Bossy Post

The deadline for the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair is October 16th. 

Writers are often overly critical of their own work and keep putting stuff like this off, at least until every sentence is a work of art. If you recognise yourself in that description, just take the plunge and submitt your work! I was pushed to enter in 2012 and it led to meeting the publisher of my debut novel. So, in the spirit of paying that pushiness forward...

Go on, go on ! All they need is a synopsis and 10,000 words! You have nothing to lose. Being selected for the fair means by passing the slush pile and increasing your chances of publication, how bad is that?

I posted an interview with Carrie from the Irish Writers Centre last year-  it can be read  HERE 

And another thing...

NUI Kilkenny Campus (St Kieran's College, Kilkenny)are having an open evening this Thursday 29th from 5.30- 8pm - they run the wonderful Creative Writing For Publication Course, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Its perfect for anyone who wants to take their writing further, with accessible fees and a one weekend-a- month schedule.

Ok. End of broadcast :)

Lunch Time Reading

Janet Cameron

I'll be reading at The Irish Writers Centre  alongside Janet Cameron on Sat 31st August at 1pm.

Its at lunchtime, its free and everyone's welcome.

'Join us at the Centre for another Lunchtime Reading. This afternoon we have two new writers who's debut novels have both been met with a great deal of fanfare. Niamh and Janet secured book deals following the Centre's inaugural Novel Fair competition.

Both writers will read from their work and muse on the challenges facing new writers - in particular how one sets about promoting their own work.'

Novel Fair Launch

Novel Fair Launch & Information Night

7pm- Irish Writers Centre - 25th July 213

All Welcome

Are you thinking of entering The Irish Writers Centre's Novel Fair? If so, you might be interested in coming along to this event...

'The Irish Writers' Centre is launching the 3rd annual Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Competition. The evening will include talks by Patricia Deevy from Penguin Ireland and two past participants in the Novel Fair, Niamh Boyce author of The Herbalist and Janet Cameron author of Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World.'

To read about my experience of the novel fair, click here

Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2014

 

The IWC novel fair will run again this year! Twelve lucky winners will be selected to present the synopsis of their novel, the finished novel itself and biographical material to top Irish publishers and agents. I was one of the winners in 2012 with my novel The Herbalist, I'd highly recommend entering.

 

It is open to novels of any style or genre but the writer must not have already published a novel. 

 

Here's a few general guidelines, but you need to check out the Novel Fair Website for the full details...

• You must use an official application form.
• Send a 3 copies of a synopsis (max 300 words) and 2 copies of (up to five) chapters of your novel (max 10,000 words.) Attach one synopsis to your application form, the other two should be attached to the copies of your manuscript.
• There's no min word count for the final novel but a minimum of 50,000 words is recommended.
• One entry per applicant!
• The deadline is October 16th, 2013.

You can keep follow the novel fair on @IWCNovelFair or  Novel Fair Facebook page.

Novel Fair Blog & an all time exclusive...

The Irish writers centre have launched a Novel Fair Blog, which gives this years entrants a great opportunity to ask their own questions about the event or check out FAQ . The deadline is the 17th of October but they've already received the first entry, good luck to the early bird whoever you are! The blog also has information about last years winners and their novels, including mine, which posts an (all time world wide exclusive!) extract from my novel The Herbalist...

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The Herbalist

An Indian man appears in the market square, sets up a stall and declares himself a herbalist. The people of the town flock to the exotic visitor, who seems to have a cure for everything that ails them. But the visitor also helps get rid of some of the town’s more sordid little secrets and as the summer progresses life becomes complicated and dangerous for the herbalist and his devotees. A rich multi-layered story of life in 1930s Ireland told through the eyes of four women, each of whose lives is changed irrevocably by the herbalist.


Extract

"He just appeared one morning and set up shop in the market square. It was drizzling. Everything was either a shade of brown or a shade of grey. He was the lightest thing there, the one they called the black doctor. He wore a pale suit, a straw hat and waved his arms like a conductor. The men spat about dark crafts and foreign notions but the women loved him. Oh, the rubs, potions, tinctures and lotions he had, unguents even. They sold like hotcakes, like they were going out of style. I snuck into town the first chance I got, to see him with my own eyes…"

Niamh Boyce was awarded the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year 2012 for her poem Kitty. She has been shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story competition 2011, the Hennessy Literary Awards 2010, the Molly Keane Award 2010 and the WOW Award 2010. Her fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines such as The Moth Magazine, Crannog, ROPES, Southword, Boyne Berries 7, The WOW Anthology 2010 and the The Yellow Room.

Her novel ‘The Herbalist’ will be published by Penguin in 2013.

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Launch Of This Years Novel Fair Competition

Gabriele Munter

The Girl With the Red Ribbon

National Gallery Of Ireland

All are welcome to the second Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair Competition which will be launched at 7.30, on Wednesday June 27th: its a great opportunity for anyone who plans to enter the competition as it will involve a question and answer session with the Novel fair organisers.

From The Irish Writers Centre Site...

"The Novel Fair was a new initiative by the Irish Writers’ Centre launched in 2011. It aims to introduce up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of publishers and agents.

Due to the success of the Fair we have decided to run it again in 2013, with an additional prize of a place on a seminar on 'How to Pitch Your Novel' to help the novelists perfect their presentations and material for the day.

The deadline for the competition this year is October 17th and the Novel Fair itself will take place on February 16th, 2013.

This year a judging panel will be asked to select a shortlist of ten successful entries, presented to them anonymously. There is no limitation on style, genre, or target market, the only requirement being that the writer has not published a novel before. Publishers and agents will be invited to come along on the day to the Irish Writers’ Centre and meet the ten selected writers in person. Each writer in attendance will have a stand at the Fair with copies of the synopsis of their novel, the finished novel itself and biographical material."

Novel Fair at Irish Writers Centre

My Table!

There are some photos from the Novel Fair at the Irish Writers' Centre Blog so you can see how it was set up. The photo above is of my table, if you squint you can see the three chapters of the Herbalist, my bio (and my fiendish red notebook.) The day was amazing, well organised, friendly and there was really lovely atmosphere. Pitching your novel to over a dozen agents and publishers in the one day is a great learning experience. Each novelist had a table and a schedule so the agents and publishers moved from one writer to another. We had 15 minutes to pitch to each person. It's the first time a novel fair was run in Ireland, as far as I know, but I hope its not the last. A big thanks to everyone at the Irish Writers Centre:)

I am your only surviving dress

Emily Dickinson’s only surviving dress at the Amherst Historical Society in Amherst, Mass.

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –

The photograph is from the new york times article on Pilgrimage
by Annie Leibovitz, which includes images of the television that
Elvis shot, and Virgina Woolf's bedroom, a sombre room which for
some reason reminds me of her suicide and elicits a voice that says
- "see, that's what a room of your own will get you..." (obviously
some heartless character I'm working on is leaking into real life:)

ps...
The Irish Writers Centre Novel fair was on Sat, and it was a really
well run event. It was wonderful to put faces to agents and publishers
that were only contact details and submission guidelines before the day.
Will let you know how The Herbalist fares:)

Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Competition

The 20 winners of the Irish Writers' Centre Novel Fair Competition have been announced. The Centre received over 570 entries. I'm delighted (understatement!) to say that my novel, The Herbalist, is one of the winning novels. Looking forward to the Novel Fair in March where there will be the opportunity to pitch it to Irish agents and publishers.
	Winners	Novel Titles
	Margaret Biessman	Freefall
	Helen Blackhurt	The Galah Birds
	Therese Cox	Dear Dirty Dublin
	Jennifer Brady	What Ghost Burns
	Ian Flitcroft	The Reluctant Cannibals
	Daniel Seery	The Glue Sniffer
	Kevin Curran	Beatsploitation
	Mary Murphy	The Boy from England
	Janet Cameron	Next Time the World Ends
	Garvan Grant	A Piece of Work
	Michelle Woods	Ire
	Susan Stairs	The Watching Wall
	Delia O'Callaghan	Honeysuckle to Handcuffs
	Geraldine Shears	Shakespeare's Tree
	Fran Russell Banks	A Spider's Quickness
	Edel Moloney	What is Unspoken
	Alan Timmins	The Dogs Came Home
	Niamh Boyce	The Herbalist
	Marie Hannigan	Tide Riders
	Roderick Maguire	The Legal Term
	Highly Commended Novel Titles Colm O' Shea This Dirty Road Josephine Hughes Southpaw Jennifer MacGowan Closing Time Deirdre Shanahan Birds of Erin Edel Corrigan Always a Stranger Andrea Carter Treacherous Strand Eimear Kelly Followers Donal O' Sullivan And The Drak Falling Tara Sparling In June Léan Ní Chuilleanáin The Living Tom Tierney The Slipstream O Brain Kirk Winter Journey Alan McMonagle Duck Street H.D. Waterstone Eagle in Winter Aine Tierney Panacea