Join me on Periscope tomorrow at 12 midday 29th June!

I sure hope my film making improves by tomorrow!! Click on pic below to get an idea of what's happening.....

The end is near!!!

I came back from holidays on Wednesday and got straight into copy edits for THE GAME CHANGER. I completed them this evening. The journey of writing this novel has been an emotional one and there were moments when I despaired if it would ever get close to the aspirations I had for it at the start.

A friend of mine read it last week and loved it, and then the copy editor used words like magnificent, gripping, absorbing, compelling, terrifying, saying it was a tour de force, and that love, suspense, atmospheric backdrops, the effects of psychological trauma, and a mesmerising plot, added to it being brilliant. Don't worry, none of this has gone to my head, and like most writers, I will still worry about writing it better, but the end of the process is near and that is emotional.

And, here is the opening quote of the novel ...... 

"When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family, we step into a fairy-tale."

G. K. Chesterson

xx

Louise

The Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition now open for entries!

Monday 22nd June sees the launch of the fifth Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition.

The challenge for writers is to write a piece in any genre in no more than 1000 words. The winner of the competition will receive £1000 and will be commissioned to write four further stories for InterAct over the course of one year. The closing date for submissions is Thursday 29 October 2015, World Stroke Awareness Day. The winner will be chosen by Lynda La Plante, who will present the award to the winner at a ceremony to be held in 2016.

Terms and conditions of entry:
1. The length of each story must not exceed 1000 words.
2. Entrants can write in any genre.
3. Entrants can submit multiple stories.
4. The winner of the Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition will receive £1,000 and will be commissioned to write four further short stories for InterAct Stroke Support over the course of one year.
5. The closing date for all entries is 5pm, Thursday 29th October (World Stroke Day).
6. A £15.00 entry fee is applicable to each story entered. Payment by paypal with online entry or cheques and postal orders payable to: InterAct Stroke Support with postal entries.
7. The competition is open to anyone, including non-UK applicants, over 16 years.
8. Stories must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published on any website or public online forum or broadcast.
9. While the copyright of any story submitted to the Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition will remain with the author, the submission of a story is done with the understanding that InterAct has the right to copy, distribute and publish the story to support the charity’s work.
10. Writers should be aware that if stories are to be read on hospital wards they will have to be sensitive to such a ward enviroment, and shortlisted stories will be judged on their abiliity to be effectively read on a hospital ward.
Disclaimer: Due to the expected volume of entries, the charity is unable to offer individual feedback to entrants. The decision of the judges is final.

How to Enter:

a) Online entries will receive an ID number on submittion of your entry form and this must be entered with the paypal payment of £15.00 per entry. The filename of online entries must be the title of the story and it must be either a .doc .docx or .pdf file. The entrants name and contact details must not appear anywhere on the manuscript of the submitted story. Online entries are confirmed by the email receipt of your payment to paypal. Alternatively you can pay by cheque, quoting your unique ID number on the reverse of the cheque. Any online entry will not be complete until payment has been received.

b). Postal entries must be typed, single sided, with pages numbered and unstapled, with payment by cheque for £15.00 per entry.
Please include a covering letter including the entrant’s name, contact details and word count of the story. The entrants name and contact details must not appear anywhere on the manuscript of the submitted story. Send postal entries to:

Short Story Competition,
InterAct Stroke Support,
Victoria Charity Centre,
11 Belgrave Road,
London, SW1V 1RB.
Please enclose a stamped addressed postcard marked ‘ACKNOWLEDGEMENT’ if you require acknowledgement of receipt of your postal entry.

Emailed entries will not be accepted. It is not possible to confirm receipt of entries by phone or email.

Online Entry Form: HERE

Where I Write!

So this is where I will be hanging out on the 29th June, join me live on Periscope....more details to follow!!

BritCrime 2015

A free online crime festival will run for the first time in July 2015, as a result of a grassroots initiative instigated by author Helen Smith. The festival boasts more than forty crime authors, including Eva Dolan, Mark Edwards, C L Taylor, Sarah Hilary and Mason Cross.

‘We became friends after meeting at various literary events,’ Helen explains, ‘and although we love attending festivals and enjoy meeting readers, it’s important to balance time spent at events with time spent writing. Festivals can also be expensive for readers, especially when travel and accommodation is factored in, so we founded BritCrime to provide free, accessible events that every reader can attend, wherever they live.’
BritCrime 2015 will take place 11 to 13 July 2015 and will feature live Q&A panel discussions hosted on Facebook, as well as informal ‘Meet us in the bar’ sessions for late night chat. The festival will provide updates from BritCrime authors attending New York’s ThrillerFest, as well as a look ahead to Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate the following week, where many BritCrime authors will be in attendance.
In the run up to the festival exclusive content will be available on the BritCrime website and social media platforms, including giveaways, video sessions and interactive Google Hangouts. More than 500 people have already signed up to receive the festival mailing list, which offers the incentive of a Kindle Paperwhite giveaway for one lucky subscriber.
Edgar-winning author Alex Marwood was the first to sign up for BritCrime. ‘BritCrime is organised by authors, and it feels great to be in control of how the event goes. We’ve already reached more than 70,000 people via our online channels, and this is just the start of what we hope to achieve.’

Notes to editors
BritCrime is a free online crime writing festival which takes place 11 to 13 July 2015.
For more information visit http://britcrime.com or email info@BritCrime.com
For images, for interviews with the BritCrime founder and participating author, Helen Smith, or to arrange an interview with one of the participating authors below, email info@BritCrime.com.

PARTICIPATING AUTHORS
Quentin Bates, Jenny Blackhurst, Rebecca Bradley, Graeme Cameron, Steve Cavanagh, Tammy Cohen, Mason Cross, Julia Crouch, Eva Dolan, Steven Dunne, Mark Edwards, Chris Ewan, Paul Finch, Helen Giltrow, Sarah Hilary, Susi Holliday, Jane Isaac, Amanda Jennings, Emma Kavanagh, Anya Lipska, Colette McBeth, M J McGrath, Fergus McNeill, Clare Mackintosh, Michael J Malone, Ava Marsh, Alex Marwood, K T Medina, Daniel Pembrey, J F Penn, Nick Quantrill, Marnie Riches, Craig Robertson, Mel Sherratt, Alexandra Sokoloff, Helen Smith, C L Taylor, Simon Toyne, Luca Veste, Louise Voss, Sarah Ward.

Wexford Literary Festival 2015

Lots of great events happening as part of this year's Wexford Literary Festival, and I'm delighted to be sharing a panel about 'WRITING COMPELLING FICTION' with Rachael English, Carmel Harrington and Claudia Carroll. 

It will take place between  9.45 – 11.15 on Saturday the 27th June. but for full line up of events over the weekend, check out details here 

Following the above event, Paul O'Brien, Denise Deegan and Lorna Sixsmith will discuss 'SUCCESSFUL SELF PUBLISHING'. 

Neuropsychology.....

I don't normally post the reviews I get via email but as this one came from a specialist in neuropsychology in relation to LAST KISS...I'm making an exception!

"I finished your book, Last Kiss, yesterday.  I could not put it down! What a fascinating story you created. I enjoyed the intricate plot, the development of the characters, the multiple layers of the story, and the development of the relationships between the protagonists. I also enjoyed having Dublin and Paris as relevant contexts, playing a role as well as you read; the different narrator voices between chapters (and characters), and particularly the "I" talking to the reader ("would you warn her if you could?"). As a psychologist I can tell you I enjoyed very much the way you presented the forensic role of Kate, her constant question of ethical boundaries, her psychopathology knowledge and empathic ability to connect to the vulnerable. She is displayed as having a virtuous listening skill, and great questioning/interviewing skills which are primary ones in psychologists. The references to Freud's id - super ego - ego dynamics and the examples Kate gives to Adam during the flight to Paris were excellent! Not only accurate but very cleverly illustrated. As a specialist in neuropsychology, I generally tend to have more reservations, as the brain is my territory. The references to the frontal lobes were great, and I got excited as this is the precise part of the brain I study the most, as I am interested in self-regulation of behaviour. I enjoyed very much the sensibility of your writing. Despite the gruesome topics that this type of literature treats, I noted the many places you were poetic, or very aware of human feelings and thoughts. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this great thriller (and thrilling) novel. I will dance in the woods thinking of the children's laughter, even those who did not have the loving and cared for opportunities many of us had."

Steeped in History!!

You gotta love living in a house of 3 convicted killers, especially when it all happened a couple of hundred years ago!!