The Novelry launch new scholarship programme for underrepresented writers

 The Novelry is delighted to announce that applications are now open for The Octopus Scheme, our initiative to nurture writing talent from under-represented or disadvantaged backgrounds. This includes, but is not limited to, writers from a low-income background, primary carers, ex-offenders, writers with a disability, writers of colour and writers from the LGBTQIA+ community.

The chosen applicants will be offered a  place on The Novelry’s Ninety Day Novel Course, jointly sponsored by The Novelry and one of eight bestselling guest authors, including Sophie Kinsella and Rachel Joyce (full details below). The Ninety Day Novel Course is aimed at first-time writers, or writers who are on their first draft. The course has daily lessons, providing aspiring authors with the tools and guidance to put pen to paper (or hand to keyboard!) and turn their story idea into a reality. 

One-to-one mentoring with one of The Novelry’s author tutors is included in the course. There are eight tutors to choose from: Louise Dean, The Novelry founder and prize-winning author, Emylia Hall, Polly Ho-Yen, Jack Jordan, Katie Khan, Kate Riordan, Mahsuda Snaith, and Tasha Suri. Alongside personal author coaching, and the daily lessons, one year’s membership to The Novelry will be included, providing applicants with all they need to get to the end of their novel.

To apply for The Octopus Scheme please email The Novelry at hello@thenovelry.com with the subject heading 'The Octopus Scheme'. All applications are considered in total confidence by The Novelry. They do not require proof of eligibility but would be grateful if applicants could explain in their own words about their circumstances. Applicants should include a 500-word sample of their writing and include in their covering email your answers to the following questions:

About my circumstances and why I would like to be considered for The Octopus Scheme

What I hope to gain from the Ninety Day Novel Course 

A tip from The Novelry: if you're feeling modest about your work, and nervous about applying – do it! Often it's the case that those least certain about their writing are very good writers indeed!

For more information please visit https://www.thenovelry.com/scholarships. The deadline for applications is 31st May 2022 midnight UTC. For more information on the course, please see https://www.thenovelry.com/the-ninety-day-novel-course. 

Writing Crime? Need Help? Ask the Experts!

 

In a free online event this Saturday lunchtime, top Dublin writer, Sam Blake will be grilling an ex detective, a CSI and a forensic psychologist on how to write gripping yet authentic crime fiction.

In the lunchtime session, bestselling author Sam will quiz Graham Bartlett, Kate Bendelow and Dr Emma Donnelly on their roles, the three top mistakes they see in relation to their jobs in fiction and how authors can get the best of both worlds; drama and reality.

Graham, a former senior detective who now advises and trains around seventy crime authors and TV writers, Kate a serving crime scene investigator from Manchester and Dr Emma a Dublin-based clinical psychologist are all writers in addition to their day jobs. As well as Sam putting them through their paces, there is plenty of time for audience questions and a surprise give-away too.

Retired Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett said, ‘I am delighted Sam invited us to take part in this event. Kate, Emma and I advise authors through www.policeadvisor.co.uk but the opportunity to take our service on the virtual road is an honour. I hope lots of people come along armed with everything they ever wanted to know about writing authentic crime fiction but didn’t know who to ask.’

Writing Crime? Ask the Experts is a live Facebook event hosted by Writing.ie at https://fb.me/e/2t6UHOp1j between 12.00 midday and 1pm Saturday 20th February 2021

 

Note to Editors

Sam Blake

Sam Blake’s latest novel, The Dark Room is out now, a psychological thriller transporting readers to a mysterious country house hotel called Hare’s Landing in West Cork Ireland, where the past never dies. Described by the Daily Mail as ‘Laced with creepy menace and dark characters that live in the mind, it gets under the skin very quickly’. Her debut novel 'Little Bones' (Bonnier 2016) was No 1 in Ireland for four weeks, remained in the top 10 for another four, and was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. It launched the bestselling Cat Connolly trilogy. Now Sam is keeping a focus on strong female characters, writing psychological thrillers for Corvus Books. 'Keep Your Eyes On Me' went straight to No 1 in January 2020 and 'The Dark Room', hit the bestseller list in January 2021, outselling Graham Norton. Sam has already signed for two more thrillers with Corvus Atlantic that will keep her busy until 2023. Sam lives close to Dublin and started writing in 1999 when her husband went sailing across the Atlantic for eight weeks and she had an idea for a book.

In her day job Sam Blake is Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, the founder of the award winning writing resources website www.Writing.ie and a board member of the Society of Authors. She’s spent the past 20 years assisting new authors to achieve their dreams through The Inkwell Group publishing consultancy and has helped many award winning and bestselling authors to success. Check out Sam's online writing courses where she draws on her own huge experience to take you through her writing process to help you write your own book.

Graham Bartlett was a UK police officer in Sussex for thirty years, rising to become a police commander. On the way he was a homicide senior investigating officer and led on managing dangerous offenders, sexual offences, domestic violence, child protection and hate crime. He was a qualified strategic firearms and public order commander, leading the policing of many armed operations, large scale protests and sporting events.

Since retiring, he has become a police procedural and crime advisor helping scores of authors and TV writers (including Peter James Mark Billingham Elly Griffiths and Dorothy Koomson) achieve authenticity alongside their drama. He works with authors at all stages of their writing career and adopts an ethos of ‘creativity with credibility.’ Graham runs a series of hugely popular online courses and workshops under the banner of ‘Crime Writing: Making it Real. He is also a best-selling crime writer, with two non-fiction books – Death Comes Knocking and Babes in the Wood – to his name and a crime novel in the pipeline.

Kate Bendelow is a serving Crime Scene Investigator with 18 years of experience. She has worked on thousands of crime scenes including rapes, robberies and murders. Kate can provide you with an insight into what really goes on behind the crime scene tape. A writer and the author of The Real CSI: A Forensic Handbook for Crime Writers, Kate has a novel scheduled for May 2021.

Dr Emma Donnelly lives in Dublin and works as a Chartered Senior Clinical Forensic Psychologist. She has two decades of clinical and academic experience in the field and has worked predominantly with victims and perpetrators of crime. Emma has lectured in colleges and universities in Ireland and England as well as having guest lectured to police students in John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York. Emma has worked in a number of prisons in Ireland and the UK where she has specialised in the assessment of sexual offenders, violent offenders, and killers as well as working with prolific and problematic offenders. Emma is an experienced consultant, working with systems, interagency and multidisciplinary teams, including An Garda Síochána, the Child & Family Agency (Tusla), and the Health Service Executive (HSE) as well as consulting to best-selling authors and writers. Emma is a trained investigator in forensic interviewing. Prior to life as a psychologist, Emma worked in the radio and film industries.

 

James Hilton - Write what you know or don’t.

One of the first nuggets of advice given to any fledgling writer is write about what you know. I remember reading and ingesting that advice and then staring nonplussed out of my window for a long time. I was probably about sixteen at the time.

“What do I know?” That question rattled around in my adolescent mind like a marble in a gerbil run. I knew a bit about martial arts (quite a lot really for a skinny kid who could hardly afford to pay for karate lessons), a hodgepodge of mythological facts and folk stories passed down from my father and not a whole lot more.

Or so I thought. I was always a bookworm and was often to be found in a quiet corner with a gritty thriller or horror novel in my hand. I read whatever was on my father’s shelf. A lot of those books were cheap paperbacks with characters like Edge, James Bond, Adam Steele, Remo Williams, Nick Carter and Conan the Barbarian.

As I got older and my writing began to take a more structured form I began to realise just how much these red-blooded tales had stuck with me. I grew up on a very working-class council estate in Carlisle in the north west of England. As one of five siblings, I was blessed in having my brothers around at all times. This also provided a constant source of debate on our favourite characters from comics, films and books.

When I reflect on my influences, themes and characters that I now explore in my own novels, I am hardly surprised to find the fiercely loyal family bond shown between my Gunn Brothers. The age-old themes too of honour, courage under fire and iron will are key themes within my stories. Ordinary people can do some extraordinary acts when called upon. This goes far beyond bullets and bar room brawls. Stubborn acts of defiance, when the odds are stacked so high that it’s just not funny, are what define us. It’s not what happens to you but how you deal with it that makes the common man or woman a hero. Every week in the news people show that they can exhibit levels of compassion, charity, friendship and bravery that take our breath.

Write what you know.

Does that mean if you work in a bank, office or supermarket, you have to set your stories there? Not if you don’t want to. Not by any stretch of the imagination. You may know those industries inside out, but you know far more than that. What about the characters? Staff, co-workers, customers and clients? That guy who wears an old-style fedora hat. That lady who walks a dog bigger than she is. The guy in your bar with no left hand. Characters in our play of life. Observe them. They can often surprise you.

I once moved seats at a bar on vacation to let a little guy sit down. He was about five foot two and looked to weigh about ten stone wet through. It turned out that he had just returned from Afghanistan and had been working only two days prior as a tunnel rat, clearing out cave systems of enemy combatants. He looked like a live action Ned Flanders and was a gentleman in his manners when ladies were in earshot. People can surprise you.

Write what you know. You probably know about friendship, loyalty, love, loss, worry and family. It is up to you how you mix those potent ingredients together. Will you write a family drama? Comedy? Thriller? A romance or an erotic tale? Life is what it’s all about. Living life is what life is all about.

The fictional lives we create can be greater that their sum parts. That’s one of the many joys of writing. Will you allow your characters redemption? Escape? Reward? Or will they suffer a darker fate, and conflict.

People, emotions, conflict. Love, conflict and redemption.

Write what you know. (And just make the rest up…it works for me.)

Pray for Death by James Hilton (Titan Books)

Celine Chavez is the closest thing to a daughter that Clay Gunn has. But now she has disappeared while vacationing in Mexico. Clay and his brother Danny must venture into the violent world of the Mexican criminal underworld to bring her home. From the bright lights of Cancun to a living nightmare in the jungles of the Yucatan, the brothers face the direst of enemies yet. One thing is for sure: if they survive, the Gunn brothers will never be the same again.

Madeleine Milburn’s Summer Writing Competition: Make Us Scared

Madeleine Milburn’s are thrilled to open entries for their Madeleine Milburn Summer Writing Competition, 2016. A world-renowned literary agency based in the heart of Mayfair, London, they represent a dynamic and award-winning list of authors published in the UK, US and international markets. The agency offers the highest level of care to a boutique list of authors, working together editorially and developing their work across all media.  They are dedicated to each talented author we represent, managing their writing careers with passion, skill and ambition.

Now they are keen to find a great new unpublished writer who can amaze them with an incredible voice, writing and premise. The Summer Writing Competition is open for adult novels with the theme of ‘Make Us Scared’. That can be anything from gritty crime and suspenseful thrillers to dark narratives, it’s completely open to your interpretation and can even cross genres.

They want it to be a book they cannot help but tell people about, a book that draws us back to reading when they take a break and a book which leaves them with a lot to think about.

JUDGES:

This year’s judges of the Madeleine Milburn Summer Writing competition are two of our Sunday Times bestselling authors Fiona Barton, The Widow and C.L. Taylor, The Accident, The Lie and The Missing.

Fiona Barton was discovered from a writing competition herself after being shortlisted for the Richard and Judy Search for A Bestseller in 2014, and The Widow is still the bestselling hardback debut of the year in the UK. C.L. Taylor is a two -time Sunday Times Bestselling author, with over half a million copies of her books sold. Her books are consistently featured on the top 10 eBooks on Amazon.

PRIZE:

The top five entries will be selected by the Madeleine Milburn agency for the shortlist. A winner will be chosen by Madeleine Milburn and our guest judges, and they will receive a prize of £500 and an offer of representation by the agency. All five shortlisted entries will receive comprehensive written feedback from the agency. They will offer representation to entrants whose writing they love. If you are offered representation by another agency while the competition is running, please let them know and we will withdraw your entry.

ELIGIBILITY

To enter, you must be un-agented and the work submitted must be unpublished (work from which an extract has been published in a literary magazine is fine). The prize is open to writers from anywhere in the world, but the work must be written in English.

HOW TO ENTER:

Entries are open from Friday 22nd July and the closing date is 1st September 2016. The shortlist will be announced on 8th September with the winner to be revealed on 6th October 2016.

They ask for a cover letter including a brief author bio with contact details, one-page synopsis, and a full manuscript to be submitted (or a minimum of 30,000 words if the novel is nearing completion).

To find out what they are looking for and for more tips on your writing and submission, head to Writer’s Corner on their website, and when you’re ready to enter submit your manuscript to competition@madeleinemilburn.com

 

Women Writing Thrillers by Helen Giltrow

Today’s guest blog is by Helen Giltrow the author of  The Distance.  She was born and brought up in Cheltenham and read Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford. She has worked extensively in publishing, including ten years as a commissioning editor for Oxford University Press. Her work has been shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award.

The ‘hero from the wrong side of the law’ is a well-established figure in crime fiction.  The chances are you’ve met one, whether it’s in Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal or Jo Nesbo’s latest, The Son.  My lead character, Karla, is another: a woman who sells secrets to criminals, or manipulates data on their behalf.  You need the floor plans of a bank, or the contents of a government server?  You need to disappear?  You go to her.

She’s a professional who takes a cool, pragmatic approach to her business.  It doesn’t bother her that it’s entirely criminal.

Of course, as with so many criminal leading characters, she has admirable qualities too.  She’s fiercely loyal to the members of her team.  She protects those who are vulnerable.  And there are most definitely lines she won’t cross.  She doesn’t deal with psychopaths or terrorists, and violence is alien to her; to get the information she needs she’ll work on people’s trust, she’ll manipulate technology, but when all else fails, she must fall back on her wits.

She has a strong sense of empathy, too; she tries to repress it, but it’s always there, and sometimes it slips out, drawing her into an involvement that goes way beyond the professional.

So it came as a surprise when I met someone who obviously found Karla troubling.  The reason?  ‘She needs explaining,’ they said, adding, ‘in a way that a male character probably wouldn’t.’

In other words, she’s not just criminal.  She’s criminal and female.

Another reader – who personally liked and ‘got’ Karla – touched on the same point, but went further: ‘Some people might be more comfortable with Karla’s illegal activities if she had a mental illness.’  I was stunned – until I looked back at the female leads in the big crime novels of the last few years.  Gone Girl: Amy’s a sociopath.  Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Lisbeth Salander’s borderline Asperger’s.

So did those two readers have a point?  Are characters judged according to a double standard, with different rules applied to women and men?

Cathy Rentzenbrink – interviewing Helen Walsh about her recent novel The Lemon Grove – would seem to think so.  She summed up the situation thus: ‘A transgressive woman is a transgressive woman where a transgressive man is just a man.’

And perhaps for some – maybe not many, but a few – there are acceptable ‘female’ reasons for criminal behaviour.  To mental illness we could add revenge; protection of a child; even simple lack of choice.

But Karla’s doing it because it’s her job.

And honestly – why not

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You can find Helen Giltrow on Twitter @HelenGiltrow 

The Distance by Helen Giltrow is published by Orion and is out now. Price £14.99