Midsummer Madness

The schedule is slipping

Things covered in this month’s post:

1. Books read & being read

2. Why the schedule is slipping

3. Big News

See what I did there, I am putting the big news last in the hopes you will read to the end? Does it work? I don’t know, but if you do get to the end, you could add a comment or a like to this post.

Books:

Having finished Verge by Nadia Attia (which I really enjoyed) I moved on to read another ARC of The Hunters by David Wragg. This is completely different adult fantasy with multi POVs and great characters, lots of intrigue. I hope to have a review on social media later this month. The book comes out in July.

There were a few books that I wanted to start this past month, but I’ve struggled to settle on one. I wanted to get stuck into the audiobook of The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart, also The Final Strife by Saari El-Arifi (which I have made a start on) but also I’m itching to get into The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne.

However, I picked up Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang (which was giving me serious side eye!) instead. This is a wry look at the publishing industry and it muscled it’s way to the top of my TBR pile by making me laugh about my writerly habits on Twitter within the first pages (i.e. gushing about books with unlimited emojis). I am a slow reader but I think I could easily consume this book if I didn’t have any other distractions. Which leads me on to…

Why the schedule is slipping:

What schedule? The loose schedule I have imposed on myself to complete edits for my book and get ready to query it.

Why is it slipping? Oh you know. For lots of reasons. RHS Chelsea Flower Show, school fairs, reading three books at once. Messing around on social media. Here’s one I made earlier in a satirical homage to Wes Anderson and the deliciously satirical Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang:

Suffice it to say, my writing suffers at this time of year. I also received some negative feedback about my writing. A friend reminded me that if feedback resonates then you should keep it. I disagreed with the feedback, none of it resonated, but still I felt deflated.

Big News:

For those that follow me on social media, you will probably already know my “Big News”. I was sitting on this news when I did my May post, but I wasn’t allowed to talk about it. Drumroll please.

After entering nine writing competitions this year alone, I finally got shortlisted for one! That’s right, I got shortlisted for the opening chapters of my unfinished novel in the Future Worlds Prize 2023. This is a fiction writing competition open to people of colour. The competition was founded by writer Ben Aaronovitch and actor Adjoa Andoh, sponsored by fantasy publishing stalwarts Orbit, Gollancz, Hodderscape & Bloomsbury Books.

The Future Worlds Prize Shortlist 2023

I got this wonderful piece of positive feedback from the judges. They said that the worldbuilding was rich and they “wanted to spend a lot more time with the characters”. That means a lot to me. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make my characters whole and interesting.

Aside from the fact that I am glowing with pride that somebody somewhere thought my writing might be okay, I got to go to the awards ceremony, meet my fellow shortlisters (who’s novels sound amazing by the way) and go to the rooftop garden of Hachette Publishing on the River Thames. Oh and did I mention I got a goodie bag and free books written by people of colour?

• Mahmud El Sayed was the prize winner for What the Crew Wants and;

• Ali Mahdi was the runner up with Light at Midnight.

I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get a photo of them together, all I have is this rather atmospheric shot of them both on the rooftop together before the awards were announced.

Mahmud El Sayed & Ali Mahdi in the rooftop garden of Hachette Publishing with the London Skyline in the background.

I’m really excited to see what happens with their writing careers and of my fellow shortlisters:

• Dawn in Arborellum by Ama Josephine Budge

• The Archer and the Oracle by Anne Elicaño-Shields (Anne already has an agent! Book coming soon!)

• The Taste of a Planet by Arianne Maki (they have a Substack which I recommend!)

• Firstborn of the Sun by Marvellous Michael Anson (Marve just got her agent, subscribe to her newsletter too!)

• Wisteria Chumleigh by Calah Singleton

Photos from the Future Worlds Prize Awards

Anyway, this takes the sting out of the negative feedback I received about my writing. I know we can’t please everyone and if you solicit advice, people are going to tear things apart. This is part of the writer’s deal. We need to savour these moments and remember the positives as much as possible.

Here’s some photos for the madness that was RHS Chelsea! That was also pretty amazing. The Savills Garden was a triumph and I got to work with some old friends, new friends and meet some celebrities on Press Day!

Chelsea Selfies!

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