New Talent Award for Unpublished Writers

I’m really looking forward to my first experience of the Festival Of Romance this November.

The Festival have just released information on their hugely successful ‘New Talent Award’. This is for writers not yet commercially published. After the success of last year’s award, this year it’s being opened up to all writers, whether or not they are attending the festival. With Georgina Hawtrey-Woore from Random House and literary agent Diane Banks as the judges, this is a great opportunity!

New Talent Award aims to uncover romantic fiction authors of the future

The Festival of Romance is delighted to announce that the New Talent Award will run again this year. The industry judges are Georgina Hawtrey-Woore senior editor at Cornerstones, Random House and Diane Banks, literary agent at the Diane Banks Associates Literary Agency.

The Festival of Romance New Talent Award aims to cast a spotlight on the authors of tomorrow and is open to all writers who have not yet had a book commercially published. Writers may submit the opening chapter (up to 3,500 words) of a romantic novel of any type by 30th September 2012. The winner and runners-up will be announced and presented with trophies at the gala Festival of Romance Awards on Friday 16th November 2012. There is a small entry fee to cover the award administration. Entrants may also gain a critique of their entry written by a professional novelist.

“As part of the Festival of Romance we want to help new writers with talent get their break into the commercial fiction world,” says Kate Allan, chief romantic at the Festival of Romance. “At the Festival of Romance in November we are running writing workshops, an industry conference and chance to meet publishers face to face as well as the New Talent Award. I’m delighted that Georgina Hawtrey-Woore and Diane Banks have agreed to judge this year’s entries.”

Winner of the 2011 New Talent Award Henriette Gyland subsequently garnered a book deal from publishers Choc Lit. Her debut novel Up Close will be published in December 2012.

 

For more details about how to enter the New Talent Award please see http://www.festivalofromance.co.uk <http://www.festivalofromance.co.uk>

 

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From self-published to traditional publisher – an interview with MaryLynn Bast, author of ‘No Remorse’.

Interview with MaryLynn Bast, author of ‘NO REMORSE’  - Part of the ‘Heart of a Wolf’ series.

Welcome to my blog, MaryLynn. I’m looking forward to the experience of being part of your blog tour. This is a first for me!

I know you’ve been working very hard  since the release of ‘No Remorse’, to publicise your ebook. Can you tell us your experience of self-publishing, and a little of why you decided to go down that route?

No Remorse was self published. However, I did go through ‘Publish America’ in the beginning and pulled it away from them because I wanted more control.  I have a pre-qual  ”A Justified Kill” that I am going through the formatting process on and will release the novella of Amber’s life and her “first kill” before No Remorse.  I am hoping to release that in June or July as self published again.  I’m not sure if I will try to query publishers for the series or keep it self published… I will see if I gain exposure and if I get decent offers. I have had a few very small publishers inquiring, but I’m not about to jump into anything…again.

That sounds an exciting development!  Can you tell us a little more about the background of ‘No Remorse’?

My werewolf community is a little different than most other books that I’ve read. Most of the time I find that they are male character driven.  There are usually females wolves, but it’s the male’s who dominate.  In my series, the males will be very dominate, however, there are going to be strong women, like Amber, who will be a big part of the series. I am introducing all kinds of paranormal characters other than werewolves and hope the ones who liked No Remorse will like what I am doing.

When writing No Remorse I approached it from a different point of view. I wanted to show how rough it was being a female werewolf and how they have to be strong to survive and definitely a lot stronger than Bella. I love Twilight, but I wanted my character to be strong and even though she can love someone, she doesn’t allow herself to fade away, she goes on with her life. Unlike Bella falling into depression…I know that story is YA, but to me, it tells the girls its okay to love someone so much you just put your life on hold for them.

I definitely enjoyed the fact that Amber was an independent woman following her own path. I see that you have now had success in attracting a publisher. Can you tell us how that came about?

 The publisher is not related to the series.  An Editor asked me to submit a romance. I wrote the story. Before reading it, he tells me Oh, by the way, its needs to be a paranormal romance and the final twist…erotica.  I have never written erotica so I saw that as a challenge.  I went back through and rewrote the story from a paranormal and added the erotica. I don’t like the vulgar part of it, so I kept that clean, but I can get very descriptive.  :)  The editor received the story and within 24 hours responded that they loved it and would have the contract over to soon.  I am still waiting for the contract, but I know its happening.

Congratulations, MaryLynn! That is a wonderful development.

Enjoy the last days of your blog tour, and I’m looking forward to seeing your next publication up on the ebook ether!

‘No Remorse’ can be downloaded from Amazon here 

You can find out more about MaryLynn and her ‘Heart of a Wolf’ series on her blog here.

And now for the book itself:

‘No Remorse’

Due to her unusual birth, Amber has abilities no other werewolf has ever possessed. On the run since childhood, the lone wolf avoids contact with other werewolves at all cost, continually moving, constantly looking over her shoulder and always alone.

Everything changes when Amber saves a werewolf from the mere brink of death, Blake, the only werewolf to ever protect her. Love blossoms, but not without tribulations when Amber realizes she must help her new pack rescue a member who is being held hostage by a rival pack.

Warring with emotions of going from lone wolf to the pack leader’s mate, Amber must decide if she is willing to risk Blake’s life to know true family and friendship despite the fact that the Council is hell bent on locating her and will stop at nothing until she is found. Will Amber’s special abilities be enough to keep everyone safe?

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