Well the last couple of weeks has seen a flurry of activity around networking groups!
Yesterday was the annual literary lunch organised by Queen of Cheshire Networking, Sue France of Creative Connecting Cheshire, who has been organising events in Cheshire for as long as I can remember!
A host of wonderful women enjoyed speeches by female authors from the North West and beyond and this year we were lucky enough to be at a table with Adele Parks who is one of the most prolific authors I know and has written at least one best-selling book a year along with poetry and short stories…
As always, the event organised by Sue was of high quality with coffee on arrival and prosecco to go with the menu of salmon, lemon tart and coffee in the wonderful Cheshire venue.
Adele with her partner Jim (who had changed his name to Parks because of the Parks brand!) sat with us and happily regaled us with stories of writing and the banter between them was hilarious as they had been married over 20 years (we know what it’s like 😉 )
Joanne Goodwin, Editor of Cheshire Life magazine, was also at our table and stole the show in her monochrome-themed trouser suit with Ostrich feather sleeves! It was very striking and I especially like classic black and white so I was drawn to her and the Ostrich feathers gave it an edge and a feathery flourish!
Sue France always likes to support a charity at her events and this time it was the turn of A J and Friends on the Wirral. This charity supports caregiving families of young people, by giving them counselling, respite, stay & play facilities and general well-being services in their head office based in Birkenhead on the Wirral.
Fay Evans Author and Creator of Fred the Musical got us all singing (very badly) to the tune she had written for the forthcoming show.
Her friends literally stood up with her to prompt us with the words, amongst them Estelle Maher of TAUK Publishing. Let’s just say our table tried their very best 😉
We learned the basics of conflict resolution with a role-play session from Sue Tonks based on the dreaded line we have all heard, “Can I have a word?” and then went on to do impressions of Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) who she kindly brought with her and even showed us videos where she was playing both the interviewer and the interviewee for her company videos at SueTonks.com. She trains Managers and Leaders to cope with conflict, leadership and managing people if you should need any help.
As well as a talk on the Basics of Google SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by Jonathan Guy of Aqueous Digital. See Photo.
Mandy Byatt, Author of Just Another Liar, regaled us with her true to life diary of her 20-year writing journey!
WOOHOO to you too Mandy!
Kim Smith of Northwich Radio popped over to say hello!
Also sat at our table was Author and Cheshire Life columnist Suzanne Holder who is always fun (and is married to Noddy Holder of “It’s Christmas” fame and band member of Slade. She has a book out too called Rock ‘n’ Rose.
A full range of fabulous female authors were with us, along with Sue France and Kate Houghton, Editor of both Cheshire Living Magazine and Homes & Interiors Editor of Cheshire Life at Newsquest – my what a busy lady!
Audience members were many but managed to get a great couple of shots with Teana Lynne of award winning, Chester bistro cafe restaurant The Naughty Badger.
Joanna Scott-Aspray of The Cheshire Club (in blue) singing a song especially arranged by Ashley Costello and friends to get the tables upstanding.
We also bumped into our friend Sarah Pickles of the Butterfly Breast Cancer Awards and met awesome Alison Blackler, founder of Cheshire Woman Award (CWA).
The afternoon finished with another song, the classic Happy Birthday sang by all Sue’s friends from the group!
