Readers' Talent

Salt Publishing, publishers of Booker-shortlisted The Lighthouse, have released a new title by TLC reader Cynthia Rogerson.

Stepping Out is a collection of short stories set in Scotland and California.

The blurb:
These stories observe how people live through moments of realisation; how they negotiate the avenues of loss, with cowardice and courage and a fair amount of bewilderment.

While fishing on a sunny loch, a woman is suddenly convinced and terrified that her lover is about to leave her. Parents in San Francisco learn that their son has been in a car accident, and may be dying. A girl loses her virginity the same day as the funeral of her much despised mother, and later understands which is the greater loss.

 

Cynthia has also published If I Touched The Earth,  a novel set in Evanton, Alness & Glasgow, through Black & White Publishing.

If I Touched The Earth is available for online purhcase here.

Cynthia is a TLC reader with a particular interest in short stories and poetry. If you are interested in submitting your manuscript to Cynthia, please contact our office.

It's hard to have missed the excitement around TLC reader Doug Johnstone's new thriller, Hit & Run, with its rave reviews and its number one spot on Amazon. The thriller was also chosen as one of eight titles on Fiction Uncovered’s Best of British list for this year.

Here's a blurb for the book: Driving home from a party with his girlfriend and brother, all of them drunk and high on stolen pills, Billy Blackmore accidentally hits someone in the night. In a panic, they all decide to drive off. But the next day Billy wakes to find he has to cover the story for the local paper. It turns out the dead man was Edinburgh's biggest crime lord and, as Billy struggles with what he's done, he is sucked into a nightmare of guilt, retribution and violence.

Doug Johnstone currently reads literary fiction, thrillers and young adult fiction for TLC. Please contact the TLC office if you would like to find out more about having an editorial assessment.

Click here to listen to the Scotsman read from his new novel.

Literary agent David Godwin recently placed TLC client Neamat Imam with Penguin India. Neamat's novel, 'The Black Coat', will be published in 2013. Neamat first came through TLC in July 2011 and had an editorial assessment by Kavita Bhanot, who has worked as an editor with India’s first Literary Agency and is the editor of the short story collection Too Asian, Not Asian Enough (Tindal Street Press, 2011). Kavita writes, "I was deeply impressed by Neamat Imam's novel, which I found to be urgent and powerful.  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."

TLC is delighted for Neamat and we look forward to having a copy on display here at the TLC office.

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.

Mysteries of Unwind Drood By Ashley Stokes

On 1st October, Unthank Books are thrilled to be publishing THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD by CHARLES DICKENS, completed by DAVID MADDEN.

When Dickens died in 1870, he still had the second six of a planned twelve instalments of THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD to write. The only clues he left as to how he wanted to end the story are contained in the first six. For his first novel, former diplomat Sir David Madden has accepted the challenge of finishing Dicken’s last novel in the way the genius intended.

Charles Dickens is and will remain one of the greatest writers in the English language. His contribution to the development of the novel form is immense and undisputed. The legacy of his method of publication –- in serial form – is all around us today in every medium and arguably responsible for the ‘cliffhanger’ and the ‘recap’.

Maintaining Dicken’s repertoire of comedy, psychological acuity, inimitable description and turn of phrase is no easy task but David Madden has proved utterly equal to it.

THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD combines Dickens’s original with David Madden’s completion following on seamlessly in the same volume– a fitting homage in time for Dickens’s 200th birthday in 2012. Available to pre-order in paperback now and available as an eBook from iBookstore on October 1st.

New Writing book.

Funny you should ask because my new non-fiction book is due out on 28 November

The insults that drew men to duels were often petty - a splash, a scrape or a disparaging word could all lead to pistols at dawn.

When Charles Hawkey watched James Seton make a play for his beautiful wife, there was only one way to respond. The two men were honour bound to meet in a duel, but only one of them could return.

Theirs was the last fatal duel on England's soil, and newspapers clamoured to give news of the death and scandal. Was Isabella Hawkey as blameless as she seemed or did she draw the rich Seton into a fatal romance? Did Charles Hawkey ever doubt his wife’s fidelity? Was honour served?

Martyn Beardsley has unearthed new information on this captivating story, details which finally separate villain from victim and tell the tale in full for the very first time. For those with an appetite for duelling etiquette and a curiosity concerning unusual duels, this book reaches past the story of Hawkey and Seton to tell tales of other sword, knife and gunfights.

 

Martyn Beardsley has written twenty-five books including including the popular Sir Gadabout series for children, and Deadly Winter, a biography of the explorer Sir John Franklin.

A Matter of Honour – The Story of England’s Last Fatal Duel

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 Conversation includes 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.

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.

This summer TLC reader Christopher Wakling offers two powerful novels, The Devil’s Mask, published by Faber in June, and What I did, published by John Murray in August. The Devil’s Mask, is a thrilling story set in the commercial corruption of the Empire and the aftermath of the abolition of the slave trade. What I Did, looks at the unseen consequences of a split second decision, about a childhood interrupted and the lengths we go to protect the ones we love. Although Wakling is mostly known for his thrillers, with these two novels Wakling clearly shows that he is equally capable of writing something that is dramatic as well as emotionally subtle and heartbreaking.



Click here to check out Wakling’s website and or see a video with Wakling talking about his book.

TLC reader Rachel Trezise has been chosen as one of the judges for this year’s Dylan Thomas Prize. Trezise won the prize herself in 2006 for her short story collection Fresh Apples. Click here to find out more.

The final part of Julia Stoneham’s World War 2 trilogy, Alice’s Girls,  was published in March 2011 by Allison & Busby.  Set in rural England, the three novels follow the wartime experiences of Alice Todd,  warden of a Land Army hostel, the ten girls in her care and the men who are drawn into their stories.Click here for more information about the book.

The Book of Love,  Sarah Bower’s second novel, will be published in the US in March by Sourcebooks under the title Sins of the House of Borgia. Publication is planned to coincide with the screening of the hotly anticipated TV drama series, THE BORGIAS, from Showtime, who made the very successful THE TUDORS. For more information about the book visit Sarah Bower’s website or watch the series trailer on YouTube.

Peter Forbes’ latest book, Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage, published by Yale University Press, has recently won the Warwick Prize for Writing. The prize, awarded on 22nd March, is an international cross-disciplinary prize, worth £50,000. The prize is awarded for an excellent and substantial piece of writing in the English language, in any genre or form and the theme changes with every award. This year’s theme is “colour”.  TLC congratulates Peter Forbes.  We look forward to reading his fantastic book.

The Book of Love,  Sarah Bower’s second novel, will be published in the US in March by Sourcebooks under the title Sins of the House of Borgia. Publication is planned to coincide with the screening of the hotly anticipated TV drama series, THE BORGIAS, from Showtime, who made the very successful THE TUDORS. For more information about the book visit Sarah Bower’s website or view the series trailer on YouTube.

“Miranda Millar effectively conveys the unexpected wonder of Waitrose…”

Alfred Hickling, The Guardian

Time travel, Bedlam and the mad Victorian painter, Richard Dadd. London, 1854: Nina, the wife of an ambitious doctor, is heavily traumatized by the death of her young daughter and then mysteriously transported to the capital 150 years later…

Click on the cover for more information about Nina in Utopia or go to Miranda Millar’s website.

 

“Miranda Millar effectively conveys the unexpected wonder of Waitrose…”

Alfred Hickling, The Guardian

Time travel, Bedlam and the mad Victorian painter, Richard Dadd. London, 1854: Nina, the wife of an ambitious doctor, is heavily traumatized by the death of her young daughter and then mysteriously transported to the capital 150 years later…

Click on the cover for more information about Nina in Utopia or go to Miranda Millar's website.

As part of a series of interviews,  Ink Sweat & Tears Webzine talks to practicing writers about their process and craft.  The Webzine discusses the writing life with Sarah Bower and tries to find out what makes writers tick.  The interview offers a glance at how writers structure their daily lives and their writing. To read the full interview click here.

As part of a series of interviews,  Ink Sweat & Tears Webzine talks to practicing writers about their process and craft.  The Webzine discusses the writing life with Sarah Bower and tries to find out what makes writers tick.  The interview offers a glance at how writers structure their daily lives and their writing. To read the full interview click here.

Rodge Glass Presents A New Graphic Novel and Scottish Short Stories

From Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill, the book that’s causing a stir in Scotland. The Scottish Short story collection, The Year of Open Doors, edited by Rodge Glass,  has toured around numerous festivals and represents the work



of 20 young writers from all over the world who are based in Scotland, some critically acclaimed, some brand new. There’s also an audiobook available on Chemikal Underground Records.

Dougie’s War is a new graphic novel by Rodge Glass and artist Dave Turbitt about the legacy of the war in the Middle East and the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome on returning veterans. A fictional story, but based on meticulously researched real life experiences of Scottish veterans, Dougie’s War shows that the fight doesn’t end when men and women leave military service. To read more about the project and check out an interview with Rodge, click on the cover.

Rodge Glass Presents A New Graphic Novel and Scottish Short Stories

From Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill, the book that's causing a stir in Scotland. The Scottish Short story collection, The Year of Open Doors, edited by Rodge Glass,  has toured around numerous festivals and represents the work of 20 young writers from all over the world who are based in Scotland, some critically acclaimed, some brand new. There's also an audiobook available on Chemikal Underground Records.

Dougie’s War is a new graphic novel by Rodge Glass and artist Dave Turbitt about the legacy of the war in the Middle East and the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome on returning veterans. A fictional story, but based on meticulously researched real life experiences of Scottish veterans, Dougie’s War shows that the fight doesn’t end when men and women leave military service. To read more about the project and check out an interview with Rodge, click on the cover.