On March 30th, I attended the final event of the
Norwich Crime Festival featuring author RJ Ellory. This event took place at the
Millennium Library in the Audio/Visual section again. This event was on the
smaller side with less than thirty people in attendance. Unlike most of the
past audiences, however, there was a good mix of elderly, middle-aged, and
student aged people. I saw the most people looking like students in attendance
at this event compared to previous events. Everyone was dressed in casual wear.
This event was unique compared to the past events I
attended. Instead of mainly discussing his works and reading from them, Ellory
spoke about his life and his on and off career as a writer, in turn lecturing
the audience on what makes good literature. Ellory told the audience about how
eventually became a published writer. He started off writing twenty-two novels,
none of which were published. Finally, after more than 600 rejections and
spending 12.5 thousand pounds, Ellory decided to give up writing. He did not
pick up a pen even to write a postcard for eight years. One day, when sat at a
computer at his job, Ellory began to write again and wrote his twenty-third
book, which eventually got him published after a long fifteen years. After the
publishing of this book titled, Candlemoth,
Ellory was contracted for thirteen more books with his publisher. I believe
Ellory chose to speak about his hardships in order to give the audience hope
that if they do not give up, they will eventually succeed and become published
like him. Ellory also spoke about why he chose to have his novels take place in
America, saying he was greatly influenced by American literature and
American-related things, including the Ku Klux Klan, Hollywood, and Marilyn
Monroe. He also said he was interested in having his books take place in
different U.S. states, but he only visited America when he did book tours. This
indicates most of his research must be done indirectly while living abroad.
Also, the fact that his books take place in America may mean his books receive
more of an American audience, a possible reason why so few people may have
shown up to his event in England.
After speaking about his journey to success, Ellory
lectured the audience about what makes “good”
writing “good.”
He said that the best work one can do is write something they personally would
want to read, not something they think other people would want to read. He said
people should always write for themselves first, then friends, followed by
money. If people ever get to the stage where they are writing for money, they
should stop as they should only be writing out of pure passion, not greed. He
also said people need to be able to work collaboratively as that is what needs
to happen after one is published in order to have a very successful book. While
Ellory was speaking, the audience was very engaged with many people taking
notes about what he was saying in relation to writing a good piece of literature.
Ellory was very well spoken and entertaining during his lectures. The time
seemed to flow by quickly. He was very passionate and was dedicated to giving
advice to help others. This was demonstrated when a woman asked him about
authors that write similar work to his, and he offered to exchange email
addresses in order to email her a list of authors and books he thought she
might enjoy. No other speaker was that personal with audience members. Then again not many audience members
seemed as interested in the speakers as the audience for Ellory was. All of the
people who asked questions asked about his career, with some being writers, but
not all, being writers. This was interesting to me: I wondered why a non-writer
would be so interested in Ellory’s career and choices. Almost everyone
else who spoke to Ellory complimented his work, indicating they were all
familiar with it.
Also at the event was a Waterstone’s
table with a representative selling copies of Ellory’s
works that could be signed by him after the event. Unlike past events, almost
every single person that attended stayed after to either speak to Ellory or
purchase one of his books. This shows that this audience consisted of true fans
of both Ellory and his work, and were intrigued by him as a person. In all of
the past events, very few people stayed after to meet the authors. I am curious
as to what makes Ellory and his books so amazing that almost every person in
attendance would want to spend more of their time after the event ended to
further speak to him. I may just
have to read one of his books to find out.