York - the pictures!

OK, I was so busy talking that I didn't actually take many pics...but I'm going to post the few I have anyway!

The Festival of Writing is an incredible experience, due in a huge way to the fabulous team at Writer's Workshop who organise it. Here are the wonderful Nikki, Laura, Deborah and Lydia, with the 'thank you' bouquets presented to them by Cloudies.

I wouldn't have arrived in style again without my personal chauffeur - Imran (aka Flickimp). He is the king of tweets and the most prolific writer I know - his enthusiasm for writing blows me away. With him is Neil, who kept me smiling all weekend with his Brummie humour.

I met lots of new faces too - in the background is Gippsgirl chatting to Imran, and in the front, the lovely Steph, who runs a fantastic scheme called kidsreadwritereview and had me playing 'guess the author' with the pics on her phone! This lady moves in hallowed authorly circles and does a brilliant job of enthusing kids about reading books. (Oh - and the tablecloth's tucked under her chin 'cos the napkins got taken away with the main course, pudding was chocolate brownie, Steph's dress was cream - and she wanted to keep it that way!)

Another new face - Kieran, who for some reason had the after dinner mints for our table placed directly in front of him. I think he was rather pleased about it.

Folk travel from all over the world to the festival - this is Belinda, (on the left - I'm on the right) who came from Australia! Oh - and while she was here, it seemed only right to celebrate her parent's golden wedding anniversary as well...

Some of my cloudie friends and myself were 'bouquet bods' for the evening. At the back with me is the wonderful Debi Alper, who has been an absolute rock in my times of disillusionment and a constant encourager - a very special lady who's loved by lots of us! On the front row are (l to r) Mandy (Skylark), Sophie (TenacityFlux) and John - three fabulous writers who are, I think, on the very cusp of being published. We scrub up well, don't we?

There are so many other folk I could mention too, but I don't have their pics and I'm bound to miss someone out if I try to remember names! Suffice it to say that everyone I met added to my experience, but special mention must go to all the cloudies who looked out for me on Saturday, when I was poorly with a migraine (thank goodness it disappeared in time for the gala dinner) and to Susan (Franklin), who mopped me up and sorted me out when I got my 1-2-1 times so muddled, I completely missed the first one and burst into tears at the thought of having to see the agent when I hadn't psyched myself up for it! And of course I can't miss out Harry Bingham - who this year couldn't be with us for two very special reasons - but sent us a video instead. You are the spirit of the cloud, Harry, and we wouldn't be where we are as writers without you and your vision for the community.

For more pics, check out the Twitter feed #fow13 or Debi's blog - and who knows, maybe next year, it'll be you with me on the photos?