14. Feb 2014
David Franks
Posts from year 2014
Short Story Competition 2014
Jim Kelly, who judged the annual short story competition this year, gave us some valuable insights into what makes a good short story. He is a journalist and writer of crime novels, and told us how he started writing crime novels, as a result of being at an incident at York Minster. He happened to be there, saw an ambulance with its blue light flashing, and, as a journalist, investigated. The Minster was clothed in scaffolding to erect the lights for the enthronement of the Archbishop of York, and when the scaffolders reached the roof level, they could see that there was a body lying at the bottom of the roof, held in place by the masonry parapet. He reported this for his newspaper, and later this led to him writing his first crime novel. Jim has written 21 crime novels. One series is set in the Fens, about an investigative journalist Philip Dryden, the other set in North Norfolk and the port of Kings’ Lynn, featuring Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and his colleague Valentine. He won the Crime Writers Association Dagger in the Library award in 2006, and in 2011 he won the New Angle prize for literature for Death Watch, one of the Shaw novels. His novel Death Wore White is in line to be made into a television series for Anglia Television.
Encounters - Seven winning short stories from Cambridge Writers
1. Apr 2014
Thure Etzold
Thure Etzold
The e-book with the winning entries from the 2014 Cambridge Writers Short Story competition is now available on Amazon. The stories are by Les Brookes, Alice Turner, Will Tate, Angela Wray, Margaret Loescher and RJ Gould. Jim Kelly, the juror of the competition, wrote the introduction. The book was edited by Thure Etzold and the cover art is by Annabel Lee.
Who Writes and Reads Romantic Fiction?
11. Sep 2014
R J Gould
R J Gould
I’ve joined the Romantic Novelists Association and took part in their 2014 Annual Conference. Both the Association and the conference are valuable, the latter providing an interesting mix of practical tips (how to self-publish, attract an agent, ideas about Plot, Location, and Characterisation); some theoretical background (the Chemistry of Reading, universal elements of the genre); and the opportunity to meet agents, editors and publishers. I was fortunate to be able to chat with Hazel Cushion, the founder of Accent Press and was highly impressed with how the company works and their future plans. I’m looking forward to working with them.
