What did winning the HWA Debut Crown Award mean to me?

To explain what winning an award – any award – but particularly the HWA Debut Crown - means to me as an author, I probably need to tell you where I’m from. Not geographically (Milton Keynes) but more in relation to the way I used to see myself as a kid, and the limits I placed on myself as I grew up.

I was a very quiet kid in school and, while I got on pretty well with my studies, I struggled a lot with fitting in. There’s a line in my new novel The Betrayal of Thomas True that reads: ‘In spite of his love of nature and talent for artistic pursuits, boyhood was a skill Thomas could never master.’ I got a bit emotional when I wrote that because it somehow seemed to encapsulate, for the first time, how I still feel about my childhood. 

I wasn’t very good at being a boy. In fact, by the standards of other boys, I was hopeless at it. There wasn’t a football or fist that didn’t hit my face at play times, and there was a lot of wetting myself going on. I would run upstairs and hide at my own birthday parties. I was shy, studious, socially awkward, terrible at anything sporty, and camp as Butlins (though my family were too poor for Butlins so we had to make do with Pontins, which I actually remember enjoying. One of those ice creamy childhood memories filled with endless carefree sunshine. I can see it now: me on a beach in swimmers and a woolly jumper watching a man in a cloth cap killing jellyfish with a rake under the looming shadow of a nuclear power plant). I feel sad that I trained myself to be less camp over the years. There’s a video of me aged 10 and I honestly can’t believe how fabulously expressive my hands are. My eyerolls are magnificent (my mum messed up a pot on the wheel I’d received for my birthday, hopeless matriarch!) I watched the grainy footage of that boy in his fluorescent shell suit realising just how much I’d shut myself down as a teenager in an effort to be popular and safe. I’d cut myself up and rearranged the pieces to be a young man who would go on to look the part, but always feel disarranged.

Ah well, leave your violins where they are. I wouldn’t wish the bullying and homelife I endured on any child, but many had it worse and there was one lovely thing that came from my struggle: I read all the books I could find. I have a sneaking suspicion you were the same for your own reasons, so I’m not going to bore you with how that went but let’s just say it was a love affair that informs everything I do and without it I would honestly have died inside. I might have died outside, but I was an indoors cat. Instead, my books rescued me and showed me a bigger, happier world where fears were overcome and mistakes learned from. I devoured those stories, from The Wind in the Willows to Point Horror, Jeffrey Deaver, then on to the light stuff like Jude the Obscure and The Wasp Factory. I like to think those books made me the grate writer what I is today.

The difficulty, the isolation, the raw emotions in those stories gave me – how to put it? Let me think… well, did you ever get a huge pack of coloured pencils as a present? No, bigger than that; the ones the size of those massive chocolate bars they sell at Christmas where they’ve replaced Dairy Milk with Dave. I can still remember the smell. Not Dave, the pencils. I sometimes go into stationers and sniff their pencils. It is a fetish of the soul. Ochre, vermillion, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow, Prussian blue… I think my early years combined with my books gave me a pack of pencils like that, and when I sit down to write, I open them up and know instantly how I’d like to mix them together, and fill the book with as many shades and shadows as possible. Light strokes for the pale sky, then press so hard for the tragedy the paper goes shiny. If I find, on a hangover day, that I’m writing in basic blue and grungy green, I know I’m not drawing on my life properly and make a sandwich.

What is the point of all this? Well, I’m trying my best to explain how I came to be a passionate and confident reader and writer while at the same time suffering constant bouts of paranoia and self-doubt. Even when my debut novel The Spirit Engineer was nominated for an HWA award, I framed it in my mind as an opportunity to let myself down. I even considered asking to be removed, not through ingratitude you understand – nor a pang of false humility – but because I was exhausted after my first experience of publication, and worried the hope might get too much. That I might hide from the party, just as I used to.

I felt my younger self watching. I had dreamed that one day I would leave all the worry and solitude behind and stand among authors with my own book in my hands. That little boy didn’t know very much about awards, but he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. And I didn’t want to let him down.

I had to tell myself to stop being such a self-indulgent idiot, and fully appreciate the fact that my peers were going to take a look at the merits of my writing with a kind eye. If I didn’t win, it was still a big compliment, and there were some truly fantastic debuts in 2022. 

Reader, I won – or rather my book did – and it has changed a lot for me. Booksellers and industry friends have a lot of respect for the HWA and rightly so. I like to think the award reflects the work I put in, research, writing and publishing something different. And when it was revealed that Ayo, Dan, and Susan had chosen The Spirit Engineer as their winner, I was reminded that the kid with no friends had been right to hope. Not because he needed an award to prove anything, but because one day, if he could just hold on long enough and keep trying, there would be people who’d value his imagination and hard work and wouldn’t judge him for writing about himself in third person. 

Love and thanks. Onwards!

The Betrayal of Thomas True by A J West (Orenda Books) Published 4 July 2024

It is the year 1710, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost in the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses.  Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love? Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal… 

More information about A J West can be found on his website. He can also be found on X @AJWestAuthor, on instagram @A.J.West and on Facebook

UK-wide programme of historical fiction events launches new partnership

National charity The Reading Agency is joining forces with the Historical Writers Association in an exciting new partnership that has already brokered over 100 events, involving over 70 authors.

The initiative coincides with Historical Writing Month in November, with events held in public libraries and other venues around the UK during the Month and beyond, featuring historical authors such as Michael Ridpath, Karen Maitland, Ben Kane, Ruth Downie, Robyn Young, Rory Clements, William Ryan and Manda Scott.

The new partnership will take a coordinated approach to programming events covering a diverse range of historical time periods and themes, offering innovative approaches to bring readers, writers and libraries closer together.

The extensive programme for readers yielded by this new partnership is still growing, but begins with an historical crime panel evening at Bedford Library on 17 October featuring Rory Clements and Ruth Downie, and continues with Essie Fox, D E Meredith and Lynn Shepherd discussing their Victorian novels at Crowthorne Library, while Roman-era authors Anthony Riches, Henry Venmore-Rowland and Harry Sidebottom will travel to Norwich library to complement a new exhibition at the city’s museum.

Other event themes include Medieval, Espionage, Historical London, The Blitz, Warriors Through History, and Victorian Crime . There will be a ‘Sex and Scandal’ discussion at Pimlico Library in  central London featuring Gabrielle Kimm, Linda Stratmann and Hallie Rubenhold on 22 November, while Tudor period authors Vanora Bennett and Elizabeth Fremantle will travel to Peterborough in the new year to mark the anniversary of the death of Katherine of Aragon, who is buried in Peterborough Cathedral. Further events have been organised as far forward as September 2014 when Michael Ridpath, Stav Sherez and William Ryan will be at London’s Chiswick Library, discussing the challenges of setting novels in totalitarian regimes. 2014 will also feature a range of events marking the centenary of the start of World War One.

·         Readers can find event listings at: http://hwa-galleria.co.uk/events/

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response from libraries and readers,” says William Ryan of the Historical Writers Association. “We’ve organised many more events than we thought we might and we’re arranging new ones every week. It’s a fantastic opportunity for libraries and authors to reach out to readers and, thanks to our partnership with The Reading Agency and the support of libraries in almost every part of the country, we’re hoping this is just the beginning.”

The new partnership is part of The Reading Agency’s work to bring together its partners from the publishing world and the whole of the UK public library network to create successful and exciting events and activities for readers of all ages. The publishers who – via The Reading Agency’s Reading Partners consortium of libraries and publishers – have contributed to making author events happen in libraries for Historical Writers Month and beyond include Transworld; Hodder/Headline; Penguin; Constable & Robinson; Little, Brown; Bloomsbury; HarperCollins; Faber and Macmillan.

“We’re passionate about connecting readers to writers, and libraries are brilliant at reaching and engaging audiences who share the Historical Writers Association’s fascination with all things historical,” says Sandeep Mahal of The Reading Agency. “Amid all the news about library cuts and closures, an important beacon of light is the huge growth in popularity of library author events, so we’re really pleased to be partnering with the Historical Writers Association to broker events in library venues across the UK.”

For more media information please contact Deborah Hyde on debbie.hyde@oasismedia.co.uk or 07956 320 486

Notes to editors:

• The Reading Agency is an independent charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life, by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. We are funded by Arts Council England (readingagency.org.uk).

• The Historical Writers Association’s (HWA) comprises authors, publishers and agents of historical writing – both fiction and non-fiction – who are passionate about history. The HWA and its website, forum and various literary events and dinners provide professional and social support to its members, creating opportunities online and in person for them to meet with readers, re-enactors and historians of all ages and eras who share their fascination with, and absorption in, all things historical. (www.thehwa.co.uk)

New Historical Literary Festival in Harrogate

 

Harrogate International Festivals has announced a new History Festival this October with an epic line-up of authors. The major innovative event expands the arts organisation’s offer and enhances its profile as one of the North of England’s leading arts festivals.

Rose Tremain, Fay Weldon and Lindsey Davies star in a series of events exploring the crooks and crevices of historical writing.

The Harrogate History Festival takes place from the 25 to the 27 October In association with the Historical Writers' Association at the Old Swan Hotel.

Manda Scott, Chair of the Historical Writers Association said:"Following in the footsteps of the outstandingly successful Theakstons Old Peculier Harrogate Crime Festival, the first ever Harrogate History Festival promises to bring together  a spectacular combination of the very best historical writing today: from the Roman Empire to the twentieth century; fiction and non-fiction; thrillers, romances, literary works and television, we'll bring together writers and readers, researchers and fans in an atmosphere of shared passion and fascination.  Come along and taste the history!"

Sharon Canavar, CEO of Harrogate International Festivals, said: “This is a significant innovation for Harrogate International Festivals portfolio. It’s a very exciting new Festival this winter, which underlines our commitment to deliver world-class and year-round arts and events for audiences.

“The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is now the biggest event of its kind in Europe attracting international audiences and acclaim. For many readers, fans and writers from all over the world, Harrogate is synonymous with the Crime Writing Festival. It’s really put the town on the literary calendar. This is a reputation we plan to build on.”

Panels include the inside story behind the search for Richard III’s remains, exploring battlefields of past glories and gore, and giants of the genre dissecting Ancient Rome. 

Sharon said: “Genre writing is a powerful niche and proven area of expertise for the Festival team after a decade of success with the Crime Writing Festival. It’s clear history is in the throes of a cultural renaissance dominating our bookshelves and TV screens, so we’re very excited to add this timely string to our bow of literary events.”

Award-winning novelists Fay Weldon CBE and Rose Tremain will be the Guest Stars of the Festival. Writing for 50 years, Weldon has written more than 30 novels and a number of plays for TV, radio and the stage. Tremain’s bestselling novels have won the Orange Prize and Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, amongst others.

Sharon added: “Harrogate is a beautiful location and of course steeped in its own history, so we hope it will show off our town and attracts visitors and tourists, as well as giving local audiences a chance to experience big name authors on their doorstep. It’s a fantastic opportunity to explore and grapple with leading literary minds on some of the most gripping conflicts, personalities and epic tales in human history.”

Visit http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/history/ for a full programme or call the Box Office on 01423 562303. First tickets will be on sale in August.

Author photocredit of Rose Tremain: David Kirkham

HWA Goldsboro Crown Shortlist

The HWA Goldsboro Crown shortlist was announced on Friday 17 May 2013.

 

A “strong and diverse” shortlist for the Goldsboro Books and Historical Writers Association debut historical fiction prize 2013 has been revealed.

Judges have already predicted a hard-fought contest between titles to claim the final prize, with Goldsboro Books owner David Headley saying “picking a winner will be immensely hard and is, in many ways, invidious; any one of these novels could win”.

The shortlist is-

After the Lockout by Darren McCann (Fourth Estate)

Park Lane by Frances Osborne (Virago)

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan (Virago)

 The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd (Simon & Schuster)

and The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman (Black Swan).

The prize covers books published between 1st October 2011 and 30th September 2012. 


The winner will be announced at a History in the Court event at Goldsboro Books in Cecil Court, London, on 26th September, and the Historical Writers Association will also announce the first recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award at the same time.

Criminal Splatterings

Goldsboro Books and the Historical Writers' Association are pleased to announce that the shortlist has been selected for the inaugural HWA/Goldsboro Prize for Debut Historical fiction.  Four books were selected from a strong entry in our first year and the names of the authors and their titles will be announced on 14th July at the Festival of Historical Literature which is held at Kelmarsh as part of the Festival of History.  The winner of the £2,000 prize will be announced at History in the Court at Goldsboro Books in Cecil Court in London on the 28th of September.  More information can be found here.

According to Book2Book after 100 years Bram Stoker’s contract for Dracula is about to be made public.  The sprawling, archaic handwriting may be difficult to decipher, but a few of the key words are clear: "The Un-Dead".  The document, seals the publishing pact that gave the world what remains, more than 100 years later, its most celebrated horror novel: Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Publishers Constable & Robinson are to publish the novel in its original form along with the contract.  There is a full article in the Independent.

As reported earlier by Shotsblog Paramount are suing the Puzo Estate over the forthcoming prequel The Family Corleone.  Unsurprisingly, the Puzo Estate are now counter-suing claiming that Paramount interfered with a publishing contract and breached its 1969 copyright agreement with his father.  The Businessweek.com article goes into a bit more detail.

The first poster for one of the most anticipated films this summer the crime thriller Savages, which is adapted from the novel by Don Winslow,  has been released by the studio.  Directed by Oliver Stone from a screenplay co-written by Stone, Winslow, and Shane Salerno, the film features an all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir.

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, home-grown industry — raising some of the best marijuana ever developed.  They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Lively).  Life is idyllic in their Southern California town … until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

When the merciless head of the cartel, Elena (Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends, Ben and Chon — with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent played by Travolta — wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel.  And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and manoeuvres in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.  Savages opens in the US in July

According to the BBC they are to adapt James Herbert's best-selling ghost story The Secret of Crickley Hall for BBC One and it will star former Coronation Street star Suranne Jones who has been seen lately in the police drama Five Days.

The BBC are also set to do another four new feature length films of the Inspector George Gently police procedurals.  This time the year is 1968 and the first Gently with Class sees a darker side of 1968 as the social landscape of the Western World is being shaken to its core.  In Paris, riots rage as the workers and students take to the streets.  In the United States, thousands rally against the Vietnam War.  And in England, antipathy for the upper class’ outmoded social graces and their abuse of privilege is growing by the day.  The dramas are due to be shown later on this year.

According to The Hollywood Reporter,  Copper the BBC America is due to premier on 19^th  August 2012.  Copper is described as a gripping crime series set in 1860s New York City, and centres on Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an intense, rugged Irish-immigrant cop working the city’s notorious Five Points neighbourhood and grappling to maintain his moral compass in a tumultuous world.  He returns from the Civil War to discover his daughter is dead and his wife has disappeared, a storyline that will be explored during the series.  His friendship with two war compatriots — the wayward son of a wealthy industrialist and a physician who secretly assists Corcoran with his work — takes him to the opposing worlds of elegant Fifth Avenue and rural Harlem.  All three men share a secret from their experience on the battlefield that inextricably links their lives forever.

The 24^th Annual Lambada Literary Awards have been announced and the full list and press notice can be found here.  The nominees in the Lesbian Mystery Category are as follows –

Dying to Live, by Kim Baldwin & Xenia Alexiou, Bold Strokes Books

Hostage Moon, by AJ Quinn, Bold Strokes Books

Rainey Nights: A Rainey Bell Thriller, by R.E. Bradshaw, R.E. Bradshaw Books

Retirement Plan, by Martha Miller, Bold Strokes Books

Trick of the Dark, by Val McDermid, Bywater Books

Congratulations to all the nominees.  Winners will be announced at a Monday evening, June 4th ceremony in New York at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue) with an after-party at Slate (54 West 21st Street).

The Left Coast Crime Convention is an annual event sponsored by fans of mystery literature for fans of mystery literature, including both readers and authors and has recently taken place.  The following awards were given out:-

The Lefty for best humorous mystery novel: The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews (Minotaur) 

The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award: Mercury's Rise by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)
The Golden Nugget is a special award given to the best mystery set in California, in recognition of the location of this year's convention: City of Secrets by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur)
Eureka!  is a special award this year for the best first mystery novel.  Nazareth Child by Darrell James, (Midnight Ink)
The Dilys Award given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers was also announced.  The winner was Ghost Hero by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

The nominees for the 2012 Thriller Awards  have been announced by the International Thriller Writers organization, recognizing the best in crime thriller fiction.  The winners will be announced during ThrillerFest VII in New York City this July, 2012.

The nominees are:
Best Hardcover Novel -

Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder (St. Martin’s Press)
A Hard Death by Jonathan Hayes (Harper)

11/22/63 by Stephen King (Scribner)

The Ridge by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown)
The Two Deaths Of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)

Best Paperback Original -
The Last Minute by Jeff Abbott (Sphere)
Threat Warning by John Gilstrap (Pinnacle)
The Glass Demon by Helen Grant (Delacorte Press)
The Queen by Steven James (Revell)   

Already Gone by John Rector (Thomas & Mercer)

Best First Novel -
The Genesis Key by James Barney (Harper)
She Can Run by Melinda Leigh (Montlake Romance)

Spiral by Paul McEuen (The Dial Press)
The Fund by H. T. Narea (Forge Books)

Midnight Caller by Leslie Tentler (Mira)

Best Short Story -
 "One More Lie" by James Scott Bell (Compendium Press)
"Anything to Win" by Michael Lewin (Strand Magazine)
"Happine$$" by Twist Phelan (Mystery Writers of America Presents The Rich and the Dead, Grand Central Publishing)

"Half-Lives" by Tim L. Williams (Dell Magazine)
"A Hostage Situation" by Dave Zeltserman (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

According to Variety Inferno Entertainment has optioned Harlan Coben’s 2008 novel Hold Tight.  Hold Tight is the story of a concerned father who must shield his family from criminals and fight for their survival after his son accidentally exposes them via the internet.

Interested in seeing what the new Superman logo will look like?  Then look no further.  Superman: Man of Steel was due to originally be out in cinemas December 2012.  However the release date has been changed to June 2013.  I certainly hope that it will be worth the wait.

Not sure how I missed this originally, but there is an excellent blog post over at CriminalElement.Com where thriller writers Charles Cumming and Olen Steinhauer discuss espionage and especially John Le Carré’s  seminal novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which has recently be remade into a film with Gary Oldman in the lead role of Smiley played originally by Alec Guinness.

Brilliant interview with Lee Child in the International Thriller Writers monthly webzine The Big Thrill where he talks about The Long Game: Lessons on Success.  A really good insight into what it takes to be a successful writer.

According to the Guardian there is to be a sequel to the successful film Woman in Black.  The sequel is to be called The Woman in Black: Angels of Death.  Furthermore, according to the Hollywood Reporter it will be the same team behind The Woman in Black that will be reuniting for the sequel.  The sequel is due to pick up the story 40 years later.  Author Susan Hill will be involved as well.

The Independent’s Invisible Ink No.117 has an excellent article by Christopher Fowler on Sexton Blake and Bulldog Drummond.

Want to know what distracts Donna Leon from writing, what she is currently reading and who her favourite author is?  If you do then read the Independent’s One minute with Donna Leon for the low down.

Elizabeth Haynes second novel Revenge of the Tide was published recently and she talks to Danuta Kean about swapping criminology for pole dancing in her latest thriller.

Interested in knowing how and why James Patterson’s books sell so well despite the fact that most of them are done with collaborators?  The Wall Street Journal’s online Arts and entertainment magazine Speakeasy talks to James Patterson, who explains how his collaborations work and why he has to have a colour coded calendar to keep track of the number of books that are being published each year.

Ahead of the London Book Fair editor Katherine Armstrong at Faber & Faber have acquired a major new crime thriller Playing Dead by American journalist Julia Heaberlin.  Faber will publish the book in two months’ time.  Faber will publish first as an e-book in June, before releasing the mass-market paperback in July 2012.

According to the Bookseller UK-based Reelart Media has bought film rights to Wilbur Smith's Those in Peril (Pan Macmillan), with plans for a release in 2014.  A sequel Vicious Circle is due to be published in 2013 and will once again feature Hector Cross first introduced to readers in Those in Peril.  Next year will mark Wilbur Smith’s 50^th anniversary as a novelist.

According to the BBC, former Dr Who star David Tennant is set to play a French spy in the BBC adaptation of Alan Furst’s best-selling novel The Spies of Warsaw.  The Spies of Warsaw is set in Berlin, Paris, London and Poland in the years leading up to the war.

In more comic news the sequel to Captain America, Captain America 2 is due to be released in 2014.  As opposed to Captain America, which took place in the 1940s, Captain America 2 will carry out in present day, taking place after the events of the upcoming The Avengers and continuing Steve Rogers difficult integration into modern society.  The Avengers movie opens in the US in May.