When my romantic comedy “Who Does He Think He Is?” was published back in December 2016, I had no idea that just over six months later I would be appearing as a bona fide author at the Bradford Literature Festival. 
I was invited to be a member of the panel at the Magic of Romance event alongside Sunday Times bestseller Milly Johnson and fellow debut author Sonya Lalli (look out for her romcom “The Arrangement”, out in August – I loved it!)
The Bradford Literature Festival started in 2014, and in just a few years it has grown into a huge annual celebration of all things reading and writing, with over 50,000 people attending this year’s Festival. With events covering everything from comedy to crime, Manga to mythology, there is genuinely something to suit everyone. If you’ve not visited, what are you waiting for?!
Events take place in venues throughout the city, and you only have to be in Bradford for 30 seconds to realise how much support there is for the Festival. There were banners everywhere, people wandering around with books in their hands, and a pop up book shop right in the heart of Bradford City Park was doing a roaring trade.
I have to admit I was rather nervous about appearing at my first literature festival. I’ve been to plenty as an audience member, but it’s rather different being up there on the stage! Fortunately my nerves disappeared when I met my fellow authors and our wonderful event chair Jodie Matthews. After all, what could be better than talking about romance and writing with other enthusiasts!
The event took the form of a panel discussion, with lots of input from the audience as well. We talked about our writing influences, what makes a good hero (there was definitely some swooning over Jane Austen’s Captain Wentworth) and how we set about writing a book.
It was really interesting to hear from my fellow panellists and to compare our different approaches to our work. It definitely made me think in a more analytical way about the genre as we discussed what factors make romance magic for us. We also laughed over how being a writer can sometimes make you seem rather crazy, for example when a character you’ve created does something completely unexpected and takes you by surprise!
The hour just flew by and I thoroughly enjoyed every second. And the icing on the cake was to see my books for sale alongside Milly Johnson’s and doing a book-signing at the end of the event. Thank you so much to the Bradford Literature Festival for inviting me along.
Emily Kerr writes 
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