Not a winner this time!
So this week, my publisher and I went to St Pauls, London, to the People's Book Prize gala dinner as a finalist for the Best Novel 2012. It was a pretty tense evening in huge, dark, wood-paneled rooms with stained-glass windows and manuscripts hanging on the walls dating back from the Magna Carta.
On arriving I sat for a filmed interview about the book and the competition - my first time in front of a camera - and then we dressed for the black-tie event.
In the Ladies' changing rooms, the nervous smiles were friendly and the compliments on each other's dresses kind, but who could hide their private longing to hear their name being called out a few hours away? We knew who the others were before they told us. Everyone there was there to have that crystal monolith award pressed into their hands which would hopefully launch their novel from an small, independently published book to a best seller. It's a great opportunity, so, as you can imagine, it wasn't the kind of do where we'd be cracking jokes and line dancing.
After the lavish three-course meal was wasted on us - all too nervous and fearful of making a speech while digesting salmon and truffles, white chocolate mouse and coffees - the prize giving started.
I came in the top three but lost to Valerie Thornhill, 'In Restoration', who in fact I'd sat next to. I'd liked her very much and we had a lot in common so when Frederic Forsyth, writer of The Day of the Jackal, called out her name, the loss didn't sting as much. I was very happy for her.
Within minutes, the disappointment spread across the stained white table cloths, people made their getaways and the great hall was cleared.
So, not a winner this time. I've heard that so much in my writing career but thankfully, having stayed in long enough and not giving up, I believe it. Just got to keep getting better, and, as Samuel Goldwyn said, 'The harder I work, the luckier I get.'
Thank you so much to all those who supported me through this. XXX
Seven Days to Tell YouSeven Days to Tell You
On arriving I sat for a filmed interview about the book and the competition - my first time in front of a camera - and then we dressed for the black-tie event.
In the Ladies' changing rooms, the nervous smiles were friendly and the compliments on each other's dresses kind, but who could hide their private longing to hear their name being called out a few hours away? We knew who the others were before they told us. Everyone there was there to have that crystal monolith award pressed into their hands which would hopefully launch their novel from an small, independently published book to a best seller. It's a great opportunity, so, as you can imagine, it wasn't the kind of do where we'd be cracking jokes and line dancing.
After the lavish three-course meal was wasted on us - all too nervous and fearful of making a speech while digesting salmon and truffles, white chocolate mouse and coffees - the prize giving started.
I came in the top three but lost to Valerie Thornhill, 'In Restoration', who in fact I'd sat next to. I'd liked her very much and we had a lot in common so when Frederic Forsyth, writer of The Day of the Jackal, called out her name, the loss didn't sting as much. I was very happy for her.
Within minutes, the disappointment spread across the stained white table cloths, people made their getaways and the great hall was cleared.
So, not a winner this time. I've heard that so much in my writing career but thankfully, having stayed in long enough and not giving up, I believe it. Just got to keep getting better, and, as Samuel Goldwyn said, 'The harder I work, the luckier I get.'
Thank you so much to all those who supported me through this. XXX
Seven Days to Tell YouSeven Days to Tell You
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