How the UK Meet began ...

Once upon a time, there were three little girls ...

Okay. Actually there were about a dozen of them. And they weren’t exactly girls. Or, you know, all that little. Apart from Charlie, maybe. She’s tiny. (So small, in fact, that many people didn’t even notice she was there, that first year.) But anyway ... there we all were, gathered together one hot July day in 2010 in a library in Ely, to re-enact the feeding of the five thousand. What’s that you say? Oh, right. The food mountain was just a bonus side effect. No, we were actually there to get together and celebrate UK GLBTQ fiction. And that was the first UK Meet, and jolly good fun it was too.

The following year ... Well. Apparently word had spread about all the yummy food on offer. Although possibly the reports of fun, comradeship, helpful hints for writers and, heh, insider gossip attracted a few people as well. The 2011 UK Meet drew over forty GLBTQ fiction writers, readers and fans from around Britain -- and we had our first delegates from Europe, too. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back around January of that year, the very lovely, talented and wackily hair-accessorised Josephine Myles sent out an email to a few of us involved in the organisation, and it went something like this:

“Hey, I just met you, And this is crazy, But here's a prompt, So let’s do an anthology, maybe?”

Well, you have to humour people like that. Otherwise, they might creep up on you in the night and stab you with their pointy hair implements of doom. So we went along with it, put out a call to people, and what do you know? We ended up with a truly fabulous collection of stories, all donated by their authors to raise funds for the UK Meet.

And you can download it for FREE for today only: Tea & Crumpet.

Raise your rainbow umbrellas high and celebrate!

Enjoy this enchanting, entertaining and thought-provoking collection, a heartfelt expression of what it means to be queer in Britain, past and present. All these stories reflect the iconic sights and national character of the British Isles: a taste of our idiosyncrasies and eccentricities, but also an unashamed representation of the love, loyalty and laughter of our people.

The 2013 UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet will take place on the weekend of 12th-14th July 2013 in the Macdonald Hotel, Manchester, UK. We’ll be offering a wide range of panels, networking opportunities and social events, with plenty of things to appeal to readers, authors (established, fledging or aspiring), and fans alike!

If you’d like to be kept informed about details of the meet, please visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. You’ll also find pictures and reports from the fabulous 2012 Meet in Brighton, which drew over sixty delegates from across the globe, including our keynote speaker, genre pioneer & Psycop author Jordan Castillo Price.

UK Meet Acquisitions Team
http://ukglbtfictionmeet.co.uk