Six Blake Friedmann Books out today!

It’s a big publication day at Blake Friedmann with six books by our authors being published in the UK today!

Barbara Erskine’s latest novel THE DARKEST HOUR is published by HarperCollins. An epic tale of love and heartbreak set in World War II and the present, Lucy’s husband is killed in a bizarre car accident and a painting he was to have restored leads Lucy back to the life of the artist, Evie. Finding a painted-over figure of a WWII pilot behind Evie’s self-portrait, Lucy unravels the mystery of the two men in Evie’s life, and their relevance to Lucy’s own. Barbara Erskine is the author of the bestselling novel LADY OF HAY, which has been continuously in print for 28 years and sold in 26 languages.

No. 1 Irish bestseller Sheila O’Flanagan’s new novel IF YOU WERE ME is published by Headline. Stressful presentations are part of a day’s work for Carlotta, but this one was in 2 languages. Missing her plane home wasn’t part of the plan, and missing her future mother-in-law’s birthday party is just the first of a sequence of events that turns her emotional and work life upside down.  Headline have sold more than 6 million books by Sheila.

Feminist, socialist and associate New Statesman editor Laurie Penny’s new book, UNSPEAKABLE THINGS, is published by Bloomsbury. Publishers Weekly called the book “a feminist book for our time that burns with a wild light and deserves attention.” Clear-eyed, witty and irreverent, Laurie Penny is as ruthless in her dissection of modern feminism and class politics as she is in discussing her own experiences in journalism, activism and underground culture. Read an extract in The Guardian here.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE HANGED MAN is the latest novel in Ann Granger’s Victorian Crime series, published by Headline. When Inspector Ben Ross is called to Newgate Prison by a man condemned to die by the hangman's noose he isn't expecting to give any credence to the man's testimony. But the account of a murder he witnessed over seventeen years ago is so utterly believeable that Ben can't help wondering if what he's heard is true. It's too late to save the man's life, but it's not too late to investigate a murder that has gone undetected for all these years.  She has more than 5 million books in print in English and German.

Told in her trademark multiple first-person style, AN OPEN MARRIAGE is the new novel by Tess Stimson published by Macmillan. Mia Allen has never quite adjusted to living in England. Her husband Kit though, loves the sense of community and his job as a school teacher in a private school.  Like Mia, Kit's boss Charlie is also looking for more excitement in her life. When she and Rob are invited to dinner with Mia and Kit, she jumps at the chance to make new friends. One evening, the increasing attraction between them all moves up a notch, but it's not long before the seductive highs of these new friendships lead to desperate lows. Can any of their relationships survive this unconventional arrangement? 

Finally the paperback of THE SUMMER QUEEN, the first book in Elizabeth Chadwick’s stunning Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy, is published by Sphere. You can view a trailer for the book here. Choice Magazine called it “engrossingly written and well researched.”   Chadwick has delivered the manuscript for the second volume, THE WINTER CROWN and is now writing the final volume THE AUTUMN THRONE.  She is a New York Times bestselling author and according to The Historical Novel Review is “The best writer of medieval fiction currently around.”                                                    

Margie Orford elected President of South African PEN

Photo Credit: Brooke Fasani

Margie Orford has been elected President of PEN South Africa by the institution’s executive committee with effect from June 19. She succeeds Anthony (Tony) Fleischer, who was president for many years and died after a short illness on June 5 at his home in Cape Town. Margie was Vice-President of PEN South Africa for many years.

Margie is an award-winning journalist, photographer, film director, children's author and Fulbright scholar. Born in London, she grew up in southern Africa. She was detained as a student activist during the State of Emergency in 1985 and wrote her finals in prison. She lives in Cape Town, and is Patron for the children’s book charity, the Little Hands Trust and for SA RapeCrisis.

Her concern about violence against women is reflected throughout the Clare Hart series, published in the UK by Head of Zeus and Harper Witness in the US. It has also been published in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic, and rights have also been sold in Denmark, Norway and Iceland.

Praise for Margie Orford and WATER MUSIC:

‘Margie Orford writes with great human insight, at times with poetic beauty, and always the ever-present deep, dark undertow of menace.’ – Peter James

'Orford plots so brilliantly that to stop reading is as harrowing as to carry on.' – Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph

‘Clare Hart is back, and she returns in style… the tension racks up, and up, and up… WATER MUSIC should see Orford win many, many more fans, and she’s not exactly short of them already. Read it.’ – The Big Issue

‘I loved the twists and turns of this book and the truly unknowable nature of the next chapter’ – Lizzi Thomasson, The Bookseller

‘Margie Orford gives genre writing swagger, she makes it look good…every detail in WATER MUSIC convinces. Every sentence is clipped, pared down, muscular, every emotion captured with poise and precision. WATER MUSIC is Orford’s best work yet.’ – Jonathan Amid, Slipnet

Follow Margie Orford on twitter

Visit Margie's website

A Day in the Life of a Media Associate…

Ever wondered what screenwriters’ agents do all day? Ellen Gallagher is here to satisfy your curiosity. 

A caveat from Ellen: this isn't the way every day pans out, or even a complete picture of everything that goes on in the Media Department, not by a long stretch. No two days are quite the same in the world of agents, that’s partly why I enjoy my job so much! 

8.30am – Begin checking emails on the way to work. I don't want to miss anything, and am utterly obsessed with organising my emails into folders. I work across a number of clients and projects, and I want to make sure that any emails that have come in are filed correctly so they can be dealt with promptly. Organisation is King in the Land of the Agents!

9.25am – Arrive at the office. Make a giant pot of coffee; it's always wise to endear oneself to one’s colleagues by providing caffeine-based sustenance. Similarly, cake is highly popular and should be procured and shared as frequently as possible.

9.30am – Right, it's email-handling time. I respond to as much as I immediately can, and put the rest in a ‘to do’ folder to be worked on throughout the day. Emails range from rights enquiries or contract negotiation to new client scripts and treatments, and everything in between.

10am – I have a lovely phone chat with a client, and we cook up some ideas about what to do next with his work. I end the call excited to read the script he’s going to send me.

10.30am – Now we enter the Invoicing Zone. I keep track of invoices and payments to ensure that clients get paid when they should. Our finance manager Sian is an invaluable ally, as she is a font of fiscal fortitude.

11am – I spend an intense half hour arranging meetings; some for our department, and some on behalf of our clients. I am the master of the diary, no meeting shall escape my iron calendar. I have a pleasant jokey exchange with a producer’s assistant about the awesome efficiency with which we just arranged that last meeting.

11.30am – I roll up my sleeves to delve into some contract drafting. There are always deals to be done, and putting together a contract which protects the writer’s interests is a vital part of the agent’s job. Contract language may sound a bit like it was invented by aliens who had learned English from reading the instructions on a shampoo bottle, but it’s the best wording to make a document as legally watertight as possible.

1.30pm – Lunch! I head to the kitchen and assemble a sort of mad salad which mostly consists of whole tomatoes. I really like tomatoes at the moment.

2.30pm – I peruse the ‘to do’ email folder again. Some of the emails in here require research or looking back over existing documents to respond properly, so I do lots of that. It’s essential to be thorough to make sure nothing gets missed, especially when rights are involved.

3pm – A client has written a fab script, I've read it and told her I love it. There’s a producer whom I think would love it too; I get in touch with them and they're keen to read it, so I send it across.

3.05pm – Ooh, an email has gone round saying somebody has returned from an overseas book fair and has brought some sort of food back for everyone. A mildly twisted ankle is sustained in the customary BFLA stampede for the kitchen.

3.10pm – The post has come in – we distribute contracts, financial statements and other documentation that needs handling on behalf of our clients. Lots of filing and record-keeping ensues. Organisation, once again, is the buzzword!

3.30pm – Time for a meeting. A producer has come in to tell us what they're looking for, and to hear about our clients and what they're up to. Cups of tea are enthusiastically quaffed.

4.30pm – I put some scripts on my eReader to look at this evening. I must prioritise existing clients’ work, but also I check out as many new submissions as I can from writers seeking representation.

4.45pm – I try to tie up as many loose ends as possible toward the end of the day. This includes logging script submissions (where we have sent clients’ work for consideration) and doing any last-minute email responding to keep the decks as clear as possible for the next day. I also use this time to read up on as much industry news as possible, in publications such as Broadcast, Screen International and online sources. It’s important to be aware of trends and developments in film and television so that information can be used to benefit our clients.

Around 5.30pm – I head out of the office with my eReader stocked up with scripts. There might also be a screening or play read-through in the evening that I’ve been invited to by a submitter or film school, but if not I'll go home to read and eat dinner. Another action-packed day of agenting awaits me tomorrow, bring it on!

Kaite O’Reilly’s THE 9 FRIDAS to Premiere at the Taipei Arts Festival

Kaite O’Reilly’s new play THE 9 FRIDAS will have its world premiere in Taiwan this September.

The play was commissioned by Sherman Cymru, Wales, and will have its first performances at the 16th Taipei Arts Festival, presented by Mobius Strip Theatre and Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, and directed by Phillip Zarrilli.

THE 9 FRIDAS explores the life of the famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, revising conventional approaches to her story and examining Frida as an everywoman whose life and art has exceptional significance in the present day.

Here's the gorgeous trailer for the production:

Kaite is an award winning playwright and previous recipient of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry and the Peggy Ramsay Award, and she has also been nominated for, among others, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

For more information on THE 9 FRIDAS, see the Taipei Arts Festival website here.

Catch BFLA Authors at the Edinburgh Festivals

Tickets are now on sale for Edinburgh International Book Festival and you can see several Blake Friedmann authors there this August.

Edward Carey will be appearing at the festival twice. On 9 August he will be talking with Nathan Filer and Matthew Quick about creating characters in fiction. On 10 August he will be talking to children about his IREMONGER trilogy. The second in the trilogy, FOULSHAM, is published on 7 August. Explore Foulsham on Edward’s website.

On 15 August, Monique Roffey will be talking with Neel Mukherjee. Their conversation will explore the different ways their books address idealistic young men railing against their societies. Monique’s latest novel, HOUSE OF ASHES, is published on 24 July. See more on Monique’s website.

Rohan Gavin is running a reading workshop on THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Sherlock Holmes’s most famous case, on 19 August. The second novel in his KNIGHTLEY AND SON series, KNIGHTLEY AND SON: K-9, published on 14 August, also features a hound or two… See more on knightleyandson.com.

Zakes Mda is appearing on 19 August as part of the Voices from South Africa series to talk about his novels, including his most recent book THE SCULPTORS OF MAPUNGUBWE.

Margie Orford talks with Parker Bilal about African crime fiction and her novel WATER MUSIC, the fifth featuring detective Clare Hart, on 20 August. See more on Margie’s website.

On 25 August, Kerry Hudson talks with Simon Van Booy about her new novel THIRST and love stories. Find out more on Kerry’s Website.

Many of our writers also have shows as part of the Edinburgh fringe festival.

Andrew Doyle is performing his stand up show Zero Tolerance at the Stand this year from 30 July – 24 August. He will also be performing in a play called Outings at the Gilded Balloon, which explores many true life stories of people coming out, and runs from 30 July – 25 August.

Anna Emerson and Lizzie Bates of the Boom Jennies both have shows at the Fringe. Anna Emerson presents “An Evening With Patti DuPont” from 1-24 August. Lizzie Bates’ comedy show Reprobates runs from 30 July – 25 August. You can read more about the shows here.

The Edinburgh Festival is one of the largest Arts events in the world and takes place for three weeks every August in Scotland’s capital city.