I haven't posted for a while because the past few months have been quite challenging. However, as we come towards the end of the summer, I'm beginning to look around me and come up for air after several weeks of teaching - first at the University of Winchester's Writers' Festival, then on two creative writing summer school programmes for Oxford University. I'll soon be posting details of the autumn series of Fictionfire Focus Workshops and of an exciting new event I'm planning in October - do please sign up to the mailing list on the Fictionfire website to be kept informed.
I also have some good news to share: the opening of the historical novel I'm working on won first prize last week in the First Page competition run by Words with Jam, a magazine for writers and publishers. I'm honoured and delighted - and even more pleased to see my other entry also made the longlist!
You can read the winning entries and the judge's comments here.
This win couldn't have been better timed, as I'll be attending the Historical Novel Society's Conference in London on the 6th and 7th of September. I'm looking forward to meeting old friends and new, to listening to some great discussions, sharing great reads and recharging my creative batteries! Whether you love to write historical fiction or you love to read it - or both - do come along!
