On Wednesday 8th November, VERVE hosted a blogger mixer at the Battersea Bookshop where our online supporters were able to meet each other in person – some of them for the first time – and also meet our team and some of our incredible authors. Jane Jesmond, Sophie Morton-Thomas, Elle Nash and our sister imprint Oldcastle Book’s newest author Ammar Kalia were in attendance to talk about the inspiration for their novels and mingle with the bloggers.
Our eager readers piled into the bookshop, lining up to receive name tags and drinks and excited to start socialising. Some came in groups, but many came alone, being bold and seeking out community by themselves and ultimately making new friends.
Soon after everyone arrived, our Editorial Director Jenna introduced some of VERVE’s key books for the first half of 2024 before handing over to the guest authors, starting with Jane Jesmond. Her new novel, A Quiet Contagion, is a gripping standalone mystery thriller with a historical twist. It’s her third book with VERVE. Jane had the crowd hooked as she revealed what readers can expect from the novel:
‘At the heart of the book, there’s a secret. A secret that’s been kept by seven people who all worked at the same pharmaceutical laboratory in Coventry in 1975. Hiding the truth has brought success to some of them but others have been tormented by it. And now sixty years later, one of them has decided to reveal the truth with fateful consequences.’
After Jane’s excellent opener, Jenna introduced Sophie Morton-Thomas, author of Bird Spotting in a Small Town – an eerie psychological suspense set on the North Norfolk coast. Despite this being the first time Sophie had spoken to a crowd about her book (and despite losing her voice before the event!), she powered through with some intriguing insights about her novel’s setting:
‘I went back to Norfolk a couple of weeks ago in half-term and I was reminded when we drove there of how isolated it is – it’s not close to London, it’s not close to anywhere – and you’re just driving and driving until you get to this area and then we went round the marshes and I was like, “Ohh this is why I set my book here,” because it feels so isolated, there’s hidden secrets.’
Next Elle Nash offered some thought-provoking words about her fourth book, Deliver Me – a provocative, character-driven body horror. It’s her first book with VERVE, but Elle frequently works with independent publishers. She spoke of the inspiration behind the book’s exploration of pregnancy, motherhood and miscarriage in the American south:
‘My work has often been described as very visceral. I like to write through the senses. I often believe that the story, any story, that we tell starts with the body – that is the tool that we use to explore the world the most, so that’s where I like to write from. A lot of other themes that the book explores are about how the social welfare system in the United States, the medical healthcare system and community often fail women and what the consequences of that can look like.’
Rounding off this section of the evening, Ammar Kalia spoke about his debut, A Person is a Prayer. Ammar, global music critic for the Guardian, appeared at this event despite having broken his foot. He described how he originally wanted to write a memoir about his grandfather’s migration from India to Kenya to England. However, after his grandfather passed in 2021, his ideas shifted:
‘A Person is a Prayer started to change. I mean, I had no one left to ask about their story or my family history, so I thought I’d just make it up… The question I kept asking while writing this book was: “what is the future without somewhere to come from?” So, the novel became a way to collect strands of the past, to pull disparate lives together and to give me some place to stand on.’
The VERVE team then handed out branded tote bags which contained one of the new titles just discussed plus a book from our existing list, with attendees encouraged to swap with one another if they had already read the book they received. The atmosphere was buzzing: people drank, bonded, debated; they were harassed with countless questions by the social media person (me); and later we took a group picture.
This was VERVE’s second blogger mixer, and these events have quickly become a large part of what VERVE is trying to accomplish, fostering a community amongst our readers. By getting to know us and our authors, we hope that readers feel closer to us and our books, share our passion for the stories and understand why we publish them.
The social media response to the mixer has been wonderful! People have shared photos of themselves with the authors and with our books, and it has been such a joy to see. We can’t wait to start cooking up our next mixer for 2024! Keep your eyes peeled for news!
