Own your own journey [372]

Greetings from my shed...

Welcome new subscribers. You have landed during a supporters issue but I think you might have a free trial. If not and you’re unable to fully subscribe, let me know. Especially if you are a writer, who’d like to hear about what happened at the National Creative Writing Industry Day. Reply to this email and I can unlock it for you.

As well as sharing a few photos and a quick summery of what happened while I was in Manchester, I’ll discuss my search for a new photo editing workflow, mention a surprise visit from a famous musician and lots more. Thanks for being here.

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#TheAction

If I’d prepared a little better, National Creative Writing Industry Day might have been less of a disaster. Luckily it was only a disaster for me. Writers were to-ing and fro-ing between talks, panels and important meetings. The stunning Grosvenor East Building of Manchester Metropolitan University was buzzing. The organisers Comma Press did an amazing job.

It was family that drew my attention to the event. Thinking it would be good for me to network with other writers. After umming an ahing over the very reasonable £65 ticket price, I bit the bullet and bought one. The event sold out not long after.

This may sound silly, but I bought the ticket without even knowing where the event was. I wrongly assumed that as with most writing event’s I’d heard about, this was happening in London. For me that’s a one hour motorbike ride. An easy day trip.

So a few days before the event, I realised I also had to stump for an expensive train ride. Plus somehow book a last minute hotel. I managed to grab a split ticket thing in the Trainpal app and reduced a £185 ticket down to £91. But there was very little accommodation available.

That was the crux of the problem right there. All I could find close to the venue was a hotel attached to a bar. (Remember the last issue?) It turned out to be one of my worst hotel experiences.