Congratulations to the 2012 Hachette/QWC manuscript development programme shortlist!

I saw today that the shortlist for the 2012 Hachette/Queensland Writers Centre manuscript development programme has been announced (you can see it here.) Congratulations to the nine writers selected!

 

It brought back lots of memories of my own shortlisting in 2010 (I wrote about the experience here). So much has happened in the two years since I participated in the programme. The manuscript that I entered in 2010 has changed so much: its gone through two or three more drafts of my own, a structural edit and a copy edit to become Fractured. Having my novel published is of course amazing, but even without that, the programme gave me fantastic knowledge and contacts, and a sense of validation as a writer. For me, that was the moment that I started to believe that maybe I could write, that maybe my manuscript could be a novel that others would want to read.

A few fantastic novels have come out of this programme: Favel Parret’s Past the Shallows which was not only shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award but has won a squillion other prizes, and Philippa Fioretti’s The Book of Love and Fragment of Dreams. DR Dymock, part of my own 2010 cohort, will have his non fiction book on the aviator Bert Hinkler published in 2013 by Hachette. Others have had their work released by other publishers. But regardless of publication, the programme gives writers access to the industry and feedback on their work – invaluable.

Congratulations again to the selected writers and good luck with the retreat!