’t want to compete, so approached Manager Susannah Hill at Mold Library.”

“Susannah was pleased to be part of the Mold BookFest weekend and was delighted to be able to support it and suggested it be run as an associate event to use the upstairs room for the Saturday offering tables to anyone who had missed the programme.”

Bob will be accompanied by 11 writers at the event on Saturday upstairs at Mold Library.

They are:

Kemal Houghton (Bebington) – Kemal chairs Wirral Poetry Festival, Chester Poets, and

co- presents First Thursday. Published in Chester Poets’ Anthologies since 1981. His

Northwich: Four Bare Miles was shortlisted for the 2020 Cheshire Award for Literature and

published in Unlocked.  His pamphlet There Will Be Dancing (2020) is on Red Squirrel Press.

Peter Jones (Buckley) – Short story writer and poet (Eating at my Nan’s, Tears Flow and various anthologies). Secretary of Pinboard Writers, Mold and Chester Poets and member of Caffi Isa Writers and Hawarden Ink. Peter has been published on line in Shorts and Scarlet Leaf, amongst others. He is currently working on a story set in Arthurian times.

Yvon Jones (Mold) – Short story writer, poet (Too Little Too Late, The Crusader, Football Crazy), winner of 2016 Llangollen Fringe Festival Poetry Slam and self taught publisher. Yvon is a member of

Sue’s group (Flintshire U3A’s Writers’ Together) and currently working on a novel about her mother’s

stubborn determination and wartime trials and tribulations in 1940’s Malta.

Julie Lamin (Wirral) – Beyond the Volcano. Genre: Teen/ YA/crossover novel. Four teenagers join the resistance against a brutal dictator to win freedom for their country. Julie is an experienced creative writing tutor in the secondary and adult learning sectors.

Bernard J. Melling (Chorley) – (Fear in the Time of Covid-19) After a career as a Local Authority Social Worker and more latterly a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Salford, Bernard’s new book looks back through history to examine the impact of previous pandemics, the fear they instilled and the measures that were implemented.

“How we manage and live with our fears may be a necessary part of all our futures.”

Sarah Onions/Laura Meloni  – (S L Roman – One Year, One Night) – Annie returns to her home village after a long absence and rediscovers the diary she kept the year she turned 16, the year that changed her life. Based on a true event in World War Two, we witness through her eyes, her blossoming love story with a handsome soldier and her growing affection for an evacuee child. Sarah has previously co-authored her own story, Don’t Bring Lulu: Her Family’s tale of Trial and Triumph, with her late broadcaster father Ron Onions OBE.  Her “journalistic background along with Laura’s academic and linguistic skills have helped not only sniff out a real-life historic thriller, but also have the expertise to get into the heads of protagonists.”

Jennie Richmond (Wirral)  – ‘The Speed of Lightning’. Genre: Teen/YA/crossover novel. In 1848, drover’s

boy, William, takes part in a perilous journey, droving a hundred cattle from North Wales to London.

Jennie has a background in education, free-lance journalism and children’s poetry.

Stephen Rule (Hope)  – Welsh and I’ – “A collection of thoughts and ideas from a guy whose life got changed by a language”. Stephen’s hope is that this book can inspire individuals (or even an entire nation, with a bit of luck) to realise what part the Welsh language can play in the future of our nation.

Sara Louise Wheeler – is a poet, playwright, and artist from Wrecsam, now living on the Wirral peninsula. She writes the column ‘O’r Gororau’ (from the borders) for Barddas magazine, and is currently developing the libretto for ‘Y Dywysoges arian’ (The Silver Princess), supported by a bursary from Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. ‘Rwdlan a Bwhwman’ was her first poetry collection: https://gwasgygororau.wordpress.com/

Sue Wilcox (Mold) – “I am the u3a Flintshire Co-ordinator for Writers Together, a group that meets once a month in Mold to explore and widen our writing experience. I have been writing for at least 5 years, but as yet I am not published…hope springs eternal!”

Bob Gaffey (Mold) – (50 Ways to Read Your Novel) Ten years of online book reviews culminates in his  book launch at this event with proceeds going to Ukranian refugees. Bob’s more controversial work includes “Everybody Says Honesty is a Virtue but Nobody Wants to Hear the Truth” and his “Adults of Violence” trilogy (proceeds also to charity).

Timetable Of Reading Presentations:

-10.30 Yvon Jones

-11.00 Peter K Jones

-11.30 Sarah Onions

-12.00 Kemal Houghton

-12.30 Sue Wilcox

-13.00 Julie Lamin

-13.30 Stephen Rule

-14.00 Laura Meloni

-14.30 Jennie Richmond

-15.00 Sara Louise Wheeler

-15.30 Bob Gaffey

• A BOOKFEST ‘ASSOCIATE EVENT’ AT MOLD LIBRARY 10AM – 4PM