Second book launch

Only two years ago, I attended my first book launch. Peredur, the linguist who I have been practicing Welsh with, has his second book out. Of course I wanted to be there when it was launched!

The timing was a bit unfortunate; that day, it would initially be dry, but in the late afternoon it would start raining. There was an actual weather warning for rain out, so it was probably going to be unpleasant. If it were not for the book launch, I would have gone home fairly early to avoid that.

They came, and I biked to Main Arts in the rain. I quickly went inside. There already were drinks there, and some people. I had a wine and a chat. And when the opportunity arose, I bought the book, and asked Peredur to sign it. 

At some point it started. We were in a huge room! I sat down third row. Nice balance between elbowing myself front row, and showing disinterest by sitting in the rear. 

The interviewer this time was a fellow author: Bethan Gwanas. I must admit I haven't read anything by her yet. And she had a completely different style from Aled Hughes, a radio presenter, who did it last time. To be honest, I preferred Bethan! She was very unfiltered. And she was a bit of a fan girl. That must have been good for Peredur’s ego. 

Bethan Gwanas and Peredur

She asked things such as how he has got the idea for his books. And he told her it had all started with a short story he had written for an online Eisteddfod during lockdown. And then it had snowballed from there.

She also asked about the two books hang together, and it seems that they are related but that you can read them entirely independently. I will find out myself!

He had different chapters with different protagonists in the first book, and now he did again. Some of them even the same ones. And he spoke of difficulties with these different voices. One of them, for instance, is from South Wales, so he had to mimic a South Welsh way of speaking. That sort of thing can go wrong! She also asked him to read a fragment from that, so we could find out how good his South Walian pronunciation really is.

There is also one chapter that is written in the second person, rather than the rest of both books, which is in third person. And they discussed a bit what the significance thereof was. And why the protagonist of this chapter has such a name. Peredur confessed he had just wanted to avoid that anyone with the same name, even if it was entirely by coincidence, would have an issue with that.

This chapter also seems to be in the most formal Welsh. After all the colloquial speech of the other protagonist (he read out another fragment; yes one of them is indeed very colloquial) that stands out. And Peredur confessed to have been a bit self-conscious; he wanted a chapter in which he proved he could really also write "proper " Welsh.

In the end, Peredur thanked everyone in the room, because he said he couldn't have done this without the support from the publisher, his friends, family, and colleagues. So he dedicated the book to us. But he reminded us that we still would have to pay for our own copy.

With that it was coming close to an end. He invited us to stay a bit longer, as we hadn't finished the Prosecco yet. And I walked out of the room, back to the drinks area. And when I saw daylight again, I realised it wasn't raining. And that made me decide to just go. I had already had two glasses of wine before the event; drinking any more would probably be a bad idea anyway. And I had already chatted to the people there. So I skedaddled!

I'll start this book as soon as I have finished my current one. Stay tuned for a review!