A Greater World :Clare Flynn

Clare's author page on amazon

Since I first met historical novelist Clare Flynn at a conference in Oxford in 2016 and felt an instant cameraderie, her books have become bestsellers. Her fans can't wait for their next voyage in the early 20th century in the company of women who suffer and survive and I have great news for them! But what about the woman behind the books? Clare's life has been as amazing as any of her books and each year I discover more of her secret life. One constant is Clare's love of travel and awareness that she is part of a greater world so this story of love, loss and a voyage into the unknown seems an appropriate focus for the interview!

Welcome to my blog, Clare!

Find out more about the book from amazon.com

Tell me a bit about yourself - where do you live and what do you do when you’re not writing?
Thanks for inviting me, Jean. Home is Eastbourne on the beautiful Sussex coast, surrounded by the South Downs and with views of the grey-green chalky sea from my window. I moved here three years ago after twenty years in London, but lived here in my teens so I knew what I was I was letting myself in for. I love it!
I spent my pre-writing career firstly in Marketing where I worked for big global companies like Proctor & Gamble, then latterly working for myself as a strategy consultant. My work took me all over the world with a wide range of fabulous clients from brewers to broadcasters.
Ah, The Chalky Sea is another title I recognise and now I know the inspiration!

I know you lived in Paris for some time. Where else have you lived and what drew you there? Do you think any of these places influenced you and your writing?
I lived in Paris on the Boulevard St Germain in the late 80s for two years. It sounds romantic but not when you have to drive round for hours trying to find a parking spot after getting home late from work. It was my first experience of living abroad and it wasn’t a happy one – pity as I’d lap it up now– especially my gorgeous little apartment in the heart of the Latin Quarter.

I had a couple of years in Brussels and three in Milan. I adore Italy and speak Italian. The Alien Corn has some flashbacks to the war there. More recently my latest book, which will be published by Canelo in June 2019, has an Italian character and I very much enjoyed writing him.

My other exotic temporary home was Sydney where I worked for six months in 2006/7. I’d been to Australia a few times before and had already started work on my first novel, A Greater World, set in the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains

What made you choose the different settings in your books (including Canada and India)?
Location has a huge influence on my writing. It’s often the trigger point for a story. My second novel, Kurinji Flowers, is set in South India in a fictional hill town, based on Munnar. Unable to sleep in my hotel room one night on holiday there, I lay thinking about who else might have stayed in that room back in the 1930s. By the time dawn was breaking I had mapped out the background to the book and some of the key characters. I found the whole area magical – the endless rolling tea gardens, like a huge piece of corduroy velvet across the landscape, the bright vivid colours of the statues and temples, the flowers, the wildlife, the birdsong, and the visible colonial heritage. My first visit there was to paint so I had to make my character, Ginny, a painter too – albeit a more successful one than I could ever be!
I love your descriptions of place. You have a painter's eye!

What drew you to the early 20th century as a period and how do you do your research?
I read an interview with William Boyd the other day in which he said that he didn’t see the twentieth century as history because his grandmother had lived in the nineteenth century and his great uncle fought in the first war, so it doesn’t feel so far away or alien. He said, “I feel that’s my natural range – say three generations back from my own life and time – it’s not strange.” That exactly reflects my own feelings. I can’t see me writing books set in Tudor England or eighteenth century France.

I do a variety of things as research. Ideally, I visit the location – but my recent trilogy, The Canadians, is set in eastern Canada and I couldn’t get there. Instead I used Google Earth, YouTube, books, websites, maps, films, almanacs, online weather statistics and – best of all – my own private Facebook group consisting of three retired Canadian librarians who answered all my questions, no matter how obscure, and went above and beyond the call of duty to help me.
We are so lucky these days to be able to connect through social media with experts - and, like you, I've found them so generous in response.

You write about strong women who suffer and survive, sometimes hindered by the men in their lives. How do you hope readers will react to your novels?
I hope they will see my characters as living within their own period, not ours. I get very frustrated when someone describes a character as being insufficiently empowered when, in the context of the era she lived in, she was pushing the boundaries as far as they would go. We can’t expect the world of the early twentieth century to match our own. Most married women were not even permitted to work outside the home. My character, Elizabeth, in A Greater World, has never worked in the sense we would – she took in violin pupils when her family fell on hard times and later in the book gets involved in understanding the economics of her husband’s failing coalmine. I had one reviewer very snidely remark that a mere violin teacher couldn’t possibly have done that – which is incredibly patronising. Elizabeth never actually takes over the running of the mine but asks enough questions to figure out what its future might be. So, I suppose I’m saying I’d like readers not to assume women in the past had all the same attitudes and possibilities open to them – while at the same time not patronising women because their lives were more confined than ours may be.
That's a very balanced response to the ongoing debate re women's roles in the past and one that resonates with me as writer of medieval fiction too. 

Who is your ideal reader?
Someone who appreciates a good story, with multi-faceted characters and a liking for travel to interesting places – even if it’s vicarious.

If you could wave a magic wand and change something about your career what would it be?
That I’d started it sooner. But that said, I have no real regrets. I am very happy with what I’ve achieved so far, and I remain excited about the future. I’m also grateful that my professional life gave me the financial footing that helped me have the courage to go full time as a writer.

Congratulations on your incredible performance in Nanowrimo!  https://nanowrimo.org/ In 2018, you completed a draft novel in a month for the third year running. How do you manage this in November but not the rest of the year? And what tips do you have for others in tackling Nanowrimo?
Actually, it was the fourth year! Four of my books were partly written in NanoWriMo. I’m a highly competitive individual as my siblings will testify (but then so are they!) and the pressure of hitting that goal – even though I’m only competing against myself – is a huge motivator. And having done it once it’s easier to do it again. I’m quite a fast writer anyway and I’m lucky that my first drafts are already fairly polished before I get into the rounds of editing. It wasn’t always like this – I think it has come over years of practice. Maybe not always in writing fiction but I have long had the need to express myself in words as a cornerstone of the way I made my living.

My only tips for NaNoWriMo are very simple ones. Firstly, get off to as fast a start as possible so you have some slack to cover any underperforming days. Nothing’s worse than racing to catch up if you’re behind – that’s very demoralising. Secondly, do some planning beforehand so you have a clear idea of where you are going even if, like me, you write by the seat of your pants. I think I’d struggle if I sat down on Day One and had to start from a blank page with no idea of characters, location or inciting incident.

Tell me about your working day. Do you work to a routine? Endless cups of coffee or tea? How does this change during Nanowrimo?
No routine! I try to write every day but I don’t beat myself up if I miss a few days. Yes, gallons of tea and a more limited amount of coffee, then wine at six o’clock! I always break for lunch and rarely spend the entire day writing – there’s so much else to do – not least marketing. In Nanowrimo it’s much the same as long as I hit the target for that day.

What has been the hardest thing for you to overcome in becoming a published author? What or who has helped you most in the process?
I wasted a lot of time before deciding to self-publish. I had an agent and lost months waiting for her to sell the book, which she didn’t. She wasn’t enamoured of my second book so I decided I’d nothing to lose by giving Self-Publishing a go. And by then I had some self-belief. What I never expected to happen was that it would open a whole new world of friendship and support. Nor did I expect to be so successful – especially as I write Historical with a romantic element (not straight romance) and was warned it was hard to crack. I think I took well to Self-Publishing as I was used to running my own business and hence having control. I see it as more entrepreneurial than being trad published. Although now I am enjoying having a foot in both camps.

My fellow authors have helped me the most. I have been amazed at the friendship, generosity and massive support of other writers such as you, Jean.
Right back at you! I feel the same as you re Self-Publishing (and time wasted with traditional publishers) and the support of fellow-writers is generous - and practical! - beyond belief. 

If you could pick one character in one of your books, to spend some time with, who would it be and why?
Hector from Kurinji Flowers would be great fun. The drinks would flow, the conversation would be challenging and entertaining. Just as long as we don’t end up fancying the same men!
Haha! Always a friendship spoiler :)

Tell me about your latest book and why we should all buy it?
My first book, A Greater World is now also my next book! I signed a contract with Canelo for them to relaunch it and for me to write a follow up. I’ve just finished the follow up (yay!). A Greater World is available NOW! The follow up, The Storms Between Us, comes out in June 2019. And why should you read it? I have no idea – unless you like losing out on your beauty sleep! One reader described it as Wuthering Heights meets Australia meets Titanic! Another said, “There is so much going on in this story - everything from rape, death, murder, marriage, divorce, drug taking and every human emotion from loss to joy to reconciliation.”

What’s next for Clare Flynn?
By the time you’re reading this I will be away on a four-month cruise around the world calling at numerous exotic destinations from French Polynesia to Japan. I’m not putting myself under any pressure to write while I’m away as it’s a holiday – but I know while we are at sea, I will probably end up at some point hiding away in my cabin or under a sunshade, bashing away at my laptop! I’ll be back in May in time for the publication of The Storms Between Them.

Happy Launch Day, Clare, for your book and your cruise ship!

You can connect with Clare via
her website
her publisher's website
her blog
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While Clare is on her cruise, discovering a greater world, why not check out her books?

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A Greater World

She crossed the world to marry a stranger.
   When Elizabeth Morton's father asks her to travel to the other side of the world to marry a man she's never met, she is stunned. It's 1920 and a woman has rights. But her choices are removed when she is raped by her brother-in-law and thrown out of her own home by her sister.
   When Michael Winterbourne wakes with a hangover after his engagement celebrations, he is about to be the cause of a terrible tragedy that will destroy his family, turn his life upside down and catapult him into leaving England.
   Elizabeth, born into a prosperous family, and Michael, a miner, come from different worlds. They would never have met but the SS Historic, bound for Sydney, is a ship with only one class.
Falling in love should have been the end to all their troubles. But fate and the mysterious Jack Kidd make sure it's only the beginning.


Photo credits: Clare Flynn and Canelo 

They called her 'Pony' - a free spirit

Welcome to author Kristin Gleeson, who is going to talk about her controversial biography of Anahareo, an Algonquin/Mohawk girl who grew up in a small Ontario town during WW1 and became famous for her marriage and conservation partnership with the man known as Grey Owl.

Amazon book link

Originally from Philadelphia, Kristin  lives in Ireland, in the West Cork Gaeltacht, where she teaches art classes, plays harp, sings in an Irish choir and runs two book clubs for the village library. She holds a Masters in Library Science and a Ph.D. in history, and for a time was an administrator of a national denominational archives, library and museum in America.

Kristin's website

Kristin ’s multi-talents include services to other authors and I can highly recommend the partnership she has formed with two other published writers; these are people I trust.  Check out Famelton Writing Services - their prices and services are clearly stated.

Kristin Gleeson is better known for her historical novel ‘Selkie Dreams’ so it makes a change for her to be interviewed about 'Anahareo', which was published the same year as 'Selkie Dreans', 2012, but with a different publisher, Fireship Press.

Welcome to my blog, Kristin.

Your book sparked off all kinds of questions! What made you write about Anahareo? Many people will be saying ‘Who is she?’

I was brought to the story oddly enough by seeing the film 'Grey Owl' (with Pierce Brosnan) one Christmas at my mother-in-law's in Cornwall.   My husband Dave and I talked about it afterwards and he pointed out that Anahareo was the story that should be told and I should tell it. 

How did you go about the research? You must be really pleased that the family love the book but did that give constraints on what you could write? Did you have enough material?

My Ph.D. focussed on women's history and I also have a lot of experience documenting and writing about Native American experiences.  Then began a five year journey trying to get to the sources and tease them out.   It isn't always easy working with Native Americans/First Nations because many have  a great distrust of outsiders of course and since Anahareo had short shrift in the past (and Grey Owl) they were naturally suspicious of me and my motives at first.  It took a great deal of time to build trust.   Also, I am living in Ireland and though I took trips to Canada, when I was there I was always working against the clock at an archives or with a family member who would dole out the material a little at a time. I had bad luck with the national archives because they brought the wrong boxes from across the river which meant that instead of 3 days examining the material I only had 2.   I was also financing it myself since, not being Canadian or Irish, I had no chance of getting grants to support the work.   So I didn't examine every piece of evidence.  That is for others, because now the papers are safely deposited in the Glenbow Museum.  My goal was to get her story out there, not put in the minute details.  

How amazing that you took the project on after seeing the film - I'd imagined you must have had a request from the family or some such personal connection. The practicalities of research are fascinating too.

Anahareo has been described as ‘the great woman behind the great man’. Is that how you see her?

I think Anahareo can stand in her own right.  Though she did inspire Grey Owl, she was also a woman whose own singular outlook and manner challenged the stereotypes society held about Native Americans. She didn’t wear a fringed buckskin dress or have her hair in long braids.  She was stylish with her bobbed hair and would on occasion wear makeup.  She never wore a dress, though.   She wore breeches and lace up boots and still managed to look a million dollars.  Few women would dare to wear that in those times, and fewer First Nations women.  She also was a prospector, could survive on her own in the bush and could paddle a canoe as well as any man.  She was campaigning for animal rights in her fifties, sixties and seventies, long after Grey Owl was dead.

  

What’s your take on Grey Owl? Many people saw him as a con-man when they found out, after his death, that Archie was really British, with no First Nation heritage at all.

I think Grey Owl truly believed that the best way to get his message out was to allow everyone to think he was First Nations.  He recognized that people, especially the British, would be more likely hear the message of the danger of the disappearing wilderness if it came from a First Nations man who they saw as close to nature.  He was under that spell to a degree, too (unlike Anahareo) and felt a great empathy for the issues First Nations people faced. 

Anahareo did finally gain recognition. She was invited to join the Order of Nature in 1979 by the International League for Animal Rights, an honour previously only given to Albert Schweitzer and in 1983 she was given Canada’s highest award, the Order of Canada. Why do you think these awards were given at this time?

Anahareo was awarded the medal of honour because of the guilt I think they felt for belatedly recognizing her contribution and Grey Owl's.   She campaigned hard in the 1960s and 70s for animal rights and for environmental issues.  Though I mentioned some of her appearances in detail, I didn't have the time to gather information for every appearance and felt that if I put it all in it would slow down the narrative. 

What came over to me was how hard Anahareo had to fight just to stay alive. Your book gave a new meaning to the term ‘pioneering spirit’ and I had no idea so many women prospected for gold (including Anahareo) But I found the poverty and alcoholism depressing.

It is a depressing story and the whole First Nations and Native American story is depressing.  I could go on and on why.  They are no more prone to alcoholism and drug addiction than anyone else, it is just that they face extreme poverty and its attendant health care issues, as well as unemployment, cultural restrictions and racism and many many more subtle obstacles.  The average life span of a Native American on the reservation is 45 for men and 48 for women.  With nowhere to go, nothing to do, why would you care if alcohol is bad, or eats your money, damages your kids?  I'll stop now!

amazon book link

Your novel ‘Selkie Dreams’ portrays a 19th century love affair between a feisty Irish girl and an Alaskan Native American man who embodies the culture. What draws you to write about that cross-cultural enrichment?

I’ve always been fascinated by other cultures and family seem to embody that cross cultural link with  links now to Thailand, Cuba, South America, Native Americans and the Jewish culture in my family.  I was tame and married a Cornishman and lived in the UK and now I live in Ireland, picking up on my own heritage. 

With regard to writing more generally, you have an exciting new venture in Famelton Writing Services. What are you offering writers?

I am really excited about being asked to join my two colleagues in offering consulting services to various writers.  We know from our own experience how tough it can be to break into the publishing world and we would like to help writers achieve.  Whether it’s someone who would like to have an experienced person review their manuscript to ensure that it’s has the important elements to make a good novel or non-fiction work or they just need someone to go through and help them polish it, we want to ensure their final manuscript is as perfect as possible.

Famelton Writing Services

What are your top tips for writers?

It may sound like a cliché but my very top tip for writers is to read as much as possible in the genre/type of novel/non-fiction work you feel drawn to write.  You’d be amazed at how much you can absorb that way in terms of good writing.

Do you seek outside input on your own writing? Is there one piece of advice that you feel has improved your work?

I think it’s so important to get a few different pairs of eyes on your writing. It’s amazing what you can’t see in your own work that you can see in others'.  But it can also assure you that you are on the right track too.   As for one piece of advice— other than repeat read, read, read—is to write, write, write.    Long ago I was told that ensuring there is a clear goal in the work—whether it is non fiction or fiction, is key to a successful narrative.  Your main character should have a clear goal in a novel and the non-fiction book should as well. 

You have two traditional publishers at the moment, Fireship Press for ‘Anahareo’ and Knox Robinson Publishing for ‘Selkie Dreams’; what are your views on traditional v self-publishing?

I think there is room for both in the market, though it’s changing so rapidly it’s difficult to make a reading.   Self publishing is becoming more difficult for those good writers who want to rise and become noticed.  I don’t think the cream rises to the top that easily.  There are just too many indies out there all trying to market their books, good or not.  Traditional publishing is fighting its own battles against Amazon and others who undercut the market with heavy discounts so that whether you are traditionally published or self published the author must promote virtually on their own.  That takes a lot of time.

Thanks, Kristin!

Thanks for such considered reading of the biography on ‘Anahareo’.  I feel sometimes like it doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Like Anahareo herself!

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Contact Kristin here

MY REVIEW of 'ANAHAREO'

When I was a little girl, crazy about animals, I had a Puffin edition of Grey Owl's book 'Pilgrims of the Wild' and I loved the story of wilderness, beavers and conservation. Later, I found out that Grey Owl was really Archie from England and his story became even more interesting. Knowing a fair bit about Grey Owl, I was curious about another aspect to his story as represented by this biography of Anahareo. I think this was the wrong attitude and I'll read it again - as Anahareo's story.

This is one of the dilemmas, not just in the book but in Anahareo's life; her husband was famous. Kristin Gleeson judges well how much to indulge our curiosity about Grey Owl while always focusing on Anahareo as the main character. The tempestuous marriage in log-cabin isolation through bleak Canadian winters was the backdrop to a revolution in thinking about animal welfare. Both Anahareo and Grey Owl were trappers, and the detail of trapping turned my stomach - as happened to Anahareo herself. She influenced her husband, and he influenced the world, to seriously consider the scarcity of animals such as beavers and start conservation projects. From prey to pets, the couple's beloved beavers became a symbol of changed attitudes. It’s one of the paradoxes about books on conservation that they inevitably detail animal cruelty/environmental disasters – horrible reading. That transition from trapper to animal lover is tough on the reader’s imagination, if you love animals, but it is real history.

Ironically, I never quite invested in Anahareo as a character in her own right, because I started with too much knowledge of Grey Owl and lost a little interest when he died - my fault, not the author's. I would have liked to know more about what exactly she did that won her the praise and medal towards the end of her life. The hardest thing about the book for me was that I found Anahareo’s life deeply depressing. I was expecting a pioneering spirit – and there was some of that (the rebel, bucking stereotypes) – but what came over to me was the poverty, loneliness, prejudice, alcoholism, loss of her children – and I was cut up by her and Grey Owl’s ignorance about animals (realistic, I know) and loss of the animals too, as they learned animal care by painful trial and error. Anahareo's life was hard.

I have had to rethink my naive, sentimental view of what 'pioneering spirit' actually means, especially for a woman who fought racial as well as gender prejudice in the early 20th century. I am in awe of Anahareo's physical endurance and survival skills. She was a beautiful young woman who dressed and worked like a man. She was capable of travelling alone for months by canoe and trek (carrying her canoe)to look for work - and she found it. Her father nicknamed her 'Pony' because she always needed to run free. 

A thought-provoking book; reading it will make your own life look different.

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International Emerging Writers

Author Laurence O'Bryan is collecting talent on his Blog and I'm flattered to be Number 4 in his 'International Emerging Writers' Guest Post series. I blogged about the pros and cons of different types of publishing, based on the fact that 'I've been published everywhichway except bestselling' - yet! Read my post here

It's well worth following the Emerging Writers' posts to discover a wide range of authors.

Post 3 was from Emy Award winner Gina London, a veteran journalist who's written a very personal book called 'Because I'm small and you love me'.

Post 2 was by mystery writer Arlene Kay about her Cape Cod whodunnit 'Die laughing'

Post 1 was by Andy Spzuk, on finding the right voice for his biography of his father's life in the Ukraine called 'Sliding on the Snow Stone'.

Published by Harper Collins, O' Bryan's conspiracy thriller 'The Istanbul Puzzle' was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel 2012 and has now been followed by 'The Jerusalem Puzzle'. I'm hoping to talk Laurence into doing a blog interview some time soon but I might have to crack a few codes, survive a few attempted murders and recover from some hot dates in order to track him down somewhere in Ireland ...

amazon link

Awards, prizes and competitions

Good news for 'Song at Dawn' - Literature Wales has mailed me to say it's eligible for the 'Wales Book of the Year 2011' and has asked for 5 copies of the book for the judges. I am chuffed to bits for three reasons; Wales is my adopted country and if it didn't rain all the time, I would still be living there, so I am proud to be Welsh-enough. Secondly, it is a hot award to be in the running for, and thirdly, I take it as a big compliment when someone invites me to submit my writing for anything. It happens to me now and then with poetry that I get asked if I'll contribute to an anthology, and it's almost like being a real writer when it happens. I've been published every which way except bestselling (yet) but I still hate the process of submission and rejection, whether to publishers/literary agents, or for competitions and awards. However, what you don't enter, you can't win, so if I come across an opportunity for any of my writing, I consider it.

What makes the Wales Book of the Year so hot, in my view? 1) great, varied company on that list of books entered 2) my kind of prize 3) if you're eligible, simple submission

Awards, competitions and prizes are good for publicity and make you feel good if you win this particular lottery but you'd be surprised how often 1,2 and 3 add up to a rip-off or just a predictable waste of your time.

1) Your name on any list of authors is publicity but you do get judged by the company you keep. The Wales Book of the Year  authors are a mix of people I've never heard of, a couple of big names and people who've been to my house for tea or shared a dire performance at a Pembrokeshire pub. It's amazing how many people feel the need to go for a pee when I reach a particularly moving part of a long poem. When we poets go on the road, audience response can reach new lows.

I think my worst performance was on the 3rd day of a festival in a field in mid-Wales. I'd been paid to give a poetry workshop but, it being the third day and all, by the time I tramped across the mud and past the hippy teepees, I was almost high myself from passive smoking. I found the 'creative tent' and when some guy asked if I had some paper, I thought I had a customer, but no, he just wanted to roll his own. As a feeble attempt to earn my pay, I went into the tea tent, stood on a chair and declaimed 'For you I tamed nine tigers.' There was no rapturous applause but at least I wasn't stoned. Everyone else was. I got down from my chair and squelched back to the car, and home.

I like hanging out with authors whose very names fill me with awe. It feels good to say that my poems were published in the same anthology as Margaret Atwood's and there are writers for whom I have just as much respect, on that Literature Wales list. What's more, they're part of my history.

John Barnie, then Editor of Planet, rejected the first poem I sent him and wrote screeds of constructive criticism on his rejection reply, with the invitation to send more. Going the extra mile makes him a special editor and he did publish some of my poems. I met Ifor Thomas at one of those Pembroke pub performances and I've never forgotten what he suggested to do with clingfilm, nor the fact that his toilet was too depressed to clean itself after his girlfriend left. Herbert Williams and I did school workshops together and compared notes on the 14year old thug who wrote his heart out for us strangers. It was Herbert who won the Cinnamon Press Novella Award the year one of my manuscripts, 'Crystal Balls',  was shortlisted. And if you want a big name, try Gwyneth Lewis, Wales' first national poet, just as well know for her autobiographical 'Sunbathing in the Rain: a cheerful book about depression'

I miss the writing scene in Wales. It is alive and inspiring, for both readers and writers, in English and in Welsh. So it is important to me to be Welsh-enough to join that list. Being there is already an Award. Although actually my name isn't there yet and I've checked 53 times today so far.

2) The Wales Book of the Year prize is big money (and a trophy). I would like to win lots of money (trophy optional) because money would give my writing status and big prize money attracts good competition (See 1) Also because I don't have enough money not to enjoy having more.

You'd be surprised how many competitions have prizes I'd pay not to win. I'm sure there are people who want to win 4 months writing retreat in a Benedictine monastery but I am not one of them.

My favourite prize to go after used to be 'publication' but now I'm self-publishing I no longer want to have my baby published as a pamphlet by a 19th century printing press in Newcastle (no offence to Geordies - I've seen equal historically accurate and unsaleable publications in Yorkshire)

3) Eligibility. It took me a while to realise that 99.99% of awards and competitions for writers have regulations specifically drawn up to exclude me. I am either too old or too young; the wrong race, nationality or religion (lacking any); resident of the wrong country; self-published, or having a publisher in the wrong country. When I do fit the criteria, it usually turns out that was for the year before and they've been changed to make sure I can't enter. As self-publishing becomes a choice for more and more authors, rather than a last desperate attempt to get your Mum to read your book, I think awards and prizes will change but many Awards require publisher nomination.

The daft thing about this is that anyone can set up as a publisher, and many have, and happily bring out his/her own books. One writer even posed as her own Literary Agent to add gravitas to her book, which became a bestseller (after she spent 10,000 pounds sterling on marketing and, in a year off paid work, visited bookshops all over the UK claiming she was a local author to get her book onto the shelves - this was in the days when there were still bookshops).

If you are eligible, you then check out the submission requirements. I'm happy to send a book or five, if they're going to be read as part of a serious award or competition, but it does cost money, Small publishers do not check awards and competitions but will enter books for you if you pay. This does cost money. Some of the biggest prizes in the writing business demand not only books but cash upfront from publishers. This can cost very very big money. At one stage there was a prize which guaranteed big sales from the major publicity and bookshop commitment (= future money) in return for something like 12,000 pounds. I tried to find the details on this but I think it's a prize that was discontinued and I can't check up the facts now.

Small presses keep going by charging entry for competitions; are you willing to pay 20 pounds to get someone to even read your manuscript? Your choice. Big prizes often charge big money so that only big publishers (or rich writers) can afford to submit books.

This is why I like the Wales Book of the Year Award. If you are eligible, you submit 5 books and 3 judges choose the best. The mystery remains as to what happens to the extra 2 books. Is this in case 2 get eaten by the dog/run through the washing-machine?

Finally, if you've submitted work for an award or competition, CHECK THE PRIZE-GIVING DATE! Do NOT book a holiday in Venice for exactly the same date on which you win two prizes in the same damn international writing competition otherwise, because you wish to stay married, you will be mooching along the Grand Canal instead of wearing a strapless dress and tearfully thanking your parents, said husband and the dog, in front of London's finest.

Of course you're not going to win. It's a lottery. But sometimes you do. I won the prize for children's writing and the prize for journalism in the London Writers' inc annual competition one year and missed the ceremony. On the other hand, the prize money wouldn't have paid for the journey, or even the posh dress, and I did get to be in an anthology with very good company.

I'll just check whether my name has gone onto that Literature Wales list yet.