Now that Knife Skills For Beginners is out in the world, life has changed in several important ways.
First of all, whenever I go near a bookshop I dash in to check that my book is in stock, and if so, ask if I can sign copies. (When I was a magazine editor, I used to take the opportunity to ‘reorganise’ newsagents’ shelves to give my own title more prominence, but so far I’ve resisted the urge to move my book to the front table, or slap it in front of the latest Richard Osman.)
I’ve also done my first reading from the book, at Brook Kitchen in Budleigh Salterton – Devon’s answer to Live at the Apollo. David Lloyd and Pippa Marriott organise a regular ‘open mic’ night, in which writers both published and unpublished read from their work, and I found it riveting from beginning (a fantastically gruesome horror story by Daphne Milne) to end (a chapter from Elizabeth Delo’s marvellous Becoming Liz Taylor, out now in paperback).
So what’s it like reading your work out in front of strangers?
Traditionally authors read the first few pages of their book, but I decided on a chapter about two-thirds of the way through. This meant there was a fair bit of scene setting to be explained before I began, but I didn’t mind this – it acted as a sort of warm-up. My excerpt also included quite a bit of dialogue; I can’t do accents, so I had to resort to hand gestures, which made for an animated five minutes.
It was a warm and friendly audience, and for me the best bit of the evening was meeting and chatting with them afterwards. I have quite a few events lined up for the rest of this year – https://www.orlandomurrin.com/events – and I’m looking forward to them.
Several people asked if they could purchase the fetching Knife Skills For Beginners apron seen in the photograph, but I regret it is a limited edition. I can however reveal that my bloody chef’s knife brooch, which I don for events, is available from Vinca USA here: https://vincausa.com/products/bloody-hell-knife-brooch
Comments