Look, It's Penny Legg!

Yes, there I am, on the front of the 'Members' News' pages in Writers' News!

The details are not quite right but it is nice to be featured. My first book, Folklore of Hampshire, is due out in July of 2010, and was not published in July this year, but I suppose you cannot get everything right all the time!

Writers' News is the subscription magazine which accompanies Writing Magazine. It is full of insider information, tips and news. If you buy Writing Magazine but do not get it on subscription, you are short changing yourself as Writers' News is a gem for any writer.

Penny Legg, Book Review 'Cocktails and Camels' by Jacqueline Carol

I notice that the review I wrote for The Woman Writer magazine, of Jacqueline Cooper's book, Cocktails and Camels, written under the pen name of Jacqueline Carol, has been printed on the Arab World Books website.

I do wish that Jacqueline would write a sequel as I was charmed by this story of her youth growing up in Egypt. The climbing lessons in the basement of her convent school, travelling in style with her parents and the gorgeous governess, Mrs James, with her tales of being adrift in the Caribbean ocean in a trunk, all combined to form a page turner I could not put down. I am delighted that my review was thought worthy enough of further publication to be reproduced on the web. If anyone would like to read more of Jacqueline Cooper, or my review of her book, click here.

Rob Innis - Courting the Bull

Readers of this blog will have noticed the name Rob Innis popping up now and again. He is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Spain and he is my writing buddy. An anthology of work written by expats, Courting the Bull, has just been published by Innoword Media, and it features some of Rob's work.

The other day Rob went to Madrid to meet the publisher and he has just blogged on the trip. To read about this, or to order the book, click here.

Many congratulations, my friend.

Penny Legg, Award Winning Writer

I was delighted to receive the Scroll Award for my article on Bernard Warner, the Commodore of the Cunard Fleet, The Ship Comes First, last night at the Southampton Writers' Circle.

Judged by Richard Ashman, Senior Librarian at Southampton's City Library, my article, which was published in the February 2009 edition of Hampshire Life magazine, was described as 'A balance of conversational style, facts on the Queen Mary II and an historical read. The amount of information packed into a thousand words was impressive. A well written article.'

I am pictured receiving the Award from Richard.

Second place went to Jan Fitzsimmons, for her short story, Hamming It Up, the tale of what can happen if you let an actor practice his lines in a bar, and third place went to Diane Sparkes, for her short story, A Narrow Escape, the tale of a ship and her crew escaping a storm.

I would like to thank Richard and his team of readers at the City Library, for judging me the winner of this award and also the Southampton Writers' Circle, for running the competition. I am thrilled to have won.

Penny Legg at the Bournemouth Literary Festival

I have been asked to chair a discussion panel at the Bournemouth Literary Festival on 15th October. The theme is 'Getting into Print - conventional versus alternative routes'.

The panel consists of writers from the area. Joanna Pulford runs a local interest magazine and has recently started her own publishing company, David Hay is currently promoting his latest novel, The Fundamentalist, published by Authorhouse, and George Stratford, former Saatchi and Saatchi advertising copywriter, has published books both conventionally and through vanity publishing.

The venue is yet to be announced, but I am looking forward to meeting these three talented authors and to chairing the discussion at the Festival.

Cornwall, As Good Today As It's Always Been!

Further to my blog about going to Cornwall to cover a story, I can report that Martin's Dairy in Looe is alive and well, now over 100 years young, and is still serving delicious Cornish ice cream wafers filled with clotted cream. Yum!

More on the reason I went to Cornwall in a later blog.

Penny Legg's Writing Buddy, Rob Innis

Readers of this blog may remember my mentioning Rob Innis from time to time. Rob is my writing buddy and lives in Spain. He is a writer and editor and recently contacted me with some good news.

He is very happy that one of his stories, he trained as a non-fiction writer, has been published in an anthology of expatriate fiction by Innoword Media. Courting the Bull is available now and is a jolly good read. Congratulations, Rob. Enjoy the excitement this publication is causing.