Meet the participants of the Llandeilo Book Fair: Llandeilo resident Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border, as the son of a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of belonging and moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. In 1993 he moved to the UK and now lives in Llandeilo in West Wales. He and his partner have several Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in Libraries, Museums and for an airline. His first historical novel, ‘The Luck of The Weissensteiners’,  was published in November 2012 and downloaded over 60,000 times on Amazon. He has released several more historical novels, including "In Search of A Revolution" and "Ludwika". He also wrote some contemporary family dramas and thrillers, most notably "Time to Let Go" and "The Healer". His latest book is a cosy murder mystery set in Carmarthen: "The Body in the Snow" from which he will read at 4:30 pm

The Body In The Snow

Fading celebrity Bebe Bollinger is on the wrong side of fifty and dreaming of a return to the limelight. When a TV show offers the chance of a comeback, Bebe grabs it with both hands – not even a lazy agent, her embarrassing daughter, irritating neighbours or a catastrophic snowfall will derail her moment of glory. But when a body is found in her sleepy Welsh hamlet, scandal threatens.
Detective Sergeant Beth Cooper has a string of unsolved cases to her name. Her girlfriend left her and she’s a fish out of water in rural West Wales. Things couldn’t get much worse – until the case of the Body in The Snow lands in her lap.

Can Beth solve the case and save her career and can Bebe make her comeback?  All will be revealed in this light-hearted, cosy murder mystery by best-selling and award winning historical and crime fiction novelist Christoph Fischer.

http://smarturl.it/BodyInTheSnowBB

http://bookShow.me/B01LVYRI9L

Meet the participants of the Llandeilo Book Fair: Llandeilo resident Dr Alan Goodwin

Dr Alan Goodwin, Llandeilo

86 year old retired after 20 years as a Consultant Paediatrician, Carmarthen.
Previously a G.P for 6 years in Perth and Bunbury, Western Australia.
Then 2 years British Medical Team in Luang Prabang, Laos until 1969.
Widely travelled in the Far East. Started writing with my first laptop in 2003.
Written one novel, and a two volume Autobiography.

A day for kids and the entire family: Llandeilo Book Fair Dec 10th

Here are some highlights from the forthcoming Book Fair in Llandeilo - Dec 10th - mark the date in your diary 

1:30 pm: Rachel McGrath reads from her children’s book ‘Willow and Coco meet Santa.’

Rachel McGrath grew by the beach in Australia, and moved to the UK in her early thirties to pursue her career in Human Resources. Since her early teens she has had ambitions to write professionally, but it wasn’t until 2015 that her first novel, a memoir, was published.

Since then she has published several novels and children’s stories. Her writing has received several literary awards including the People’s Book Prize, Reader’s Favorite and more recently the New Apple Literary Awards.1:00 p.m. Sharon Tregenza reads from her Middle Grade/Mystery Adventure “Shiver Stone” 

Sharon Tregenza is an award winning children’s author. She was born and brought up in Cornwall but has lived in several countries including, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates.

Her debut novel “TARANTULA TIDE” won the Kelpie’s Prize and the Heart of Hawick Award. “THE SHIVER STONE” is a children’s mystery/adventure set in Pembrokeshire, and is published by Firefly Press. It was short listed for the Tir na n-Og and the Somerset Teachers Award.

Sharon has an MA in Creative Writing and another MA in Writing for Young People. She is a member of the Society of Authors, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Scattered Authors Society.

www.sharontregenza.com

www.faceboook.com/sharontregenzabooks

twitter.com/Sharontregenza

Angela Fish is a writer who specialises in intergenerational communication, women’s Ben and the Spider Gate was published in 2015 and the second, Ben and the Spider Prince was released in May 2016. The third in the series, Ben and the Spider Lake, will be out in September 2016. She is a member of the London Book Fair Authors’ Club and lives in south Wales.

writing and Welsh Writing in English. She gained her MPhil in Literature at the University of Glamorgan (now the University of South Wales) in 1995, and became a principal lecturer there until 2009.  She also established and directed the Wales Centre for Intergenerational Practice, based at the university, in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government and the Beth Johnson Foundation.  Her publications include non-fiction, fiction, short stories and poetry, often with Welsh and feminist themes, and she has worked with local schools and communities to improve communication between the generations. She has been in demand, nationally and internationally, as a conference presenter and an invited speaker in her field. Her first book for children,

www.angela-fish.com

www.facebook.com/AngelaFishAuthor

10:00 am: Book Fair opens with Hayley Addis: “The Goblin Circus” (children & adults) reworking fairy-tales

Hayley "Haloquin" Addis is an Enchantress, weaving magic through words in storytelling and teaching about real Faery magic. She is the author of "Your Faery Magic" (non-fiction) and the creator of storytelling show The Goblin Circus(fantastical), with an illustrated storybook in the works! When not writing or making magic Hayley dances, studies for her Philosophy Doctorate and dabbles in arts and crafts. Despite running a circus she still can't juggle. Find her at www.aworldenchanted.com /www.thegoblincircus.com 

10:45 am: Will MacMillan Jones presents his ‘Enchanted Darkness,’ a performance for children and adults.

Will Macmillan Jones writes Dark Fantasy, fantasy he fantasises is funny, and books for children. Some of his pieces have won awards but he doesn’t like to talk about that as it draws attention to the fact that other pieces haven’t.

www.willmacmillanjones.com

11:15 am: Wendy White, ‘Tir-nan-Og’ winner, reads from her children's book 'Welsh Cakes and Custard.'

Wendy White grew up in Llanelli and studied at Lampeter University. She worked as a library assistant before training to become a primary school teacher and has taught at schools in Berkshire and Carmarthenshire. She is an award-winning author of children’s books. Welsh Cakes and Custard and Three Cheers for Wales are about the adventures of Betsi Wyn and Emyr Rhys and feature their grandparents too, Mam-gu and Da-cu. Each book includes five stories with a strong Welsh flavour, a child-friendly recipe and some traditional songs. Wendy writes for adults under the pen name Sara Gethin.

12:15 am: Colin R. Parsons reads his Christmas Story “Norman's Christmas Spirit”

He loves writing for children and young adults in the genres of: fantasy, sci-fi, steam punk and the supernatural.

He has published many books including his best selling series Wizards' Kingdom, also The Curious World of Shelley Vendor books and his Crank Tech One series.

Here's the full programme:

9:45 am: The Llandeilo Town Band will open the event with festive music.

10:00 am: Book Fair opens with Hayley Addis: “The Goblin Circus” (children & adults) reworking fairy-tales

10:45 am: Will MacMillan Jones presents his ‘Enchanted Darkness,’ a performance for children and adults.

11:15 am: Wendy White, ‘Tir-nan-Og’ winner, reads from her children's book 'Welsh Cakes and Custard.'

11:45 am: Hugh W. Roberts reads “What If Summer Never Arrives” from his brand new book “Glimpses”

12:15 am: Colin R. Parsons reads his Christmas Story “Norman's Christmas Spirit”

12:45 am: Short Story Competition Award Ceremony.

1:00 p.m. Sharon Tregenza reads from her Middle Grade/Mystery Adventure “Shiver Stone”

1:00 p.m. Carol Lovekin reads from her magical novel ‘Ghostbird.’      

1:30 pm: Rachel McGrath reads from her children’s book ‘Willow and Coco meet Santa.’

2:00 pm: Poetry Readings. (Open Mic)

2:30pm:  Welsh Poem Recital Competition.

3:00 pm: Liz Riley-Jones reads from her Celtic fantasy novel ' Hiraeth a burden - baich' and talks about the significance of the Welsh Language in it.

3:30 pm: Graham Watkin reads from his best-selling mythology collection ‘Welsh Legends and Myths.’ 

4:00 pm: Kate Glanville reads from her novel ‘Stargazing.’

4:30 pm: Christoph Fischer reads from his Carmarthenshire-set murder mystery ‘The Body In The Snow.’

17:00: Book Fair closes with the announcement of Raffle Prize winners.

Catering by THE HANGOUT at the YARD Llandeilo (traditional, healthy and vegetarian options)

Gift Wrapping in aid of the Air Ambulance all day long

Meet the Participants of the Llandeilo Book Fair: Dave Lewis

Dave Lewis (born 1966) is a Welsh writer and photographer based in Pontypridd, south Wales. He has always lived in Wales except for a short spell in Kenya in 1993-94.

He has been a schoolteacher, zoologist and web designer. He writes content for and still maintains many web sites, is a former web producer for the BBC Wales Scrum V website and has been published in a number of literary magazines.

In 2007, along with Welsh writer John Evans, he set up and organised the first ever Welsh Poetry Competition, an international poetry competition, now in its tenth year, aimed at encouraging and nurturing the wealth of creative writing talent that exists in Wales but often gets overlooked by the arts establishment.

He has published a number of books that have been well received, especially his 2013 poetry collection, Roadkill. Other works include Layer Cake, Urban Birdsong, Sawing Fallen Logs For Ladybird Houses, Haiku and Reclaiming the Beat. His poetry is post-modernist and often anti-establishment, but can also be deeply confessional. He has also written three novels: a modern, crime thriller trilogy set in his native south Wales and East Africa.

His latest book, Wales Trails, is a humorous cycling account of a recent trip around Wales and follows on from his previous, bestselling Lands End to John o’ Groats diary.

Website – www.david-lewis.co.uk

Articles:

International Welsh Poetry Competition - www.welshpoetry.co.uk

Celtic Life International - http://www.celticlifeintl.com/past-issues/

BBC sports article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/welsh/3379659.stm

Red Poets - http://www.redpoets.org/links.html

Publications - http://www.david-lewis.co.uk/publications/

Meet the participants of the Llandeilo Book Fair: David J Jeremiah

David J Jeremiah

Shakespeare’s Island – Saint Helena and The Tempest is about the early history of the island of Saint Helena and how it influenced Shakespeare when writing The Tempest. David lived and worked on the island for over six years and his wife Joy is a Saint Helenian.

The Tempest is about the effect that being on a small island has on people. David’s preface suggests: ‘The Tempest explores how people react differently to new experiences following their arrival on a small island. Some are changed as a result, some remain resolutely the same, and others seemingly find themselves possessed of a compulsion to address (positively, they would say) issues that only they can see the answers to.’ David saw this himself over the years and recognised it as the underlying theme of The Tempest. He then realised that characters and events in the play actually reflected characters and events in the early history of the island. Saint Helena enjoyed a higher profile in Elizabethan and early Jacobean London than it does today. There was a wealth of material available to Shakespeare, including in travel narratives that he clearly used in some of his earlier plays, including Twelfth Night and Macbeth. David argues that some similarities between what was known about Saint Helena and the text of the play are too close to be explained as mere coincidences. The Tempest is one of only three plays written by Shakespeare that has no identifiable literary source – which makes discovering what inspired Shakespeare to write the play all the more intriguing.     

Meet the participants of the #Llandeilo Book Fair: Liz Riley-Jones

One of the programme highlights: 

Liz Riley-Jones will read from her Celtic fantasy novel ' Hiraeth a burden - baich' and talk about the significance of the Welsh Language in it at 3pm on Dec 10th at the LLandeilo Book Fair in the Civic Hall Llandeilo. 

Liz Riley Jones is the pen name of Sam Holland, a sculptor who lives and works in Kent. A member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors since 2001, she graduated with a first level degree from the City & Guilds of London Art School in 1992. Relocating to Kent, just south – east of London, she lives and works on a converted Dutch barge with her husband and two sons. Her commissioned works have been placed throughout Britain and Europe.

It was the commissioned sculpture of Dic Evans MBE, placed in her father’s home village Moelfre on Anglesey in 2004 that awakened Sam’s inherited desire to become a Welsh speaker. She has been studying the language for ten years, and hopes to be able to speak at least some of all the Celtic languages at some point.

It was during this time that she became inspired to put her passion for her life view into words. Weaving together her interests in environmental change, parenthood, and empowerment with her studies of Celtic mythology, history and identity, she began to make some notes. The notes became a book, and the book developed in to the Hiraeth trilogy. Hiraeth is a single story told in three parts and was published between 2014 and 2015, under the pen name Liz Riley-Jones.

Meet the participants of the Llandeilo X-Mas Book Fair: Kate Murray

Kate Murray was told she would never write…

 But from an early age she wanted to tell stories. So she told them, all the time, to anyone who would listen. At the age of twenty four she was diagnosed with dyslexia and suddenly the world of the written word was open to her. Now she writes from her workshop, which she calls her shed, in the foothills of the Cambrian Mountains. Kate is writing her way out of dyslexia.

You can see what she is up to on her blog (http://kate0murray.com/).

So far she has written three selections of short stories, one murder mystery and a horror. Of those, the horror, The Gone, is about to get a sequel and there is also a disaster on the horizon.

Kate loves to make her stories come to life and to create strong female characters.

http://www.katemurray.org.uk

@the_toymaker

https://www.facebook.com/kate.murray.author.artist/

https://www.goodreads.com/KateMurray

https://kate0murray.com/