The Girl form Norway -- in praise of the online book event by Sheena Wilkinson

This will be a short post as I’m just getting over Covid, and right now I am trying to conserve energy for the Romantic Novelists’ Association annual conference – by the time this is posted, I’ll be there, all being well.

Having Covid is very relevant to this post. I’d always planned to write about the virtual book launch of Emma Pass’s wonderful WW2 romantic novel, The Girl from Norway, which was published last week. Emma had had a successful virtual launch for her previous novel, the RNA-shortlisted Before the Dawn, and was keen to repeat the experience. I was lucky enough to read an early version of the novel, and loved it, so I really wanted to help launch it, but I live in Northern Ireland, so I wouldn’t have been able to go to a conventional book launch.

In-person book launches are a wonderful way to bring lots of well-wishers together in one place. But a virtual book launch is a very special thing too.

When I logged on last Thursday, not only did I get to see and hear Emma and her editor talk about the book, but I also saw many friends from the world of books – some of whom I know from Charney and other author events, and whom I haven’t been able to see in real life for years. And – something you don’t get in real life events – some of them had brought their dogs and cats along! (My greyhound Stroller is distantly related to Emma’s greyhound Auburn – they’ve often met online, which it’s fair to say we are more excited about than they are.)

Emma has excellent technical and artistic skills (she designed my website!) and she put those to great use when she shared her screen to show us some fascinating objects from her research – some early radar equipment, which she had actually used, and magazines from the RAF men stationed on Unst. Later came the fiendish WW2/RAF/Shetland-themed quiz – great fun, with plenty of banter among the participants. 

 

This was a lovely, friendly, celebratory event. It felt different from an in-person book launch, of course, but definitely not a poor relation. Since lockdown, there has been a lot of discussion about the importance of online and hybrid events, from an accessibility point of view. I’m fortunate enough, normally, to be able to access in-person events, though I do spend more time travelling than I’d ideally like. But last Thursday, with Covid, not having spoken to anyone outside my household, or seen another face, for days, I really appreciated the fact that such events are accessible when you’re physically unable to leave the house.

 

Emma and I have talked about how much we’d like to do some online author events together – her WW2 novels and my 1930-set Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau being natural bedfellows – and the success of the launch of The Girl from Norway has fired me up to make this happen soon! 

 

Thanks to Emma for agreeing to let me write about her event for this blog, and good luck to The Girl from Norway!