Richard Hardie

Awards

• Finalist - People's Book Prize

Organisations

• Society of Authors

Event feedback

Details

As an author, I love meeting people, especially if they want to buy my books and want me to sign them.

Book signings

Mind you a signing event can be challenging. My first had a steady queue for 2 hours and I sold loads of books. The second one wasn't as successful with only two books sold! Mind you it was Ladies final day at Wimbledon. Not a good choice. After that I tended to pick and choose ... you soon learn!

Talks

Like many authors, I like to talk about what I do, whether that's as an author, or publisher.

I give talks in schools, colleges, universities and libraries as far afield as Swansea to the West and Horsham in the East. The talks are tailored to whatever year group I'm talking to and whatever the organisers require.

Subjects I cover are :-

    1. How to write a book

    2. The life of an author

    3. How to publish a book

    4. The challenges of an author and publisher in the digital age.

    5. Paperbacks, Kindle and Audio books. The future in a digital age..

Expenses and a coffee are always welcome!

I even gave a talk to the Royal National Institute of the Blind about the importance of audio books.

Workshops

I give workshop sessions to schools, usually years 5,6,7 and 8 ... though occasionally years 9 and 10.

The content contains :-

   1. The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions that all fiction books should answer.

   2. I use my first book Leap of Faith to illustrate each of these points.

   3. If appropriate I provide prop clothes to involve the audience

   4. Still using the W,W,W,W,W and H rules I ask the students to give me ideas for each of the elements

   5. Using their input I then get them to help me build a short story.

                                         Then .....

   6. The final element is for me and the students seperately to write up the short story, usually over the next 2 to 3 weeks, and for us to meet again and read out the resulting work.

My books

My books are aimed at Young Adults of all ages! Although they are fantasy adventures, they all have a good measure of humour in them and are enjoyed by people of all ages above 8.

Subject matter

As members of a temporal detective agency, my characters have travelled to Ancient Rome in the time of the emperor Domitian, Cleopatra's Egypt, Shapespeare's London in 1605, South Wales in the year 1734, Valley Forge in the American War of Independence and Springfield, also in America (nothing to do with the Simpsons) where they saved the future President Lincoln.

History therefore is a mainstay of my stories and each adventure has been well researched to maintain the integity of the books.

Books by Richard Hardie

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