Self-Published vs Traditionally Published: an interview with author Judith Barrow.

Today’s interview is with Judith Barrow, fellow Honno author, whose new book with Honno ‘Changing Patterns’ is published today, and is the Welsh Books Council’s Book of the Month for June. More about ‘Changing Patterns’ in my next post, but first of all I wanted to ask Judith about her her experience of publishing her own book, and how it differed from being traditionally published. 

Hello Judith, and welcome to my blog. Congratulations on the publication of ‘Changing Patterns’! You published your novel ‘Silent Trauma’ as an ebook yourself last November, so I’m sure the experience must be fresh in your mind, too. Could you tell us the differences between the two kinds of publishing? Were there parts that you enjoyed better in one experience than the other? Did you learn different things?

Where to start?  The two are so disparate. With self-publishing, unless you have a beta reader, or employ an editor and proof-reader, you are totally on your own. It appears to come easily to many writers whom I’ve met through Facebook but I found it hard. I had a good reason for publishing Silent Trauma myself; traditional publishers were wary of taking on the manuscript as it’s what they call an ‘issue-led ‘story. It’s fiction built on fact; so it’s a novel. But it also includes true facts about a drug called Stilboestrol that was given to pregnant women between 1945-1972, ostensibly to prevent miscarriages. It didn’t, but it did cause internal damage to the unborn children (the facts of which are given in the form of the Introduction and Footnotes). This was why traditional publishers were cagey. So I chose to put it out as an eBook. And I was impatient; I’d been researching it for nine years altogether. I thought it was time.

I did have someone who formatted it for me for Amazon but I had to do a lot for myself and spending so much time on something I found so boring, when all I wanted to do was write, was frustrating. And it took ages for me to hit on the right cover for the book. To be honest writing the story was the only part I enjoyed – that and the satisfaction that I might help to bring publicity to all the women I’d met that were affected by this awful drug.

I doubt I’ll ever write another eBook.

On the plus side, through Create Space, I have printed copies that I can sell. And ten percent of all sales go to the charity: http://www.desaction.org

Being published with Honno meant I got a lot of feedback from the editor. And they found two or three covers for me to choose from.  I’m very happy with the result. And, unlike with Silent Trauma, where again I’m on my own, I’ve had advice and help with the promotion of the books.

As you say, the issues in ‘Silent Trauma’ are clearly something you feel passionate about. What prompted you to write the novel?

I’d known for many years that a relative of mine suffered with chronic endometriosis, and that she had anatomical deformities.

The beautiful Pembrokeshire coast, where Judith is based

Then I heard a Radio Four programme called ‘You and Yours’ which included an article on DES and I realised that a lot of the content applied to my relative. She asked if I could research it for her. Des Action UK was still extant then (they folded last year due to lack of funds and support. From an original twelve DES Daughters, only two stalwarts were left and, after so many futile years of appealing to successive Governments for help and recognition, they couldn’t carry on anymore).

I sent for their newsletter and went online. The more we read, the more we were convinced that my relative had been exposed in utero to Stilboestrol. The more research I carried out the more aware I was of the damages Stilboestrol ((Diethylstilboestrol) had caused. One of the difficulties is that unlike Thalidomide, where you see the damage the minute the baby was born, women who took DES had healthy babies. The problems were hidden until the teens and twenties, by which point they were forgotten about. Many mothers didn’t even remember the name of the drug they were prescribed.

I kept in touch with DES Action U.K and, after a year was asked to write an article for them appealing for DES Daughters and Mothers to come forward and tell their stories, in the hope that the group would get more members and that, if more voices were heard, then perhaps the British Government would listen. The stance of the Government is twofold; that those pregnant women who were prescribed the drug were given it so far in the past that to raise it as an issue now would only cause ”unnecessary concern” – and that it is a  problem to be resolved only between the mothers and the drug companies.

Following the article, many women contacted me to tell their stories. Some were heart breaking; one DES Daughter had six miscarriages before giving up the struggle to conceive (she then, happily, adopted a lovely little girl). Another had too many health problems to list but amongst them she suffered from endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and paraovarian cysts. It was no wonder she was depressed. Her mother wrote many letters to the Government. Ultimately the reply came back – “Thank you for your letter, future correspondence will be noted and filed but not responded to…” The mother cried when she told me. I was so angry for her.

Many in the UK are totally unaware of this drug. The more I discovered the angrier I became. That these women are still fighting for recognition; acknowledgement from the Pharmaceutical companies after so long, is a disgrace.

I decided the only way to get the recognition they deserve was to get the information out in a way that people would read it: I would write a novel

As I’ve said, it took almost nine years to research, to contact many women from different countries; to piece together a story that was an enjoyable read, factually correct, but without being didactic.

I have kept in touch with many of the women. Many of them allowed me to use their quotes at the beginning of the chapters

On a personal level, I was brought up in a patriarchal household where what my father said was the rule. I know the feeling of helplessness, of the unfairness of not being listened to, of being ‘invisible’ if you like. I carried the frustration of having no voice into my adulthood. Luckily (or perhaps by wise choice) I married a man who believes in the equality of the sexes, who gave me a voice. We are still together after forty-five years.

Hurrah for sensible men! Thank you Judith. I had no idea about DES until ‘Silent Trauma’. Good luck with your ebook.  I look forward to our conversation about ‘Changing Patterns’ next time. 

SPECIAL OFFER!

‘Changing Patterns’ is a sequel to ‘Pattern of Shadows’. The Kindle edition of ‘Pattern of Shadows’ is now available for 94p  Just click on the cover below.

Read Full Post »

I’ve been awarded a Literature Wales Writers’ Bursary

On May 1st I shall be starting my three month Writers’ Bursary from Literature Wales. Three months in which I will be paid to write. I still have to pinch myself.

Now, I love what I do in my day job. I’ve written before on this blog about  ways my work can inspire and add to my writing. In fact, it was reading an unpublished diary of a young doctor from a local village, as part of  an oral history project on the First World War, that was one of the inspirations for my current book.

It wasn’t the work of a poet, or even meant to be read outside the family. It didn’t even describe the horrors of the trenches. The immediacy came from the entries made as a young man who had never been outside his locality, let alone Wales, setting off to England for his training, and then over to France. There’s the excitement of new places and new experiences, of people cheering them on and of crossing the English Channel for the first time. Then on a summer’s day, walking through French fields, the grenades begin to fall. As part of the project we were working on, we recorded the diary for the Talking Newspaper for the Blind. The descriptions are factual, restrained. There is no attempt to create a picture or create an atmosphere, or even to comment on the horror. By the time my colleague had finished reading, we were in tears.

I don’t want to shut myself in an ivory tower (or ‘crog’ loft, in my case), but I am so looking forward to a few months of not having to fight myself for the time – and most importantly of all –  the headspace in which to write.

The Bursary is such an extraordinary privilege, I’ve been busily planning everything I’m going to get done in the time. Sitting by my pond last night, watching the newts and the tadpoles and things that looked like wood lice having a right old tussle, I remembered that there was one thing I’d forgotten in all that scheduling. A few things, actually. Meeting up with friends.Tending my poor struggling veg patch (a brain needs spinach, and a heart does nicely on garlic, after all). Getting out and absorbing all the life going on around me. And sitting in any sun going to read. For pleasure. For being so totally absorbed in a story I don’t want it to end. That thing called life. The bit I so often forget about, or feel guilty about doing, or simply put off until another day – and then wonder if my inspiration and enthusiasm flags.

So here’s to life and fiction and inspiration and everything I am going to learn over the next three months.

Let it begin!

Bark in the sunlight – I’ve passed by this tree for years and never seen it.

Read Full Post »

Understanding my Characters

The Quarry Hospital in Llanberis

Okay; confession time. This blog post is just a teeny bit late. A month or two, in fact. Thanks to one of the nasty little lurgies doing the rounds, followed by Christmas, followed by the usual catching up of the New Year. Oh, and the small matter of a book to finish! So a very belated Happy New Year to you all. It’s great to be back.

The remains of the huge Dinorwic slate quarry, opposite Dolbadarn Castle

The stretcher to carry injured quarry workers

It was a strange experience, being in the Dinorwig slate quarry hospital museum , beneath the shadow of Snowdon. I walk past its front doors every few weeks, but usually with a dog in attendance, a box of vegetables to pick up from a nearby farm and a book to get back to. Last autumn I was there with my day job, celebrating the launch of a local heritage project, and so without dog or walking shoes or any pressing sense of guilt.

Standing in the museum I was struck by the atmosphere of calm. Of peace. It was the last thing I had expected in a hospital built in the 1860s to treat the illnesses and injuries – some truly horrific injuries – of the slate workers from the quarry. In a corridor there hung a stretcher woven into the shape of a man and designed to bring injured workers down from the heights of the nearby mountains. It was hard to look at it and not think of the pain and anguish experienced in such a beautiful object.

Instruments …..

This was especially so with the surgeon’s instruments for amputations and the like hanging all around. Lives were changed in these rooms. I wondered about the families in nearby Llanberis who lost their breadwinner here – either to injuries too severe to survive, or of the life-changing kind that meant he would never be able to work in the same way again, if at all.

Yet there were also men and women fighting to save the lives and limbs of the men brought in, with equipment that looks horribly primitive and barbaric to modern eyes. I hoped that the men in the beds on the wards, set out as they would have been, supported and cheered and drew comfort from each other in the way that human beings do when drawn together by the most dreadful of circumstances. And from the window there is the serene view of the foothills of Snowdon, where the train makes its slow journey upwards to the summit.

The view from the hospital with Snowdon in the distance

For all its horror, I came away from the museum feeling unexpectedly positive. Like the modern Mountain Rescue service – whose helicopters come over my cottage almost on a daily basis – the men holding that stretcher were risking their own lives to save another’s.

And the selfish part of me was very thankful that my recent dental work was undertaken with modern anesthetic and instruments, and that when the lurgy struck, I was able to take to my bed for a few days without losing my precious income.

Visiting the Quarry Hospital Museum made me feel closer to the characters I have been living with for the past months, both the Welsh gold miners in the mid 19th Century for a magazine serial and the heroine of my next novel, which begins in 1914. Standing amongst those surgical instruments and the lists of lives damaged forever, I could feel the fear underlying the everyday life of working men and women when even a minor injury could leave a family without money for food and a roof over their heads, let alone the expense of visiting a doctor and buying medicines to ease the suffering, for those who did not have the services of such a hospital. It added an extra edge to the families watching their menfolk march off into the horrors of the Great War, and deepened my admiration for the women and men –  the nurses, the doctors, the ambulance drivers and the many other volunteers – who followed to give what help they could both to the men fighting in the trenches and the civilians caught up amongst the shifting lines of battles.

I went to the meeting at the Quarry Hospital Museum vaguely muttering away inside (as you do) that I could be writing the next chapter instead of standing there like a lemon listening to speeches. But then an author is always on the alert …

Read Full Post »

I’ve been tagged for The Next Big Thing!

I’ve been tagged in The Next Big Thing by Emily Harvale, author of ‘Highland Fling’ http://www.emilyharvale.com/blog, and Choclit author Henriette Wulf Gyland http://henriettegyland.wordpress.com/ Thank you, lovely writerly ladies!

 I’m instructed to tell you all about my next book by answering these questions and then to tag five other authors about their Next Big Thing. So here I go!

 What is the working title of your next book?

‘Hiram Hall’

Where did the idea come from for the book?

 Partly from family history and partly from an oral history project I’m working on about ordinary people’s lives in WW1. 

 What genre does your book fall under?

Historical Fiction. With a touch of timeshift – maybe? Still hanging in the balance at the moment!

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Rupert Perry-Jones for the hero, and Claire Foy (who played Little Dorrit) for the heroine. And Honeysuckle Weeks (from Foyle’s War) might be in there too. (Only that would be telling)

 What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Three women in a world faced with an unthinkable war – three lives changed forever.

 Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Hopefully (says she with first draft jitters) it will be published by the publisher of ‘Eden’s Garden’, Honno Press.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

There were lots of false starts, and a few bits of jitters, but once I got going properly about six months. Nearly there!

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  

I was inspired  by Margaret James’ ‘The Silver Locket’  and Judith Barrow’s ‘Pattern of Shadows‘ 

 Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Finding out more about the roles women played in WW1, both at home and on the front line during an oral history project. I knew bits about the trenches from books and war poets, but I was inspired by  women’s part in the war. As well as winning the war at home, many were amazingly heroic, not only as nurses, but have been largely forgotten.

Then there was the great uncle who spent the Great War cycling around Wales on the run from the police ….. (You’ll have to wait!)

 What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

 Food is definitely a weapon of war – if you love Mary Berry or ‘Wartime Farm’, with a bit of mystery thrown in – then watch this space.

I hope this has whetted your appetite …. 

Here are some lovely authors I’ve tagged to tell you about their Next Big Thing!

Judith Barrow, author of one of my favourite books of all time ‘Pattern of Shadows’  http://www.judithbarrow.co.uk/category/blog/

Louise Marley, author of best selling romantic suspense novels including ‘A Girl’s Best Friend’ and ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’. http://www.louisemarley.co.uk/index.html

Thorne Moore , author the gripping read I’m enjoying now:  ‘A Time for Silence’  http://thornemoore.blogspot.co.uk/

Carole Hedges author of the thought-provoking ‘Jigsaw Pieces’ http://carolhedges.blogspot.co.uk/

MaryLynn Bast, author of the spine-tingling ‘Heart of a Wolf’ series. http://heartofawolfseries.blogspot.co.uk/

Read Full Post »

A Mansion, Beautiful Gardens, and a Lost World

After all the excitement and whirlwind of promotion of Eden’s Garden, I’m now deep in the next book. (Hurrah!)

It was strange at first, having wrestled so long for Eden’s Garden to see the light of day to go back to the beginning again, with a first draft and new characters. Oh and that familiar lurking feeling that perhaps that first book was a fluke. And why is this one so dire, and will I ever be able to get there again? To which the answer is: First draft syndrome. First drafts are always rubbish. That’s what they are there for. The trouble is, by the time you get to the refined end of a book, you’ve totally forgotten (or is that blanked out?) just what garbage you started with.

So now I’ve settled down a bit and my characters have taken on lives of their own  – and getting themselves into all sorts of trouble I’m far too nice to have even considered for them – I’m trying to abandon the computer once a week to do a bit of practical research. Oh, okay: visit lovely gardens. Since gardens seem to appear in everything I write as me, and as my alter ego Heather Pardoe, it’s no secret that a garden appears in the next book. How or why is a secret. But you may be able to guess as my forays into the garden world progresses.

Last week, I took off with a friend to Glynllifon, a magnificent Regency Mansion surrounded by a stunningly beautiful 700 estate. The grounds are now a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the richness of the wildlife and the rare and endangered species it contains. Walking through is a slightly surreal experience. The park has been carefully crafted as a wilderness playground. There are streams and rustic bridges and romantic ruins that clearly weren’t ever anything but a romantic ruin. There’s even a cave that looks suspiciously hand-crafted, and a pretty little hermitage that would send any self-respecting hermit heading for the hills.

The slate amphitheatre

Glynllifon is pretty and charming, but slightly odd, given that the real wilderness of Snowdonia is a few hours away by horse-drawn carriage. It’s wilderness tamed, with the real wilderness beating at the door.

I loved every minute of it, and I shall certainly be going back when the autumn colours are at their best, but the most poignant moment came at the end. We were looking around the exhibition showing some of the workers who kept the estate going, and there amongst the photographs was this one.

They are the agricultural workers, but they could also be the gardeners, the servants, the men from the villages nearby. It’s a glimpse into a lost world. A truly lost world, and a lost generation. Why? Because the date on the photograph is 1913.

It’s harvest time, so it’s summer. Within a year, how many of those men and boys would be facing horrors beyond imagination in the trenches of the First Word War? And the little girls facing the struggle, deprivation and uncertainty of life at home, with the fear of invasion and the telegram appearing at the door.

In the Work in Progress, some of my characters have just headed off to the front in The Great War. Young men and women, full of idealism and a sense of adventure, off to see the world and escape the path their rigid society had laid out for them. And, like the men in the photograph in Glynllifon, with no possible way of knowing what lies in front of them.

The peace and beauty and the safely-contained world of Glynllifon is one that will haunt me for a long time. And I hope that at least some of those young men made it back, however scarred, to pick up their lives again, and forge a new world.

Read Full Post »

Guest Blog from Carol Hedges, author of YA novel ‘Jigsaw Pieces’

GUEST BLOG POST FROM CAROL HEDGES, AUTHOR OF ‘JIGSAW PIECES’

Today, I’m pleased and delighted to welcome Carol Hedges as my Guest Blogger. Carol is the  the successful author of 11 books for children and YA, and her  writing has received much critical acclaim. Her YA book ‘Jigsaw Pieces’ has recently been released as an e-book. Carol has a BA (Hons) in English and Archaeology. She has worked variously as a librarian, a children’s clothes designer, a dinner lady, a classroom assistant at a special needs school, and a teacher. She has one grown up daughter, a husband, a pink 2CV, (Pink 2CV envy here!) 2 cats and a lot of fish.

Over to you, Carol!

First, I’d like to thank Juliet for her generosity in allowing me loose on her blog. I promise I will be on my best behaviour, and not spill cake crumbs everywhere. Well, I’ll try.

I write YA fiction, probably because I work with teenagers. When you spend all day in the company of 16 -18 year olds, they kind of permeate your brain, and then sift into your writing. I love them dearly – funny, heartbreakingly honest, they never fail to surprise.

Jigsaw Pieces, my first ebook, is so chockfull of personal stuff that I had to put the line “Not all the characters and events in this story are fictitious” at the beginning. The inner story tells of the suicide of a 16 year old boy, and the determination of two fellow students to unravel the events that lead up to his death.

I was on my first teaching practice when a similar event took place. I remember clearly what it was like as the news spread round the school. When you read the first few chapters of Jigsaw Pieces, you are experiencing exactly what I felt and saw. Maybe you think this is not a subject for a novel, but I have had a lot of feedback indicating that sadly, it happens far more than people realise.

The story is narrated by 18 year old Annie, a feisty, trenchant observer of life. She is a mash-up of numerous teenage girls I taught over the years. I decided to give her a Norwegian background as it resonates with the current interest in ‘Scandi-crime’, and accentuates her outsider status amongst her contemporaries – something I experienced myself, growing up in the 1950′s and 60′s as the daughter of German Jewish parents.

Finally, one of my favourite teaching topics is the First World War poets. I never fail to be moved by the tragic waste of young lives. The opportunity to turn myself into a First World War poet was therefore irresistible – and so I became (spoiler alert) Noel Clarke, the haunted young poet who dies, age 19. I wrote all the poems too.

I uploaded Jigsaw Pieces at the beginning of August. It has some 5 star reviews, and I am thoroughly enjoying meeting loads of lovely people, like you, as I go round blogging about it.

JIGSAW PIECES:

‘He had been part of my everyday life. I hadn’t liked him much, nobody had liked him much, but he’d been there. Now, I’d never see him again.’

Annie Skjaerstad had been searching for her identity since being uprooted from her native country of Norway. With a spiky personality winning her no friends, and family members suddenly torn out of her life, she is left seeking comfort from a growing intrigue into the stories of fallen war heroes.

But one day, a boy from her school unexpectedly commits suicide, changing things forever. Confused by the tragic tale of someone she knew, Annie soon finds herself conducting her own investigation into his death. 

What she uncovers will bring her to a dark and dangerous place, as suddenly – her own life is put at risk.

A tense, coming of age crime thriller by the author of ‘Dead Man Talking’.

You can download a copy of ‘Jigsaw Pieces’  here

You  follow Carol at her blog: http://carolhedges.blogspot.co.uk/

Or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/carol.hedges.779?ref=ts

Twitter @carolJhedges

http://www.Facebook Carol Hedges;

www. Shewrites.com (American).

Read Full Post »

A Lovely Award for my Blog!

Thank you to Lucinda Rose of  Rose Reads  for nominating me for this beautiful blog award. Lucinda nominated me a few months ago – I’ve finally got there!

The RULES for this award ares:

Thank the person nominating your for the award: THANK YOU LUCINDA, and for being bright and beautiful and sunny each time, come rain or shine. You can read all about Lucinda here

Then:

List ten things about yourself

And

Nominate SIX blogs you think deserve the Kreativ Blogger Award.

So here goes! The ten things about me are:

1. My favourite place to visit is Portmeirion

2. My best holiday was a week in Venice with a pass for all the boats, sailing the canals and visiting the islands.

3. My cats are brother and sister and called Mitzi and Maxwell. They kind of get along. In a sibling sort of a way.

4. I love autumn, for its richness and touch of fragility

5. I learnt to swim in a mountain stream. Very cold.

6. When the mountain rescue helicopter comes over my cottage it could be Prince William at the controls!

7. I have two wildlife ponds in my garden. One was supposed to have fish, but the frogs got there first.

8. I hate housework

9. I love gardening and all gardens, large or small

10. I studied photography at Hounslow College. A long time ago. We had chemicals then.

And my six nominees for their stunningly creative, inspirational, colourful and beautiful blogs are:

Claire McAlpine ‘Word by Word’ http://clairemca.wordpress.com/

Susan Jones  http://susanjanejones.wordpress.com/

Cosy mystery author Nancy Jill Thames  http://nancy-jill.blogspot.co.uk/

Carol Hedges author of ‘Jigsaw Pieces’ http://carolhedges.blogspot.co.uk/

Kat Ward http://keepingsane.com/

Brynne http://www.presenceofmagic.blogspot.co.uk/

Read Full Post »

‘Eden’s Garden’ Races Up The Bestseller Charts!

Click the cover to read the first chapter for free!

Well, I meant to write an entirely different post today. But last night, completely out of the blue, the totally unexpected happened. The Kindle edition of ‘Eden’s Garden’ hit the Amazon bestseller charts.

Okay, I know ‘Eden’s Garden’ is on a 99 pence promotion in the UK for a few weeks, but it’s not on promotion in the US, and I’m an unknown with a small publisher. Being a determinedly rational creature (at times), it never entered my head that my book would get into the top 100. I had thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’, but then I think that about the National Lottery and I’ve never bought a ticket. So there you go.

The funny thing is, that I might have missed yesterday’s excitement altogether. I just happened to stagger up to the office to answer a couple of emails, one of which needed a link to the Kindle edition. So there’s me, pulling up the page, and I notice a hashtag. I’m still on a steep learning curve when it comes to social media, and I’ve been drumming into myself to remember to use hashtags on twitter. So I sat up and took notice.

#97. I clicked the link to the chart. Sure enough, Eden’s Garden wasn’t there. Okay, so it must mean something else. Rats. Never mind. THEN I saw the ‘Historical Fiction’ bit. And there it was. Number 97.

If you were following me on Facebook and Twitter last night, you’ll know that I then got very excited. I had no idea how long it might stay in the chart and I was making the most of it. A bit later I went back to my page to click the link again – and Eden’s Garden was up at 90!

Luckily, some wonderfully thoughtful friends from Facebook mentioned getting a screen shot for the memory. Now, I love my Mac, but could I find how to do a screen shot? Not late in the evening, panicking that I might miss the moment. But after a quick phone call, my lovely brother came to the rescue and emailed the memory.

By the time I checked one last time, I’d worked out how to do a screen shot. Which was just as well, as by that time Eden’s Garden had soared to the dizzy heights of 76!

So thank you to everyone who bought the book and sent Eden’s Garden racing up through the charts, and gave me one of the most memorable evenings of my life. And thank you to the many Facebook and Twitter and Forum friends who joined in the excitement and cheered.

And the next evening, Eden’s Garden shot up even higher – to the dizzy heights number 72. Then into the 60s Amazing.

And then – here is Eden’s Garden at Number 46 in the Historical Fiction Best-Seller Charts. That’s going up on my wall right now!!

Eden’s Garden at 46

Read Full Post »

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>

 

Read Full Post »

Writing From the Heart – in memory of Maeve Binchy

Recently, I’ve been getting down seriously to the next book.

Having spent months going through the refining process for Eden’s Garden, it’s quite a strange experience going back to first draft and getting to know a new set of characters. Of course, most of them have by now decided to go off and be somebody else entirely, leaving the author stumbling along after them, desperately attempting to maintain some semblance of discipline. On the other hand, the thrill of excitement as a new story (fingers crossed) starts to take shape is the best buzz out there.

Okay, I’m going to have to admit this: I can now spot when I’m not quite sure what I’m doing. My writing goes into long-winded, pompous mode. Kind of like Dickens, but without the Dickens, if you see what I mean. (Deep blush)

So thank goodness for the day job. Filling in funding application forms certainly helps to focus the mind on convincing an audience without deviation, repetition, or general waffle, bombast or flummery. But over the past few months, I’ve also had the privilege of helping with some of the oral history projects I’ve been raising money for.

I’d forgotten quite how much I love helping with the oral history. And how much it can teach you about writing from the heart. This time, we were given the original diary of a local man who had fought in the First World War. This was something not written for publication, nor has it even been published. I think the time it really struck us, was when we recorded it as part of a contribution for the Talking Newspaper for the Blind.

Workman’s books from New York Cottages Museum in Penmaenmawr

The diary was written as it happened. So the first part is a young lad leaving home, going on a big adventure, with the details of the train journey and the new experiences. Then the training, and finally the journey to France, where nothing happens much at first. Then grenades begin to fall. Then come the shells and the snipers. This isn’t a famous battle, just a skirmish on the outskirts. There are no great details, but you can see so much behind the restrained words.

It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve ever read, because it is real. Because it is authentic. It’s not someone being literary or clever, but a human being trying to make sense of being thrust into the truly unimaginable. The language is simple, but to me it still has the same power held in poets like Wilfred Owen. Words stripped down, so that the truth and the humanity comes shining through, alongside the horror.

A domestic cooking range from New York Cottages Museum, Penmaenmawr

And yes, that is what I love about Maeve Binchy’s novels. Not that she is writing about war. But, like Jane Austen, her subject is the human heart, in all its strength, its vanity, and its frailty. And those, in the end, are both the journey to war, and to the rage against war’s senseless cruelty: both the worst and the best at the heart of all of us.

So this morning I am returning to the Work in Progress determined to ditch the flummery (or  B***S**, whichever you prefer) and simply write from the heart.

Which, in the enviable comfort of not being in the middle of a war – surrounded by horrors and in fear for your life – is strangely enough one of the hardest things to do. Well, for me, anyhow.

Deep breath, sleeves up, my First World War soldier and a copy of ‘The Copper Beech’ at my side – here goes!

To be continued …. (I hope )

Read Full Post »