Readers’ Talent
Leading up to the Mslexia Women’s Novel Competition this year, TLC reader Rose Gaete wrote an article with some straightforward suggestions for how writers might strengthen their submissions.
“…the balance between action and introspection can too often be weighted in favour of frantic activity. Yet there are times when third person reported speech or an objective narrative stance in an extended passage, would offer the reader more insight into a character’s development. It might be ‘realistic’ that a woman who discovers an unwanted pregnancy would first cry, then rush about tidying her house, then visit the doctor and speak to her friends – as in one manuscript I read recently – but what the reader wants to know is why she doesn’t want the baby. What are the emotional and psychological complexities of her situation?”
Rose has worked for many years as both a reader and a mentor for The Literary Consultancy. In addition, she has also worked as an agent at the Wylie Agency, where she worked with Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Paul Theroux and others. In addition to TLC, Rose now works for publishers and literary scouts, including HarperCollins and Virginia Marx.
Click here to read her article.
TLC reader Cynthia Rogerson’s latest Book, I love you Goodbye, will be a Woman’s Hour series this April. The novel was shortlisted for the Scottish Novel of the Year 2011. In addition, Cynthia also has a collection of short stories out in April, called Stepping Out and another novel out in August, titled I Touched the Earth.
Women’s Hour is on Radio 4 at 10-11am GMT weekdays and 4-5pm GMT Saturdays. It aims to broadcast stories that celebrate, inform and entertain women. The programme is also available as a Podcast.
TLC Reader Stephanie Cross writes interviews for different magazines and papers. In one of her latest interviews, she talks to Kate Grenville, the Sydney-born novelist, about Australian history and language.
In the interview Stephanie writes: One particularly striking moment comes when Grenville’s heroine is suffering the inexpressible agony of labour. “Men are the ones in charge of the words,” Sarah thinks: “that’s why there isn’t one for this pain that only a woman can feel.” When I ask Grenville about this, she seizes on it: “I think with all my books, language has been their subject as much as anything else.”
Click here to read the interview. If you would like to hear more about Stephanie’s interviews in the future, you can receive updates via her twitter link: @StephanieDCross.
Fleeting Magazine recently published two new short stories by TLC reader Ashley Stokes. ”A Popular Novelist Foresees His Death” came out in January and “Forever Breathes the Lonely Word” is out this month.
‘A Popular Novelist Foresees His Death’ is an excerpt from Fleeting’s forthcoming fictional biography, i.e: The Life of India Emmott and is nominated by Fleeting for the Pushcart Prize 2012.
Fleeting publishes exclusive short-form fiction, nonfiction and poetry by new and established writers.
2012 TLC reader Lucy Hannah launched the Commonwealth Writers website for the Commonwealth Foundation. The main purpose for the site is to discover and develop fiction writers from across the Commonwealth. The organisation will offer activities and competitions specifically for Commonwealth writers and hopes to enable those with an original voice to tell their stories.
Commonwealth Writers is one of TLC’s exciting associate partners at the TLC Literary Conference in June, where they will provide insight into international publishing perspectives and look at how the internet is affecting the market reach of authors around the world. Click here to learn more about this event.
Radio 4 recently commissioned one 45-minute play and a five-part Woman’s Hour Drama from TLC reader Jane Purcell.
The play, titled Ambassadors, is a comedy about a disastrous school trip in the 1970s before risk assessment, or basic safety standards. A group of school children, or so-called “ambassadors” by their teachers in a vain attempt to encourage good behavior, are lost half way up a mountain.
The five-part Woman’s Hour Drama is based on the lives of Ida and Louise Cook. Both were avid opera lovers and during their travels to Europe in the 1930s became aware of the persecution of the Jews. When Ida started writing successful romances for Mills and Boon and Louise learned German, they used the money to sponsor and rescue dozens of Jewish families, right under the noses of the Nazis.
TLC will post the publication dates for both pieces.
The BBC recently commissioned TLC reader Julia Stoneham to write a radio dramatisation of Julian Barnes‘ novel Talking It Over as a 60 minute single play for Radio 4. The project was offered to Stoneham a while ago, but because there are very few 60 minute drama slots in the schedules these days, the project wasn’t commissioned before now. The recording date and the names of the actors to play the three characters have yet to be announced, so for now Stoneham is just buckling down and perfecting her script. TLC is delighted on her behalf and wishes her the best of luck with her writing.
In addition to her work for Radio 4, Stoneham also currently reviews novels for The Historical Novels Society. Her latest review is of Stolen Childhoods by Nicola Tyrer, published by Weienfeld and Nicolson. It is the untold story of the children interned by the Japanese in WW2. The Historical Novel Society was founded in 1997 and it promotes all aspects of historical fiction and provides support, information and opportunities for new writers.
The author of the popular Sir Gadabout children’s books and TLC reader Martyn Beardsley has released his latest non-fiction book. A Matter of Honour: The Story of England’s Last Fatal Duel, tells the story of the last fatal duel in England on a beach near Gosport.
Click here to read about Martyn’s work and for information on his other titles.
Unthank Books, founded by TLC readers Ashley Stokes and Robin Jones, are publishing two books with the Arthur Miller Centre at UEA on Sept 15th, Writers in Conversation vols 3 & 4. Writers in Conversationincludes interviews with a wide variety of writers who reveal in their own words the working methods and psychological motivation behind some of the most famous written works in the English language. 
These next two volumes in the Writers in Conversation series include fascinating, in-depth and often startling and hilarious opinions from Martin Amis, Rose Tremain, Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, William Boyd, Jung Chang,Jonathan Franzen, Toni Morrison, Colm Tóibín, Amy Tan, Stephen Poliakoff, Irina Ratushinskaya, David Guterson, Jane Smiley, and others.
For twenty-one years, the University of East Anglia’s Arthur Miller Centre for American Studies has hosted an International Festival of Literature during which the world’s greatest authors, including winners of the Nobel, Booker, Whitbread, Orange and all other major literary prizes are interviewed by the Centre’s head, Professor Christopher Bigsby. Writers in Conversation faithfully records these public sessions.
In addition to Writers in Conversation, Unthank Books will publish a novel in October, The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens, completed by David Madden. The novel is the completion of Dickens’ unfinished mystery.
When he’s not assessing manuscripts, longtime TLC reader John Harrison is on the trail, hiking icebergs and conversing with polar bears. It’s not surprising then that the panel for the 2011 Wales Book of the Year chose his latest travel book, Cloud Road (Parthian), for this year’s £10,000 award on the 7th July. Cloud Road: A Journey Through the Inca Heartland is travel writing at its best. Harrison writes about his five month journey through the Inca Heartland, his adventures and misadventures and his account of the people living there.
The Wales Book of the Year Award is administered by Literature Wales with funding from the Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Books Council and The Welsh Government. The judges on the English panel this year were Francesca Rhydderch (Chair), Jon Gower and Deborah Kay Davies.
TLC congratulates John Harrison and wishes him the best of luck on his next journey. Click here to check out John Harrison’s website and learn more about his travels and writing projects.