Summer news: publishing deals for Heather and Ali
Hello fellow writers and readers and apologies for being off the scene for a while. However we have some excellent news to report and can also give you the heads-up for our next event in October, part of the annual Bristol Litfest extravaganza.
First, the good news.
In between all that short story action last year, our members were labouring over their long-term projects, two of which have come to highly satisfying fruition.
First up for a round of applause is Heather Child‘s debut novel Smartface recently acquired by Little, Brown Book Group imprint Orbit via the Julie Crisp Literary Agency.
Heather’s book is a high-concept thriller that tells the story of a woman whose virtual assistant takes on the personality of her missing sister.
When her sister vanished, Freya’s life seemed to stop. Eight years later, she is hearing Ruby’s voice again as a ‘Smartface’, so alive and real it seems she could be out there somewhere, feeding updates into the cloud. But should Freya trust this intelligent assistant, which is programmed to give her everything she wants?
The novel examines what happens when smart becomes too smart, when people accumulate so much data online that they can be recreated as data ghosts and lives can be changed by the information they’ve left behind. The book will be out in spring 2018.
Heather, who joined us a couple of years ago, has already been published in Mslexia, Under the Radar, the Storgy 2014 Short Story Anthology, HerCircle, the Bristol Post and Notes from the Underground online. We’ve loved hearing excerpts from the book at our feedback meetings – I can’t wait to read the whole of this fabulously written novel which takes a compelling and disturbing look at what might be just around the corner.
Hard on the heels of Heather’s success comes Ali Bacon who has signed with Linen Press Books. In the Blink of an Eye is a re-imagining of the life of Victorian artist and photographer David Octavius Hill. This collection of sixteen stories in ten distinctive voices bring together history, fiction and biography. Ali says:
I was doubtful a mainstream publisher would commit to something that crosses so many of the usual boundaries. I was thrilled when Linen Press snapped it up straight away.
You may well have heard Ali reading excerpts from her work-in-progress at Novel Nights in Bristol or at Stroud Short Stories. In June of this year Ali also won first prize in the Evesham Festival of Words Short Story Competition with one of the chapters from her book.
In the Blink of an Eye will be published in mid-2018 when we’ll get to read all of the stories one judge said ‘knocked his socks off’.
And finally! (cue blood-curdling scream)
Get out those diaries and sharpen your pencils in preparation of our next Story Sunday which will be A Night of Crime on October 22nd.
Submission details coming shortly here or on Twitter @bww_unchained