Highlights of Writers' Holiday in Wales

Writers' Holiday is held every year, once in summer for a week, and for long weekends in spring and autumn. The location is Fishguard Bay Hotel, overlooking Fishguard Bay, and the organisers are Gerry and Anne Hobbs, who are Welsh, hence the flags with the red Welsh dragon on the flags displayed in the room used as a book room during the holiday week.

Although it is called a holiday, lots of series instruction in useful skills takes place. 

Poetry Course and New Form such as the Douzain

Several kinds of writing are covered, This year Alison Chisholm taught a poetry course covering several kinds of poetry scheme. The course ends with a live performance of poets reading their work. (See my earlier posts.) 

Formatting and Loading Up E-books

For me the most useful new skills were the training in formatting ebooks. I attended two courses, One was run by Malcolm Chisholm. The other was run after tea by Chris Oliver. They both spent a lot of time demonstrating how to load up an ebook onto Lulu.com or Smashwords. They also discussed Amazon's Createspace. We learned how to save our files with dates and other key words grouped in folders, and various technical terms, such as HTML. 

Book Binding

We even learned from Chris Oliver that you can bind books using a DIY press with edges to hold the pages. Alternatively, see on YouTube how books are bound using a flower press or press for a tennis racquet.

I discovered the difference between the paragraph symbol and the symbol for line break or return. We also discussed the merits of inserting breaks before and after paragraphs. 

Illustrations

We were able to see and buy books in the book room, signed by the author, and to look at the paintings and sketches produced in the art class run by Susan Allison. She had taught the group about the merits and uses of different sized brushes for watercolour washes. The results were impressive. A useful course, for those who want to illustrate books (add illustrations to a book whose main feature is the story or text), or to make Illustrated Books (books whose main feature is a series of books by one illustrator, a collection of drawings on the artist's favourite theme such as dogs, sometimes a picture book, or one where a text is added to link the pictures or human or animal

Paintings displayed in the art room overlooking Fishguard Bay.

character).

Paintings by short story writer Della Galton.

Della Galton, short story writer.

Val Webster is very proud of her painting of trees at sunset.

Welsh flags at Fishguard By Hotel, Fishguard, Wales, and Steve Wade, author of books about criminals.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.