Guest Speakers Sue Hampton and Leslie Tate

Guest Speakers Sue Hampton and Leslie Tate (2016-02-21 23:09:48)

Guest speakers Sue Hampton and Leslie Tate gave a talk as part of their Purple Tour so-called because both have recently published novels with purple in the title.

Sue Hampton writes for children, young adults and adults. She is also an ambassador for Alopecia UK. She introduced the characters from her latest novel Flashback and Purple through short extracts on cards that were passed around for members to read.

She talked about how she uses different language and writing styles for each character. Her book is about the connections between the characters, much of it told through thoughts in flashback. She ended by reading the first page of the novel.

Leslie has a background as a poet and he talked about the importance he places on language. His novel Purple is set in the 1960s and he has attempted to capture the authenticity of the period. He aims to write in the voices of the characters and talked about the method he has used to find a unique voice. He read from the opening of his book and from a section which illustrated the novel's two narrative styles. Both Sue and Leslie write blogs about writing and other topics that are important to them.

Sue and Leslie have websites with their weekly blogs http://www.suehamptonauthor.co.uk/ and www.leslietate.com/