Joan Hessayon Contenders 2017: Kate Field

Today we welcome another of our talented contenders for the Joan Hessayon award.

Welcome to the RNS blog, Kate, and many congratulations on being one of the contenders for this year’s award.

How long have you been writing - Is this your first published piece?

The Magic of Ramblings is the sixth novel I've written, but the first one to be published. I wrote my

first novel nearly twenty-five years ago: it was a Regency romance, inspired by my love of Georgette Heyer books. I’ve served a long apprenticeship to reach publication!

How many years were you a member of the NWS and did you submit a manuscript each year?

I was a member of the NWS for six years in total, spread over the last three decades! I submitted a completed manuscript each year, starting with Regency romances, until a reader advised me to try contemporary romance instead. I'm hugely grateful to that reader for steering me the right way. I joined the NWS for the third time in 2014, after taking another reader’s advice to learn as much as I could about writing and make contact with other writers, and it was third time lucky!

What came first, agent or publisher?

I don't have an agent. My publisher, Accent Press, accepts submissions from unrepresented authors.

How did you find your publisher?

I was a runner up in a competition for unpublished writers held by Accent and Woman Magazine in 2014, so that gave me hope that my writing might be a good fit with Accent. I then met an editor from Accent for a one to one at the RNA conference in London in 2015. I sent in the first chapter of The Magic of Ramblings, which was a gamble as it was my NWS submission that year and I hadn't received my report at the time, so I had no idea if it was any good. Fortunately the editor loved it and asked to see the whole manuscript, and I was subsequently offered a contract.

Do you have a contract for one book or more?

I have a two-book contract. My second book, The Truth about You, Me and Us, comes out in August and went through the NWS in 2014.

When was your book published?

The Magic of Ramblings was published on 8 September 2016.

Please tell us something about your book

Cassie accepts a job as companion to an old lady in a remote Lancashire village, hoping for a quiet life where she can forget herself, her past and most especially men. The last thing she wants is to be drawn into saving a community that seems determined to take her to its heart – and to resuscitate hers…
Frances lives a reclusive life at Ramblings and now Barney is hiding away there, after his career ended in scandal. He doesn’t trust the mysterious woman who comes to live with his aunt, especially when she starts to steal Frances’ affection – and maybe his own too…

What are you currently working on?

I’ve written two more books since The Magic of Ramblings – I still try to stick to the NWS deadline even though I've graduated! They are both contemporary romance/ women’s fiction, and I’m now editing them so they are ready for submission.

What piece of advice would you give current members of the NWS?

I know what it’s like when you're desperate to be published, but be patient. The first book you write might not be the best one to publish – mine certainly wasn't! Take feedback, write more books, and develop your style. You only have one debut, so make sure it's the best book it can be and shows who you are as a writer.

Links:

Facebook

Twitter:  @katehaswords

Thank you, Kate. Congratulations again on graduating the New Writers’ Scheme and I hope you enjoy the Summer Party.

Joan Hessayon Contenders 2017: Terri Fleming

Today we welcome another of our contenders for the Joan Hessayon award.

Welcome to the RNA blog, Terri, and many congratulations on being one of the contenders for this year’s award.

How long have you been writing - Is this your first published piece?

I have been writing since I could first string a few wobbly words together in pencil. The delight in

creating something new remains exactly the same to this day. In the intervening years I have taken a few career paths, written articles, short stories and a film script. Working as a professional copywriter in my 20’s, I began to think I wouldn’t fulfil my dream of writing a novel because of the strong editing discipline one develops. Happily that was wrong and I am now talking to you about my debut novel, Perception

How many years were you a member of the NWS and did you submit a manuscript each year?

My writing friends insisted I join the NWS and how right they were. Perception went through in my first year and there was extra reassurance in knowing that a detached professional had read the ms. My second novel was too early in the draft process to submit in my second year, but by then I had an agent and Perception was in submission.

What came first, agent or publisher?

Securing an agent happened over a whirlwind six days. I had just sent off my first few submissions and had a couple of rejections. I attended a Writers Workshop day – a Christmas gift from my husband, who now considers his brownie points to be zillions. I met the fantastic book doctor, Andrew Wille, and his reaction had me walking on air. He recommended three agents and by the following Friday I agreed to sign with Jo Unwin of JULA. When I look at her client list I feel humbled.

How did you find your publisher?

Jo submitted and things took a while to happen before we signed a one-book deal with Orion. As a debut, it’s great to be in the safe hands of a big publisher.

When is your book published?

Perception will be published on 13^th July, 2017 to coincide with the 200^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death.

Tell us something about your book

Perception takes place a few years after Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and tells the story of Mary and Kitty Bennet, who remained at Longbourn after their sisters married. Mrs Bennet, still dreaming of marrying off all her daughters, spies her chance when a wealthy batchelor returns to Meryton. Mary has neither attraction nor inclination, but circumstance often places her in his company. Kitty has matured but is tempted to follow old habits. A desire to escape matters of the heart lead both girls to the sanctuary of their older sisters. Can Mary and Kitty overcome low prospects and false perceptions?

What are you currently working on?

I’m editing a linked novel using some of the new characters I created for Perception. They all make me smile in the same way the Bennets did. Next, I may go contemporary.

What piece of advice would you give current members of the NWS?

Remember reactions are subjective from any reader. Read your report again after a couple of days and make notes. Ask yourself some tough questions, fix issues as you see them, but trust your instincts. Never, ever give up!

Link:

Twitter: @TerriFlemingpen

Thank you, Terri. Congratulations again on graduating the New Writers’ Scheme and being one of our 2017 contenders.

Joan Hessayon Contenders 2017: Vivien Hampshire

Today we welcome another of our contenders for the Joan Hessayon award.

Welcome to the RNS blog, Vivien, and many congratulations on being one of the contenders for this year’s award.

How long have you been writing - Is this your first published piece?

I started writing fiction more than twenty years ago, and won the Mail on Sunday’s annual ‘Best

Opening to Novel’ competition at my first attempt. This attracted an agent and the finished book did the rounds of all the big publishers without success. If only digital publishing had been around then I might have been published a lot sooner! Since then I have concentrated most of my efforts on writing short stories for women’s magazines although I did also self-publish a short e-book novel in 2012.

How many years were you a member of the NWS and did you submit a manuscript each year?

I graduated during my fourth year. In year one I only submitted a partial, then completed the book for my year two submission. ‘How To Win Back Your Husband’ was my third year book, and I have since sent another through in year four.

What came first, agent or publisher?

I did have an agent representing me for a different book a year or two ago, but we have since parted company. That book and ‘How To Win Back Your Husband’ were both taken up following direct submissions to publishers.

How did you find your publisher?

I had never heard of HQ Digital until I attended the RNA Conference in Lancaster last summer. After a one-to-one and then listening to their editors giving a talk, I sent the manuscript in and it was accepted within just a few weeks.

Do you have a contract for one book or more?

Just one with this publisher, but my year one/two NWS manuscript has since found a home with Harper Impulse who have given me a two book contract, under a different author name!

When was your book published?

It came out as an e-book on 18 January, and I held a lovely online launch party with competitions and prizes to welcome it into the world.

Tell us something about your book

Nicci has made a huge mistake that her husband Mark can neither forgive nor forget. It’s in the middle of her own divorce party that Nicci realises she will always love him and just can’t let him go. So, with the help of a scatty best friend, an old lady she has never met, and a little bit of Christmas magic, she sets out to regain his trust, earn his forgiveness and save her marriage. But she only has thirty days to do it before the decree absolute ruins everything. The clock is ticking!

What are you currently working on?

I am in the final stages of editing my book ‘Lily Alone’ for Harper Impulse, which comes out as an e-book in June and paperback in October. This one does have romantic elements but also looks at the much more serious issue of child abandonment and will be published under my married name of Vivien Brown.

What piece of advice would you give current members of the NWS?

It’s easy to feel disheartened and overwhelmed when confronted with a blank page, a jumble of ideas and too little time. Look upon your novel as your baby, taking many months to develop inside you before it sees the light of day. When it’s ‘born’, people will offer advice and help – so listen carefully and don’t ever turn that help down – but in the end you have to do what feels right for you. Write from your heart. Look forward, never back. Want that publishing deal more than anything else in the world, and you just might get it!

Links:

Facebook

Blog

Twitter

Thank you, Vivien. Congratulations again on graduating the New Writers’ Scheme and I hope you enjoy the Summer Party.

Joan Hessayon Contenders 2017: April Hardy

Welcome to the RNS blog, April, and many congratulations on being one of the contenders for this year’s award. 

How long have you been writing - Is this your first published piece?

The very first thing I had published was a recipe booklet for Papadopoulou Biscuits in 2005, when I lived in Athens. I had tremendous fun developing simple recipes using their biscuits. Obviously I had to write it in Greek, so whoever edited it must have had a hilarious time! Sadly, it came out just after

we left for Dubai and so I never got my copy of it.

I started trying my hand at fiction in 2008. We’d moved to Abu Dhabi and, having the words “Housewife – Not Allowed To Work” stamped on my visa had made it impossible for me to find any kind of food related job. I’d come to realise how much I’d enjoyed the written side of my Culinary Arts training and, as an avid reader I thought, why not give writing a go? Even if nothing comes of it, at least I’ll have enjoyed the time I’ve spent doing it!

So, in my naivety, I wrote an extremely wordy contemporary romance, and sent the first draft, accompanied by an equally extremely wordy cover letter, straight off to three agents ... Oh! How much I had to learn!

Our move back to Dubai, in January 2011, was a huge turning point. I’d been writing in secret – even my husband didn’t know – and, with no guidance or feedback because I wasn’t sharing my work with anyone, getting nowhere. And who knows how long that might have carried on, had I not gone into my new nearest shopping mall, Ibn Battuta, by the entrance which took me past a huge branch of Magrudy’s bookshop having a closing down sale. I was sad to see another bookshop close, but that didn’t stop me buying so many books I needed a supermarket trolley to get them to the taxi rank. It was a mix of novels and writers’ reference books. I opened a random page of the first one I picked up and my eye was immediately drawn to an article on Winchester Writers’ Conference.

Well, I’m from Southampton, and have family in Winchester, so it felt like I was meant to go. I had a fabulous week and met some wonderful writers, including the amazing Ali Spencer and Adrienne Dines, who told me about the RNA and advised me to join the New Writers’ Scheme. I have a lot to thank them for.

How many years were you a member of the NWS and did you submit a manuscript each year?

I remember sitting at my computer, New Year’s Day 2012, waiting for 3am to come round so I could click on my initial NWS membership submission to get it in as close as possible to midnight UK time. I was a member for 4 years and submitted my original manuscript twice, Sitting Pretty (my début novel) once, and Kind Hearts & Coriander (my second novel, which has just come out with Accent Press) once.

What came first, agent or publisher?

For me the agent came first. I was signed up by Alison Bonomi of LBA Books in November 2014, after meeting her and her husband, Luigi at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai. In July 2015, at the RNA conference, I had a very exciting one-to-one meeting with Hazel Cushion, MD of Accent Press, who went on to offer me a 3-book contract. Sitting Pretty was the one they decided to publish first

How did you find your publisher?

In my second ever one-to-one, at the 2015 RNA conference – thank you, RNA, you help make things happen!

Do you have a contract for one book or more?

I was very lucky to get a 3-book deal, although in my excitement when they called me, I didn’t hear the person on the other end of the phone properly and thought it was 2, so when the contract came through I thought they’d made a mistake – I did feel a fool – That’ll teach me to listen properly!

When was your book published?

The Sitting Pretty e-book came out in June 2016 and the paperback in July 2016. I had a fairly quiet launch at Daunt Books in London, followed by a much bigger one at the World Trade Centre Club in Dubai, two months later. I’m very lucky to have bases in two countries, and the fabulous support networks of the RNA back home, and WTCC and Emirates Literature Foundation in Dubai.

Tell us something about your book

Newlyweds, Beth and Alex are moving to Dubai. But as the removal van drives away, Alex dumps her by phone. From the airport.  Then her old boss at Sitting Pretty rings, asking a favour, and on autopilot, she goes to feed Talisker the cat, whose dour but handsome owner, Henry travels a lot. Newly homeless, she sleeps on Henry’s sofa. Next day, Beth has her job back. And while she plans her next move she’ll secretly sofa-surf at her clients’ homes. If she’s careful, no one need find out.

But then she finds she’s not the only uninvited guest ...

What are you currently working on?

Several things, mostly romantic comedies, one of which is a sequel to Sitting Pretty, called Simone Says ... I can’t say too much about it though, without giving away Sitting Pretty’s ending ...

On the other side of the coin, I’ve also started penning a collection of short stories – dark comedies – with a theme of revenge running through them. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with those, but they just wouldn’t leave me alone until I started writing them down!

What piece of advice would you give current members of the NWS?

Value those reader reports, even if you don’t agree with every single thing in them! For me, deciphering why I was happy to make most of the suggested changes while there were a few I couldn’t bring myself to, helped me understand how I saw my own writing. It’s also great practice for working with editors further down the line.

links:

Facebook

Blog

Twitter

Thank you, April. Congratulations again on graduating the New Writers’ Scheme and I hope you enjoy the Summer Party.