Read Regional, Branford Boase, and other adventures!

Sometimes good news comes from trees. Or is it in threes? Or on buses? Who knows! Anyway, I was thrilled to hear that Sorrowline had made it onto the Brandford Boase Award long-list, a prize for début writers and their editors which recognises excellence in writing and in publishing. The Award is made annually to the most promising book for seven year-olds and upwards by a first time novelist. I’m really pleased to be nominated along with my editor, Charlie Sheppard from Andersen Press. You can see the full long-list here. The short-list will be revealed in May.

And if that wasn’t enough good news Sorrowline has also been short-listed for the Spellbinding 2014 award. Now in its twelfth year the award gives students from reading groups in Cumbrian secondary schools the opportunity to nominate their favourite book published in the previous year. Students in years 7-9 in participating schools review, debate and discuss the 10 titles and then at the Award Day in June vote for the Spellbinding 2014 winner.

This week also sees Read Regional blasting its way into libraries across the north of England! Read Regional is a promotional campaign organised by New Writing North that connects writers living in the North East and Yorkshire with their local readers. Read Regional is the Batman to the north’s library authorities Robin – together they’re a dynamic duo who bring together authors and readers through a series of local events, readings and workshops. I’m just one of many authors doing events across the region – you can see the entire list of here.

All this and it’s a mere 30 days until the publication of Timesmith! I’m putting together a little trailer video for it right now which I hope to have finished some time in the next week or so. Today’s fun was filming a skull in my back garden. You see, being a writer isn’t just about sitting in front of a computer!