War of the Words

At the moment with so much taking up my time, I’ve been unable to dedicate enough of it to blog entries – but I thought this bit of news was worthy of note, especially among aspiring writers.

Sci-Fi Now Magazine, in conjunction with my publishers, Tor, have just announced a novel writing competition called “War of the Words”, where any aspiring science fiction or fantasy novelist can submit three chapters and a synopsis in order to win a publishing deal with Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan.
All the details, including terms and conditions can be found at the Sci-Fi Now website, but just before you go there or dismiss the idea of entering, I’d like to throw in my ‘two penneth’ worth of thought…

This isn’t just a competition where the winner gets published in a one-off annual anthology, nor is it a cash prize, it’s something much, much better. You see, just because there is only one overall winner in this competition, this is also the opportunity to get your work seen by one of the major players in the genre publishing world without the need of an agent. Believe me when I say this, but that’s a big deal, and even though you might not win the main prize, Pan Macmillan are not daft. If they believe that your book has merit, they may well take further interest in what you’ve submitted even if you’re not the overall winner. The publishers are likely to take more than one punt on entrants in the competition if the quality is there.

I can say this from experience.

This competition is not too dissimilar to the novel writing competition held on Channel 4, judged by Pan Macmillan in 2004, where one overall prize was mooted, but the standard of submissions were so high, that a further five books were published under Pan, and then a further dozen entries were picked for the Macmillan New Writing imprint, mine included. So no, I didn’t win the Channel 4 writing competition, but what do you know? I’m now one of Pan Macmillan’s authors, as a direct result of entering that writing competition.

So, is it worth entering?
If you’re not published yet, then bloody hell yes!
The only catch is that you have until the 20th August to enter. So what are you doing wasting time reading this blog? Get writing!

Midnight oil and monsters

It’s the witching hour, and I’m trying to give Sarah a couple of hours rest while Curran Jnr sleeps in his Moses basket in the lounge - while barely a couple of feet away, I do a bit of “work” to see what is going on in the world of writing, and all things “secret war”-y .

Well first up, we have a rather nice cover for the German edition of The Hoard of Mhorrer, which hits the shelves in paperback in February 2010:

Translated, the German title is “The Demons of the Fire” or something along those lines, so no issues around the pronunciation of “Mhorrer”. It’s not a bad cover as covers go, though I still prefer the UK cover (especially for The Secret War). Random House are continuing with that whole ‘brand’ thing by using the same style for the “MFW Curran” icon as they have with the first book, though slightly smaller as the title of book 2 is a little longer and bigger. It looks like a damn fine book and it’s being translated by Joachim Korber, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes down in Germany as I’ve noticed a few copies of Mhorrer (English edition) have shifted over there on Amazon.de.

And second, but not last by any means, there’s another review posted for both Hoard of Mhorrer and The Secret War on the Falcata Times lit-review blog, which I’m pleased about – check it out by clicking here.

And that’s about it for now. Daniel is sleeping soundly, for once, and I’m flagging. It has to be said, there’s nothing like having a baby to focus your mind, but I can’t wait to get back to the writing in a month or two; I’ve already started thinking about the Moby Dick/Lovecraft short story – it even has an opening line.
I just need the time and the energy to sit down and write it.
Maybe in a few weeks.

After I get some sleep…

Night all.