Celebration of Community: Clare London and Sue Brown

Imagine a meeting of literary giants at the annual international Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. Many household name authors, stimulating panels and interviews, busloads of eager and captivated readers, all set in lovely Harrogate… and look! Here’s Clare London and Sue Brown, professional authors (though maybe not on the same scale *cough*) on the way from their nearby-but-not-close-enough-for-Clare B&B to the event venue. They’re wrapped up well for England’s (in)famously changeable weather, Clare’s struggling with the brutal geography of the city (okay, so it’s only brutal to HER little legs) and Sue has to give her a discreet shove up a couple of the hills. Sue’s struggling to handle a family emergency back home with only a patchy mobile signal and heartfelt love to see her through. Once in the venue, Clare fangirls shamelessly over Lee Child (he looked right at her, he DID), and Sue’s plotting new books starring random (cute and fascinating to an author) people in the crowd. They eat on the go, grabbing fish and chips on route, and the prosecco they buy for their sophisticated literary critique evening back at the B&B lies untouched in Clare’s bag (though the chocolate gets eaten). They’re asleep soon after getting back, which is lucky because although it’s not the first time they’ve shared a B&B room, it’s the first time they’ve had to share the bathroom facilities with ten other guests in the building, and it’s *** cold in the corridor.

Clare: Sue Brown has been my friend and writing partner for YEARS. We’ve written in my cold marquee, and the warm pub, and gone through at least two laptops each. We’ve drunk gallons of latte and more than a few glasses of wine. We’ve attended conventions, planned marketing campaigns, betaed and brainstormed together.

And guess what? We’re going back to Harrogate again this year!

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See other authors celebrate community here:

Celebration of Community: Ariel Tachna and Nicki Bennett

Celebration of Community: Mickie Ashling, Damon Sude, and B.G. Thomas

Celebration of Community: Andrew Grey, BA Tortuga, and Rhys Ford