Meanwhile, in the Real World (by Cecilia Peartree)
Somehow I have got myself involved in organising a writers' event in the real world. This is the kind of thing I never quite mean to do, because I know from experience that there will be a lot of work in it for very little, if any, reward. But on this occasion deciding to organise a writers' event was the lesser of the evils. The original idea someone suggested to me was that I, and another writer who lives locally, should have a stall at the local summer fair and sell our books from it in aid of charity. So I came up with the idea of an actual writers' event as a way of minimising the risk attached to the occasion. At least we will be under cover, protected from the extremes of weather that often occur in Edinburgh in June, and (probably) not surrounded by the smell of burgers cooking on a barbecue, and the unpleasant noise of people complaining. I hate the local summer fair, which takes place every other year in our part of Edinburgh, with such a passion that I am no...