On Thursday the 23rd of August, 2018, the Nethergate Writers launched our latest collection, 50 Shades of Tay, in Waterstones Dundee, and the evening was a great success. Over 50 friends, family, and curious members of the general public came along to hear readings from some of our members, as well as taking the chance to buy copies of the book, with a few even asking to get them signed.
We began with an introduction from Craig, who explained a little bit about how things have changed for the group over the past few years and gave some background about how we came up with the idea for 50 Shades of Tay. Then Abby was our first reader of the evening, reading her piece ‘For A Tour Of Dundee, You Could Do Worse Than The 22’ and pointing out that she’d taken full advantage of the fact that the titles didn’t count towards our fifty word limit!
Roddie was next, telling us he was working on his Dundonian despite being from Glasgow, and giving us an amusing example of it by reading his piece ‘Eh Fought the La… an the La Won’.
Fiona was our third reader, explaining how she had decided to focus upon Mary McGonagall, and the all-too-real effects that her husband’s concentration on his poetic endeavours had on their day to day existence for her piece ‘Food or Fiction’.
Aileen then told us how the traumatising effect of having one of the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail statues appear right outside her house overnight had inspired her to write ‘Oor Wullie’s Revenge’, so at least some good had come out of it, and her reading produced the biggest applause of the night.
Rosie had to follow that, and did so admirably, drawing on the same performing skills which she’s put to good use when singing at karaoke nights, and it was watching some of the regular performers which had lead to her writing the final piece of the evening ‘The Club Bar”.
All in all, it was a great evening, and we as writers all enjoyed the chance to present our work to a wider audience. If you weren’t able to make it along, however, don’t worry. Copies of 50 Shades of Tay can still be purchased in-store at Waterstones, or directly from our website here.