“A Dark Gathering” at MK Lit Fest’s ‘Dreams for Lammas’ event

You may remember that I wrote about my experience of finding the old abandoned Devil’s Den farmhouse over by Grange Farm? Well, that inspired a very short, very spooky story. I’m delighted to be able to share that it was picked for inclusion in the Milton Keynes Literary Festival’s “Dreams for Lammas” writing competition, and this evening I was invited to read it along with the over fifteen winning entries.

So, a big thank you to everyone who came along to hear me read “A Dark Gathering”! I really enjoyed the experience of sharing it with a frankly amazing 20+ guests, and I loved hearing my fellow writers share their different takes on what “harvest” meant to them. We certainly approached the topic in a range of creative ways and across a variety of styles and genres. If you’d like to read all the wonderful tales that were told, you can buy a copy here or listen to the whole event on the MK LitFest Spotify channel.

This was only my second experience of reading for an audience and as part of my practising beforehand, I made a recording and it actually came out pretty well – so if you’d like to hear it too, here you go!

Huge thanks to Flora, Dave and all the folks who work so hard to put on the MK Lit Fest events – I’m very new to sharing my writing with anyone, and I really appreciate the opportunity to be part of such a friendly, fun and welcoming writing community.