Author diaries

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15 December 2011 Entry: "A prizewinning month"

Well, December has turned out to be a prizewinning month!
I won second prize in the Jitegemee Poetry Competition, held in aid of a school in Tanzania. I attended a select reading at the Lit and Phil on Monday 12th, on a cold and windy night, but it was warm and friendly inside. First prize went to Phoebe Walker, a young undergraduate, from Hexham. She’s studying at Queen’s University in Belfast and has already won prizes for her poetry, she’s definitely one to watch. She’s kindly let me use her poem for the Diamond Twig website next year, so look out for that.
Then on Tuesday I had the wonderful news that my children’s novel Mulberry and the Blue Hands has been long listed on the Times/Chicken House children’s novel competition. They chose 16 from hundreds I believe. These then go to the judges and they pick a short list of 5, the winner is announced in March. The prize is a publishing deal, but those who were long listed get a full editorial critique, which would be fantastically useful. Plus the Times will put an extract of the novel on their website, so it’s all good publicity, and may help with getting it published elsewhere in the future. I’m so chuffed, and just when I’d started to give up hope. I’d been telling people ‘Oh, I can’t write, I’m no good. I think I’ll stop. Writing novels is too hard.’
Hah, I should listen to the advice that I give to other people - don’t stop, keep writing, have faith. This news is the best Christmas present ever. It gives me the encouragement to carry on with the sequel, which I am already three chapters into.
On the family front, I have successfully babysat my grandson three times. Twice will his parents were out gigging. One of the gigs was at the Spa Hotel in Saltburn, an amazing place, even though I only saw it in the dark. I drove Mum and baby down there, and the kind proprietors gave me an ensuite hotel room to hang out with the baby while the band played. It was warm, it had a kettle in case I had to heat milk, and a tv to keep me amused while he slept. To get him off, I wrapped him in his snowsuit, and stuffed him into his pram (he’s like a plank in his padded suit) and we walked round under the wintery stars in the crisp night air, to the sound of the surf rolling onto the beach below. That did the trick, and I was able to wheel him back into the room, where he stayed asleep until his Mum came back. To reach Saltburn we drove past the lights and fiery pipes of Teesside, which inspired Ridley Scott’s vision of the futuristic world of Bladerunner. It really is quite eery. We all agreed we’d like to go back to Saltburn in the daylight and walk along the beach. It’s got elegant old terraces facing the North Sea, redolent of the past splendours of Spa towns.
We are all going to Cornwall for the week between Christmas and New Year, to see family and let them meet Wren. I was remembering the same journey last year, in the treacherous snow - we weren’t sure whether we’d get there or not. It’s so different this December. So far anyway. Any bets for a white christmas? Festive Greetings to all.