Exeter Story Prize 2015 & The Trisha Ashley Award by Juliet Greenwood

I recently had the privilege of being on the panel of writers speaking at the Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley Award.

Since I live in North Wales, this first meant getting down to Exeter, nearly 300 miles, and the longest I’d ever driven in one day. And since Trisha lives just along the coast from me, it also meant being responsible for ensuring Trisha Ashley actually got there to deliver the Trisha Ashley Award (no pressure then)!

The Venue

We set off at 7am, when the roads were quiet. This meant we reached Gloucester Service Station (eco and not at all like a service station) for an early lunch in a painless manner, with just the last bit of motorway to Exeter to go. This was when the Satnav decided we urgently needed to return to Kidderminster, and when gently corrected went into a sulk and abandoned us to our fate among the scary motorway lanes around Bristol. However, between us we managed to get past and arrive safely for a warm welcome at Margaret James’ lovely home in Exmouth.

Trisha Ashley and Juliet Greenwood

The next morning we travelled into Exeter by taxi (hurrah!) for lunch, before heading off to the awards. I hadn’t been to Exeter before, but I shall be definitely going back. I loved it, with its mixture of very old and new, and the church where the awards were taking place was a hidden gem. It was great to see so many people there. It was also a chance to meet up with old friends and new, and friends I’d known via Facebook and Twitter for years, but had never met in person, which is always a buzz. The panel seemed to go well - I certainly enjoyed it! It’s always stimulating to hear other writers’ experiences and opinions, and to be made to think about your own writing process to answer the questions. 

Trisha presents the Trisha Ashley Award
to the winner, Simon Kettlewell

The awards were then presented with aplomb, with some very excited winners. I’d almost forgotten that being shortlisted for short story awards was the way I began my writing career, so it was great seeing it from the other side. Then in the evening, we celebrated by going out for a delicious meal in Exeter, a chance to unwind and catch up with fellow authors.

The only real drama came the next morning, when the taxi taking Trisha to the station to catch the train home didn’t arrive. Fortunately I’d waited to leave at the same time before setting off on a research trip round Cornwall, so I was able to take Trisha and Margaret into Exeter, braving the chaos of roads being blocked off for the Great West Run taking place that day. We went quite a few times round a very large and scary roundabout – but girl-power prevailed, and we finally found a way out and to the station.

The rest of my trip round Devon and Cornwall was easy–peasy after that – and the unplanned detour meant that the Satnav took me right past the door of Lanhydrock, which I’d decided I didn’t have time to visit, but when you arrive at a beautiful house and gardens just as the sun comes out – well, what can you do? 

Lanhydrock

The Gardens at Lanhydrock

I loved my trip down to Exeter. Trisha and I had fun going down (despite the rebellious Satnav), and everyone was wonderfully welcoming. Much as I love the peace and quiet up here, it can sometimes feel far away (despite London being less than four hours away by train). Suddenly Exeter, and all the friends, old and new, don’t seem quite so far away.

So congratulations to the winners and all those short-listed for the Exeter Story Prize and the Trisha Ashley Award – and see you next year!

Trisha Ashley

You can find out more about the Exeter Story Prize at Creative Writing Matters.

Let There Be Cake by Trisha Ashley

My latest book, A Christmas Cracker, is set in a small hamlet near Little Mumming. This was the scene of Twelve Days of Christmas, so you will be able to see what some of those characters are doing now – and one in particular plays quite a central role in the new book. But I’m not going to say any more than that – you will have to wait and read it to find out who it is!

As usual, there are some recipes at the back including one for my Igloo Cake – and here’s one I prepared earlier! A miniscule Father Christmas is landing on the roof, which takes some doing when your sleigh is drawn by a team of frisky reindeer, but the two Eskimos look quite happy about it. I used a fruit cake recipe, but sponge or a traditional Christmas cake one would work just as well.

My Christmas cake recipe is the same as the wedding cake one in the back of Wedding Tiers, only instead of soaking the fruit in dry sherry for three days, I use dark rum, like in this one I made for the Novelistas Christmas party last year. (As well as talking about writing, we engage in a lot of cake-related activities!)

The cake I made for the Wedding Tiers book launch was shaped like an Elizabethan pomander, my most complicated cake yet. I baked a round cake in a huge Christmas pudding tin, and then covered it in marzipan, followed by fondant icing. Then I put an icing ribbon round it to divide it into four with a bow at the top and studded it all over with rosebuds. For a couple of weeks beforehand, whenever I had a few minutes to spare, I’d make a few icing roses. By the time it was covered, I could make them in my sleep.

It was just as well I’d taken some pictures, because the Novelistas demolished it in minutes, and all that was left was a scattering of white rosebuds and a few crumbs!

I could write an autobiography of my life punctuated cakes: Diary of a Fruitcake, anyone?

Crumbs!

This post originally appeared in the October issue of Trisha Ashley's newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.

**THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED**

You can win a signed copy of A Christmas Cracker, as well as a set of cat-shaped cookie cutters. The competition is open to all, just leave a comment below - it's that simple! (Closes midnight on Friday 30th October).

Things can’t possibly get worse for Tabitha. Framed for her boss’s dodgy dealings – passing sparkling wine off for vintage fizz – she’s got an eight month prison sentence! Her boyfriend's dumped her and given her cat away to a shelter.

But rescue comes when a kindly prison visitor puts her in touch with Mercy. A master of saving waifs and strays and impressed with Tabby’s creativity – paper-crafting is more Tabby’s thing than swindling! – Mercy wants her to breathe new flair into her ailing cracker business. Together with a staff of quirky ex-cons they’ll save Marwood’s Magical Christmas Crackers!

But someone’s not happy. Mercy’s nephew Randall wants to turn the mill into a shopping centre and he thinks Tabby’s a fraudster. So suddenly her future happiness depends upon winning the brooding nephew round. Tabby’s been through so much already, she’s not going without a bang!

How to Get into Your Writing World FAST! by Sophie Claire

stocksnap.io

NaNoWriMo is fast approaching, or perhaps you’re just pushed for time and cramming writing into a busy life. If you're anything like me, you need your writing sessions to be efficient and productive. When I sit down to work, I want to get straight into ‘the zone’, where I lose track of time or forget that it’s raining outside because I'm transported into my fictional world and the heads and hearts of my characters: seeing what they see, hearing them speak and, most importantly, feeling what they feel. That, I’m sure you’ll agree, is when the story really takes off and the words flow, springing off the page, coming to life.
Well, here are some shortcuts for getting there:

1. The Write Time

Dorothea Brande and Julia Cameron both suggest that writing ‘morning pages’ as soon as you wake up helps to capture the creative mind before the critical editor in us has had time to wake up. I recommend that you try it – many writers start at 6am so there must be something special about this time of day. However, I'll confess that I find it very hard to do anything until I've showered and had breakfast, but then I immediately sit down to my work-in-progress, before I've looked at the internet* or let the outside world in.
(*with the exception of Pinterest! - see 2)

2. Painting Pictures

In the old days they had mood boards, now we have Pinterest and it’s so much easier! I’m a very visual person and I create a board for each book I write, collecting pictures of characters, settings, details (for example, Natasha's floristry and nail art in Her Forget-Me-Not Ex) or anything else I feel is relevant to the story. I keep the board secret while I’m writing and often refer to it at the start of a writing session or if I need to recapture my focus. A picture of my hero or a place or object can be enough to trigger a new scene or to remind me of the mood or emotions I hoped to capture.

3. The Sound of Music

Many writers create a soundtrack for their book and find that playing this is a shortcut into the story. Fellow Novelista, Louise Marley, blogged about this here. 

Personally, I prefer silence when I’m writing. But I often begin to link certain songs to each book and I play these when I’m driving or relaxing, and the lyrics can spark new ideas, taking my story in unexpected directions.

4. The Heart of It

Brainstorm what you love about your story. Go on, try it now! Write a page or a paragraph – for your eyes only – listing what sets you on fire about it.

I do this right at the inception of a book, when the idea is shiny and new, and in my imagination the novel is going to be the next bestseller! (sadly that feeling doesn't last!) It might be that I have a particularly colourful heroine or a beautiful setting, a captivating opening scene or a special relationship between two characters that makes my heart melt. Sometimes what I have in mind is more nebulous, like a mood (tense, dreamy, dramatic) or a theme (forgiveness, starting over, commitment). Whatever it is, I try to pin it down and summarise it, and then later on, I can refer back to it. I think of it as my story in a nutshell. And at the start of a writing session not only does it remind me why I started writing the book, but it also helps to keep my story focused.

5. Finish on a High

‘Always stop while you are going good’  - Ernest Hemingway

Finish in the middle of an exciting scene, they say, and then you'll be eager to return to your work-in-progress and you’ll know exactly what happens next. It’s good advice. 

I try to follow it myself though, in my experience, it’s not always possible, but what always works for me is to finish by making notes of what will come next. They’re usually hasty scribbles made before I have to dash out or as the kids get home from school, but the important thing is they were made when the story was fresh in my mind, and the next day they remind me where the story is heading and make it easy for me to pick up where I left off.

Of course, as your book begins to develop and your characters have grown real enough that they follow you round your everyday life, you might not need these shortcuts any more. But until then, it’s always good to have a few tricks up your sleeve to speed things up and get you where you want to be!

Do you have any tips or tricks that work for you? I'd love to hear them...

Sophie.x

Sophie Claire's novel, Her Forget-Me-Not Ex is a heartwarming, contemporary romance set in sunny Provence (can you see why she wants to escape there fast?) and it's available from Amazon