Search This Blog

Showing posts with label novel writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label novel writing. Show all posts

Monday, 10 November 2014

Writing – novel competition - £1,000 prize

Literary agency Conville & Walsh are running a competition called Word of Mouth Prize.

 
In their own words, “At Conville & Walsh we are passionate about discovering new talent and launching debut authors, as well as nurturing the careers of the writers we represent. We’re very proud to be considered one of the most approachable and dynamic agencies in London, a reputation for which we’ve worked hard.

“As an agency we always want writers to feel as though they can get their work right under the noses of our agents, which is why we are very excited to announce the inaugural Conville & Walsh Word of Mouth Prize.

“The key to what the judges are seeking lies in the prize’s name: novels which linger long in the mind and which readers find themselves recommending to others. That’s an almost undefinable and seemingly magical quality which we nonetheless all recognise – a quality which gives rise to that immediate instinct to email or phone a friend, and say ‘You must, must read…’

“We’re looking for fiction that is brilliantly written but still accessible, has depth but isn’t dense and is innovative but identifiable-with. We’d love to find novels with that must-read quality, which would be perfect for book club discussions. These are the kind of books that people just can’t stop talking about, that can become a word of mouth phenomenon, and which Conville & Walsh are known for representing.

“Great examples of this kind of fiction represented by Conville & Walsh include: THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY by Rachel Joyce, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M L Stedman, THE SHOCK OF THE FALL by Nathan Filer and BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by S J Watson.

"The prize is open to both unpublished and previously published authors, but the work submitted must be unpublished by a publishing house (i.e. self-published work, or work from which an extract has been published in a literary magazine is fine)."

DEADLINE: 31 January 2015.


 


Thursday, 22 May 2014

We are history

No, I’m not warning of an imminent apocalypse!  That’s the title of a piece I’ve written as a guest blogger of Alison Morton (no relation), which appears today here

Alison Morton
 
Alison is a historian; she was my blog guest on May 11 – see here.

Her alternate history Roma Nova novels are becoming very popular, as I’ve mentioned. Her website is packed with fascinating details. Please pop over there and enjoy.
 
The impetus for the piece was to discuss how history affected my novel writing. The article barely scratched the surface. Many of my short stories have a historical bent, too – whether that’s WWII, the English Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the conflict in Bosnia and so on.  History informs the present and to a large extent makes us who we are.

In Write a Western in 30 Days, there's chapter 4 that deals with Theme and ideas. Here, apart from discussing emotional response and taglines, I offer up about ten pages of ideas for stories, ranging over a variety of subjects - railroads, mining, pioneers, townships, ranchers, soldiers, women, and the Civil War.  In Bullets for a Ballot, the story revolves around the emancipation of women in Wyoming.
 
Amazon UK here and here
Amazon COM here and here

In Spanish Eye, Leon Cazador finds history touches upon his cases - such as the treasure of the Knights Templar in 'Relic Hunters', the Spanish Civil War in 'Grave Concerns', and the Tiananmen Square killings of 1989 in 'Dragon Lady'.
Amazon UK here
Amazon COM here