Kerry Hudson Shortlisted for the 2014 Young Stationers’ Prize

Kerry Hudson, author of THIRST and TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA, has been shortlisted for the 2014 Young Stationers’ Prize. The winner will be announced on the 22nd of July at the Stationers’ Hall. Lorraine Sutherland, Editor of Hansard, will be a guest speaker at the awards dinner. The winner will receive a trophy donated by the Pewterers’ Company.  Other nominees for the Prize include Andrew Barker, Nick Coveney, Katie Glass, and George Walkley.

Young Stationers are individuals who work in the press, printing, and/or publishing field. Hudson is the founder of the WoMentoring Project, which led to her Young Stationers nomination. WoMentoring offers women just starting out in the writing and publishing industries free, professional advice.

Kerry Hudson's second book, THIRST, was published by Chatto on 17 July and is featured as one of the Ten Best Summer Reads for August 2014 by Red.

Kerry Hudson’s THIRST published today!

Kerry Hudson’s THIRST is published today in the UK by Chatto.

Dave and Alena meet in the frayed heat of a London high summer where she's up to no good and it's his job to catch her. So begins an unlikely relationship between two people with secrets, they've no idea how to live with -- or leave behind. But despite everything they still find themselves fighting with all they've got for a future together.

Kerry’s first novel, TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA, has been shortlisted for eight literary prizes, including the Guardian First Book Award and the Green Carnation Prize, and won the Scottish First Book of the Year.

Kerry's second novel is already attracting fantastic reviews with Harper's Bazaar listing it as a Best British Read and calling it "Fresh and original... an unsentimental love story", Metro calling it “tremendously affecting... impressively unostentatious” and Woman and Home saying it's "both funny and touching". It has received an excellent review on list.co.uk:

'Kerry Hudson's fantastic debut shook readers and critics … and her second book, THIRST, delivers on the promise of that wonderful first novel, giving us another booze-soaked, sex-stained, bittersweet tale of love and tragic disappointment... it's a testament to Hudson's stellar writing that different plot strands sit so snugly and compellingly together... she's a master at creating strong, authentic voices, and this book fizzes with the thronging sounds of east London in the summer and the bustling streets of an unknown Siberian town... Hudson has created two warm but gut-wrenching characters... As the last few chapters crescendo into a breathless, sob-induced finale, Hudson marks herself out once again as a terrifically talented storyteller who, luckily for us, is here to stay.'

Kerry’s profile was featured by the Observer where she talked about her career path, her travels and the journey to writing THIRST.

Kerry was chosen as one of the Bookseller’s Rising Stars of 2014 for her work founding the Womentoring Project.

Visit Kerry's website here

Follow Kerry on Twitter 

Praise for TONY HOGAN...:

'What a brilliant thing to turn the chaos and trauma of a hectic childhood into a debut novel as colourful, funny, joyful and compelling as this.' - The Guardian

'This is a remarkable debut novel of love and loyalty, of fierce passion and scabrous wit.' - Foyles

'From the (unrepeatable) hilarious first sentence, this debut sucks you in with its idiosyncratic style... Kerry Hudson's writing is very funny, and her deft touches give the book a reality that makes it all the more powerful. Hudson certainly has a bright future.' - We Love This Book

Liz Fenwick’s writing tips #Romance14

This blog post originally appeared on the Romance Festival website. The Romance Festival is an online literary festival which took place between the 7th & 8th of June 2014 and allowed people to meet their favourite romantic fiction authors, chat to other readers and writers, and get the lowdown on the best in romance, all without leaving the comfort of their own homes! You can follow the Romance Festival on Twitter here.

Liz Fenwick’s Writing Tips:

  1. Have a hero with whom you can fall in love. I have to love the hero, if I don't how can I expect my heroine or reader to?
  2. Think conflict…that’s what makes the reader turn the page. Conflict is shouting, it’s when characters have different goals or what they need is different from what they want.
  3. Try to write something every day but accept that sometimes this isn't possible. Do not beat yourself up…sometimes the laundry does come first and so does dinner (except when a deadlines is approaching!)
  4. As writers we have strengths and weaknesses. Take time to improve your weakest areas until they shine as much as your strengths. Never stop learning your craft.
  5. In twenty minutes a day you can write a novel in a year. Five minutes free…a scene can appear. Any spare time can be used. Grab them. My writing time is always disturbed by family and travel, but I embrace this rather than resent it. I do my best writing when I'm stuck on a plane or a train.
  6. Listen to your work. I use text to voice software so that the computer reads it to me. This gives you separation from your work and makes editing easier.
  7. Writer’s Block – egg timer. Set it for twenty minutes and say you will only write for that time and it doesn't matter what you write. It works!
  8. Read, read, read. Read not just in your own genre, read the best sellers, read literary, read history, read biography, read magazines and the news papers. They all tell stories- just in slightly different ways. From this reading you will learn what works and what doesn’t. You will read books that you wished you wrote (and when you do – analyze to see why you felt that way then discover how you can make your writing better). You will read books and wonder what others saw in it - then analyze it. Fill your writing ‘well’ from the women’s magazines and the latest news.
  9. Be kind to yourself. No book is ever perfect…even the ones we hold up as perfect. Your first draft is for you only, possibly the second and the third too. Writing a book is not a race. Take a breath and enjoy the journey. Accept criticism. Develop your inner critic but contain it as well. Learn to trust yourself.

Liz’s latest book is A Cornish Stranger. You can find her on Twitter here.

Monique Roffey’s HOUSE OF ASHES out tomorrow

Monique Roffey’s new novel, HOUSE OF ASHES, is published in the UK by Scribner on 17 July. Inspired by real events, this is the haunting story of Ashes and Breeze, two disaffected young men who follow the charismatic Leader into a disastrous coup.

Monique will be around the country talking about the novel over the summer. She will be signing at several bookshops, including Waterstones Covent Garden on 23 July (in an event chaired by Eithne Farry), Waterstones Petersfield on 22 July, Blackwells Oxford on 13 August and Topping Books, Ely on 21 August.

She will also be appearing at Edinburgh Book festival, talking with Neel Mukherjee about the different ways both their books address the issue of idealistic young men railing against their societies. 

HOUSE OF ASHES is already attracting praise from writers and reviewers, with blogger Naomi Frisby calling it ‘a powerful book… the best 2014 published novel I’ve read so far this year.’

Monique's second novel THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, and ARCHIPELAGO was shortlisted for the Orion Book Award 2014 and awarded the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2013.

Visit Monique's website here.

Praise for HOUSE OF ASHES:

‘This is the kind of Caribbean fiction Gabriel Garcia Marquez once wrote about – a vividness of imagination which is at once so terrible, so beautiful and so compelling that it shows you exactly how things are.’ – Kei Miller, author of WRITING DOWN THE VISION

‘With HOUSE OF ASHES, Monique Roffey breathes new and desperately needed life into the narrative of war and politics. Here is a novel that is deeply and intimately imagined, with all the great themes of love, faith, violence and death at stake on nearly every breathtaking page. ‘ – Dinaw Mengestu, author of THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS THAT HEAVEN BEARS

'Monique Roffey's brave and loving novel will stage an insurrection in your heart … Monique Roffey has an astonishing talent for self-reinvention with every book. This may be her best yet.' – Vahni Capildeo, author of UTTER

'A chilling, dark tale of an uprising gone wrong within an imagined Caribbean republic. Roffey tells this terrifying story in the simplest, clearest prose. She tackles her subject fearlessly and with enormous compassion: both breaking and melting the heart simultaneously. A beautiful, startling novel.' - Amanda Smyth, author of BLACK ROCK