Ayr Writers’ Club member, Carolyn O’Hara, a writer who’s already had a number of short stories and articles published, has had a lot more to celebrate this week. Her true-life poem, By Chance, was selected as one of the very best entries from over 400 nation-wide submissions to Scottish Book Trust’s annual story project.
This year’s project theme, Blether, put a national call-out for people to lay down, in any genre, any form, just what blethering meant to them.
A print run of 100,000 copies ensures that the finished and published book, aptly named Blether, will be freely distributed throughout the whole of the country, as part of Book Week Scotland (18-24 November, 2019).
Book Week is a bringing together of people of all ages, all walks of life – be it in libraries, schools, community venues or workplaces – to share and enjoy books and reading. Joining this celebration are Scotland’s authors, poets, playwrights, storytellers and illustrators. Book Week Scotland is run by Scottish Book Trust and supported by partners all over Scotland.
With an invitation to the official Blether book launch event in the Edinburgh City Arts Centre on Wednesday evening, Carolyn was privy to the first public reading of Blether, prior to release. It promises to be an eclectic mix of the finest writing that Scotland has to offer.
Carolyn kindly credits a spring-time Ayr Writers’ Club Workshop led by fellow club member, Linda Brown, as providing the inspiration for the creation, and submission, of By Chance.
Blether is also freely available to download as an e-reader, Kindle-reader, as an audiobook (stories only) or a downloadable PDF, at the Scottish Book Trust link page – www.scottishbooktrust.com. All of the 400+ entries are also available on this page, to read online.