“”TLC gave me practical help both in terms of improving my novel and becoming published.”

An apparently happy marriage. A beautiful son. A lovely home. So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life – ‘One Step Too Far’ by Tina Seskis. Extract in this month’s showcase.

This month’s showcase author is Neamat Imam

“I can’t think of many contemporary novels that have an ambitious canvas, that make political, social commentary, but also touch your heart because they are written with compassion, experience, wisdom and psychological depth.” Kavita Bhanot, TLC Reader

Read the May showcase

After a 20-year career in marketing and advertising, Tina wrote the novel over a two-month period in the summer of 2010. The novel is about Emily Coleman, who gets up one day and walks out of her life, leaving behind her marriage, her lovely son, and a beautiful home, for a life of complete uncertainty. Why she does this no one knows and One Step Too Far takes the reader through a journey of discovering Emily’s secret.

Tina has already written a second novel A Serpentine Affair, and is currently working on her third which is due for completion this year, which sees the coming together of a key character from each of the first two novels.

Click here for the author’s website or find review for Tina’s novel on Goodreads. You can also click here for an interview with Tina.

TLC wishes Tina the best of luck and we have chosen to exhibit an extract of Tina’s work for our June showcase.

‘TLC’s editorial advice was outstanding, as was their support through the traditional publishing environment,
out in to self-publishing which seemed the best place for my hybrid memoir/ inspirational business book ‘All you Need is Love.’ My story ended up being featured on Amazon’s Gateway. One thing is very clear, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to make my book work without the advice and support of TLC’

Pete Smith, All you Need is Love

I guess like everyone else writing a book I experienced those mood swings from ‘this is hopeless’ to ‘I think this could be really interesting’. Most of that you simply have to deal with on your own; maybe get some help from a writer’s group along the way. However, there comes a point when you need to know how good your work is. That point will vary from writer to writer, but there is a moment when you know you need a professional insight: a proper, independent professional assessment. That was how I first came across TLC. It was late on in the writing process. I knew I was walking a tightrope between different types of book, and that it fell between various genre stools. The initial support and advice I got from TLC was outstanding. Firstly, the TLC reader Karl French, immediately grasped the problem I had been struggling with and articulated it far better than I could. He explained that the publishing industry tends to think in terms of genres, and doesn’t really have a way of looking at books that don’t fall neatly in to one or another. He said that this attitude to genre applied in general to agents as much as to publishers. He then gave a huge amount of advice about the content and structure of the book, but was also incredibly supportive as to its underlying merit.

Karl and Rebecca Swift, Director of TLC, made it clear that although they couldn’t see a clear road to publication for what was an unusual book, they were nonetheless willing to help and advise me in the process as they liked the work. Rebecca offered excellent advice on how to target particular agents and the sort of cover letter that might work, but before long I think we both knew that Karl’s original assessment was spot-on: agents were looking for specific types of book and this didn’t fit. So self-publishing loomed as an option, and as soon as you look at that road the Amazon products Createspace and Kindle Direct Publishing stand out. Rebecca pushed me hard to get the book professionally copy-edited; something I was initially reluctant to do – partly because of the cost, but more due to the emotional side. It felt as if I was drifting towards vanity publishing and I wanted to be published. It was difficult because self-publishing was not my original goal. In the end I took Rebecca’s advice on getting it copy-edited and proofread, and was stunned at the result. My basic English is fairly good, but there was hardly a paragraph that wasn’t marked up by the copy-editor. Ouch!

My relationship with Amazon developed and I found myself being featured in their homepage Gateway. I am delighted. One think is clear I wouldn’t have had this opportunity without the advice and support of TLC. You can work out what you think for yourself here.

Andrew came through TLC and received an assessment from Frankie Bailey. Andrew writes, “Getting published requires a lot of patience and hard work, but expert advice is essential too, where TLC comes in. In the early days particularly Frankie Bailey was a great help and encouragement. Thanks!”

To write Blood of Kings, Andrew James spent three years living in Siwa Oasis, in Egypt’s Western desert. Andrew feels that writing in the location where much of the history actually unfolded, helped contribute a great sense of time and place to the novel. Occasionally this went further than planned. “Just as I was creating a scene with soldiers manning barricades and masked youths throwing stones in Egypt’s 5th Century revolt against Cambyses, Egypt rose in revolt again, “ Andrew recalled. “It was an astonishing parallel.”

The novel is written from a Persian viewpoint and charts the rise of Darius the Great, against a backdrop of Persia’s 525 BC invasion of Egypt, and the cataclysmic destruction in a sandstorm of the army Cambyses sent to destroy the Oracle of Ammon. He hopes the novel will appeal not only to fans of blood-and-guts ancient warfare, but also to lovers of Greek historian Herodotus, whose characters he worked hard to bring to life.

Click here to find out more about the novel and the writer.

Only a few weeks before she kick starts our conference in June, Audrey’s latest project, a ballet adaptation of her story The Raven Girl, opens at the Royal Opera House on the 24th May.  Click here to read the full interview with Audrey. 

TLC is looking forward to hearing more from here at our conference on the 7-8th June. Click here to find out more about the conference.

This month’s showcase author is Damien Brown

“The feedback from TLC, although initially a bitter pill to swallow for an insecure first-time writer, has been invaluable in getting it to this point.”

Band-Aid for a Broken Leg is a compassionate, deeply honest and often humorous account of life on the medical frontline in Angola, Mozambique and South Sudan…

Read the April showcase

This month’s showcase author is Julia Ross

Read the March showcase

Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the Early Bird offer of 20% if you book before March 31st, and the opportunity to take part in Audience Story-time and the Pen Factor Writing Competition run this year in association with Bookhack Day.

“TLC is a sharp observer of contemporary writing in Britain today, and this annual conference represents the cutting-edge: incisive, probing – with a hint of danger. It’s a great thrill to be involved.”

– Robert McCrum, The Observer

Click here for the FULL PROGRAMME and BOOKING.

EARLY BIRD OFFER ENDS 31ST MARCH

This month’s showcase author is Sarah Butler

Read the February showcase