Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

The Melissa Nathan Award Shortlist 2013

What an absolutely wonderful selection of books! Huge congratulations to all of the authors shortlisted for The Melissa Nathan Award for Fiction about Life and Love 2013.

Charlotte Street,  Danny Wallace    (Ebury Press)

You Had Me At Hello,  Mhairi McFarlane   (HarperCollins)

Summer Daydreams, Carole Matthews  (Little Brown)

Where’d you Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple    (Orion)

Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell  (Orion)

The Wedding Diaries, Sam Binnie   (HarperCollins)

This year's award will be judged by Jo Brand, best-selling novelists Sophie Kinsella and Kathy Lette, Morwenna Banks, and Founder of the Melissa Nathan Award, Andrew Saffron. The winner will be announced in June.

More information about The Melissa Nathan Award

More information about The Melissa Nathan Foundation

Novel News – Women’s Prize for Fiction 2013 Shortlist

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Now in its eighteenth year, the award was previously sponsored by Orange but following their withdrawal this time round, it has been funded by private donors.

The chair of the judging panel, actress Miranda Richardson said, “After an exhilarating meeting, all the judges were in agreement that this is an exceptional year for women’s fiction.”

The shortlist for the award is as follows:

Kate Atkinson – Life After Life

A.M Homes – May We Be Forgiven

Barbara Kingsolver – Flight Behaviour

Hilary Mantel – Bring Up the Bodies

Maria Semple – Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Zadie Smith – NW

The winner will be presented with a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze statue known as ‘the Bessie’, created by artist Grizel Niven. The awards ceremony will take place on 5th June.

Who do you think should win? Are any of your favourites missing from the shortlist?

Novel News - RNA Joan Hessayon Award 2013

The contenders of the Joan Hessayon New Writers' Scheme Award, run by the Romantic Novelists’ Association to encourage fresh talent, has been announced.

Manuscripts submitted by unpublished New Writers' Scheme members and subsequently published as a debut novel become eligible for this Award, provided the author is still a member of the RNA.

The nine contenders for the Joan Hessayon Award 2013 are:

Joss Alexander : Tainted Innocence published by Carina Press

Jenny Barden : Mistress of the Sea published by Ebury Press/Random House

Serena Clarke : All Over the Place published by Crimson Romance

Henriette Gyland : Up Close published by Choc Lit

Liz Harris : The Road Back published by Choc Lit

Carol McGrath : T he Handfasted Wife published by Accent Press

Cathy Mansell : Shadow Across the Liffey, published by Tirgearr Publishing

Liesel Schwarz : A Conspiracy of Alchemists published by Ebury Press/DelRey

Anne Stenhouse : Mariah's Marriage published by MuseItUp Publishing 

This award, sponsored by Dr David Hessayon in honour of his late wife Joan, who was a longstanding member of the RNA and a supporter of the New Writers' Scheme, will be presented on 16 May at the RNA Summer Party in London, as well as the award for the winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year.

Romantic Novelists’ Association Website

My Writing Room - Victoria Lamb

Today we're having a peek inside Victoria Lamb's writing room. Victoria Lamb was awarded the RoNA for Young Adult Romantic Novel of the Year for her book, Witchstruck, on Tuesday evening at the Romantic Novelists' Association 2013 RoNA Awards. Victoria's new book, His Dark Lady, is out today and we'll be reviewing it very soon.

My Writing Room by Victoria Lamb

I'm a massively restless person; my urge to keep moving is part of what drives me on as a writer. Not surprisingly then, I don't enjoy writing in the same space every day. In 2011 though, I bucked that trend. I rented an office and worked there 9-5, occasionally also going in during the evenings - despite concerns over office zombies!

When we moved to Cornwall, I chose a home office instead, thanks to increased space. Nonetheless, I've since moved it to a different room twice. My first study had lovely views over the surrounding fields. My current study has a more restricted view though, something I recommend for high productivity. Views are wonderful, but it's too easy to stare at them idly for hours instead of working. Distractibility probably accounts for more unfinished novels than lack of confidence or ability.

Romantic Novelists' Association 2013 RoNA Award Winners Announced!

 

A massive Novelicious congratulations to the winners of the 2013 Romantic Novelists' Association RoNA Category awards, announced last night by Richard and Judy at a sparkling London ceremony.

The winners were:

Contemporary Romantic Novel winner - Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde

Epic Romantic Novel winner - Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman

Historical Romantic Novel winner - The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts

Romantic Comedy Novel winner - Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

Young Adult Romantic Novel Winner - Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb

Novelicious crush Sophie Kinsella was presented with an Outstanding Achievement award!

The winning category novels will now be put forward for the main award of Romantic Novel of the Year, the results of which will be announced at the Romantic Novelists' Association's Summer Party in May.

Romantic Novelists' Association Awards 2013 Shortlist Revealed

The Romantic Novelists' Association have revealed the shortlist for their awards this year. Huge congratulations to the shortlisted authors and best of luck!

The Contemporary Romantic Novel 

Katie Fforde, Recipe for Love, Arrow
Veronica Henry, The Long Weekend, Orion
Mhairi McFarlane, You Had Me At Hello, Avon
Monica McInerny, The House of Memories, Pan Macmillan
Sue Moorcroft, Dream a Little Dream, Choc Lit
Polly Williams, The Angel at No. 33, Headline

The Epic Romantic Novel 

Rowan Coleman, Dearest Rose, Arrow
Dilly Court, The Lady's Maid, Arrow
Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles, Bloomsbury
Kate Morton, The Secret Keeper, Pan Macmillan
Gill Paul, Women and Children First, Avon
Liz Trenow, The Last Telegram, Avon

The Historical Romantic Novel

Charlotte Betts, The Apothecary's Daughter, Piatkus (Little Brown)
Christina Courtenay, The Silent Touch of Shadows, Choc Lit
Kate Furnivall, The White Pearl, Sphere (Little Brown)
Pamela Hartshorne , Time's Echo, Pan Macmillan
Susanna Kearsley, The Rose Garden, Allison & Busby
Mary Nichols, The Kirilov Star, Allison & Busby

The Romantic Comedy Novel 

Jenny Colgan, Welcome to Rosie Hopkin's Sweetshop of Dreams, Sphere (Little Brown)
Victoria Connelly, The Runaway Actress, Avon
Jane Costello, All the Single Ladies, Simon & Schuster UK
Nicola Doherty, The Out of Office Girl, Headline
Belinda Jones, Winter Wonderland, Hodder & Stoughton
Jane Wenham-Jones, Prime Time, Accent Press Ltd.

The Young Adult Romantic Novel

Jo Cotterill, Sweet Hearts: Model Behaviour, Red Fox (RHCP)
Laura Jarratt, Skin Deep, Electric Monkey/Egmont
Marie-Louise Jensen, The Girl in the Mask, OUP
Victoria Lamb, Witchstruck, Corgi (RHCP)
Sarra Manning, Adorkable, Atom (Little Brown)
Susan Waggoner, Neptune's Tears, Piccadilly Press

The winners of each of the above categories form the overall shortlist for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, which will be announced on 16th May.

What do you think of the nominations? Any surprises or shoe-ins? Who do you think will win?

The Romantic Novelists' Website

The Novelicious Book Awards 2012

 

After much discussion and debate, Team Novelicious are pleased to announce their 2012 Novelicious Book Award winners...

AUTHOR WEBSITE OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted

MarianKeyes.com

 MillyJohnson.co.uk

VictoriaConnelly.com

Kate-Harrison.com

And the winner is...

Victoria Connelly! Victoria's website is bursting with regularly updated content, is easy to navigate and has some great writerly resources. Well done, Victoria!

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BOOK JACKET OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted

And the winner is...

We all cooed over the Meet Me Under the Mistletoe cover when it was released. The soft jewel colours, the font, the glittery snowflakes and stars and the super romantic Lucy Truman illustration: this cover is unabashed chick lit with more than a dash of whimsy and it's our favourite of 2012.

 

 

 

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted

Simon & Schuster (UK)

Sphere (Little,Brown)

Avon (HarperCollins UK)

 And the winner is...

Avon (HarperCollins UK). This was a tough category but Avon have really gone above and beyond to provide us with consistently fantastic content and access to their authors in 2012. They got involved in our Novelicious Undiscovered competition earlier this year by providing some amazing prizes and it's been a genuine pleasure to work with the Avon team, in particular Becke Parker and Caroline Hogg. The above, combined with a regular output of quality commercial fiction and a fantastic flourishing social media presence, makes Avon an easy choice for our publisher of the year. 

 

 

AUTHOR-TWEETER OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted

Miranda Dickinson

Rowan Coleman

Pippa Wright

Abby Clements

 And the winner is...

Rowan Coleman. As well as being an absolutely super writer, Rowan Coleman is a friendly and approachable tweeter. She is consistently supportive of fellow authors and aspiring writers and is a generous re-tweeter.  In June this year, Rowan set up a weekly twitter initiative under the hashtag #rowancolemanswritingclinic in which she answered questions for aspiring authors about writing. 

 

 

 

DEBUT OF 2012

Shortlisted

The Desperate Bride's Diet Club by Alison Sherlock

The Vintage Teacup Club by Vanessa Greene

Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid

Tony Hogan Bought me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson

And the winner is...

Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid. In Black Heart Blue, Louisa deals with abuse, neglect and disability with grace and intelligence. This would be incredibly challenging for an established author to pull off but for one only just beginning it is both courageous and immensely powerful. We cannot wait to see what Reid comes up with next...

 

 

 

ALTERNATIVE THURSDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR

Shorlisted

The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown

The Secrets of the Tides by Hannah Richell

The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts

The Light Behind The Window by Lucinda Riley

And the winner is...

The Light Behind The Window by Lucinda Riley. Lucinda Riley's story makes you wonder if you would put duty before love, if you could you put your trust in someone you shouldn't and when the unimaginable occurs, how you would react in their place. It also has two unexpected heroes. The Light Behind The Window is beautifully written and haunting.

 

 

 

BOOK OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams By Jenny Colgan

Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

And the winner is...

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. We were all taken with Lou and Will's compelling and heartbreaking story. It made us laugh and sob and kept us transfixed until the last page. This is the book we've most recommended this year and we've yet to hear back from someone who didn't like it. Our must-read book of 2012.

 

 

 

AUTHOR OF THE YEAR

Shortlisted

Marian Keyes

Jane Green

Dorothy Koomson

Jojo Moyes

And the winner is...

Jane Green. We have a bit of a crush on Jane Green. Her books (including this year's The Patchwork Marriage) are some of the most engaging and gorgeously written we've read and her huge success has done nothing to diminish her deep connection with readers. Jane upholds a busy social media presence and blog and invites her fans to share in her life on facebook. Jane also gave us our favourite interview of the year in this epic two part chat with our Amanda Keats. Jane Green is an inspiration to so many readers and writers of women's fiction and we can't wait to see what 2013 will bring for her.

 

Huge congratulations to all of the shortlisted and winning authors. It's been a wonderful year for books!

Novel News - Man Booker Prize Shortlist 2012

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize for 2012 has been announced and this year the finalists are:

Tan Twan Eng - The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)

Deborah Levy - Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber)

Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)

Alison Moore - The Lighthouse (Salt)

Will Self - Umbrella (Bloomsbury)

Jeet Thayil – Narcopolis (Faber & Faber)

The judges this year were Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, who was joined by actor Dan Stevens, critic Dinah Birch, historian Amanda Foreman and writer Bharat Tandon.

The winner will be announced on 16 October.

Man Booker Prize on Twitter

Have you read any of these? Any favourites to win?

Novelicious Undiscovered 2012 - The Results

3 Months

200 Entries

20 Shortlisted

1900 votes

2 winners

What a competition!

The public votes have been counted and verified for the People's Choice Award Winner, Simon & Schuster UK have sent word of their Books and the City Award Winner and we can finally reveal the results!

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Voted for by the public and winning: A full manuscript critique with Avon Commissioning Editor Caroline Hogg over tea and cake in their London offices, a £50 voucher for writersgifts.co.uk, an introduction to and entry critique from top UK Literary Agent, Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates Ltd, a selection of 10 Avon Titles and a Kindle...

 

THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER 2012 IS

Colleen Downham for With Every Heartbeat (read the entry)

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Chosen by Simon & Schuster UK and winning: A full manuscript feedback from the editorial team at Simon & Schuster, Author Mentoring and meeting with Sunday Times Bestselling author of RSVP Helen Warner, a £50 voucher from writersgifts.co.uk and a Books and the City 10 Book Selection...

 

THE BOOKS AND THE CITY AWARD WINNER 2012 IS

Kate Rhead for KnickerBocker Glory (read the entry)

The Bookminx of Simon & Schuster said:

"I was immediately gripped by Iris’s plight in Knickerbocker Glory, I loved the hint of vintage glamour and the humour shone through.  In just the 3000 words I read, I could sense the sizzle of a possible future romance with Jack, and am looking forward to reading more!"

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Winning: A full manuscript critique from the Novelicious Editor, a Hotel Chocolat Bliss Out Bag and a Books and the City 10 Book Selection is...

THE PUBLIC VOTE RUNNER UP IS

Jan Sprenger for Vicki's Work of Heart (read the entry)

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Chosen by random.org: 

The prizedraw winner of the 10 book selection from AVON (HarperCollins) is Una McNeela!

The prizedraw winner of the 10 book selection from Books and the City (Simon & Schuster UK) is Annie Todd!

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All prize winners will be contacted this week with further details of your prizes!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, tweeted, blogged, facebooked, commented and voted about the Novelicious Undiscovered competition. Thanks to the wonderfully generous prize-givers and, of course, to the fabulously talented shortlist who entertained us with their words.

Huge congratulations to the award winners, we hope this a lovely boost to your future writing career.

Until next year's contest!

Kirsty and the Novelicious Team xx

Novelicious goes to the Melissa Nathan Award 2012

By Cesca Martin

Cesca with Jenny Colgan - Winner of the Melissa Nathan Award 2012

The Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance 2012 was held last night at the Cafe de Paris in London and Novelicious were kindly invited to attend *swooshes hair on behalf of Novelicious team*.  So I trotted off to act the Super Fan and get all the goss from the night to bring to YOU, oh marvellous reader...

Hosted by National Express, the event began as any good event should – with awesome canapés and glasses of champagne.  I got thoroughly over-excited as I scanned the room whispering things like, “There’s Milly Johnson, ooh that’s Jane Costello, love her dress and, oh, it’s that woman from Ab Fab – oh you know the one with the chairs, the lovely chairs (cue blank face from listener)”.  Over-excited to be surrounded by some fantastic authors I imagine it is the equivalent of what a normal person would feel like if they attended the BAFTAs. 

 

The brilliant Milly Johnson in the most fabulous black lace dress

We were introduced to the books by the wonderfully raucous Jo Brand who was mostly trying, and failing, to ensure she didn’t end up getting mis-quoted in the Daily Mail this morning.  We heard music from the marvellous Lisbee Stainton (plant music is now officially my favourite musical genre) and tapped along to some of her brilliant songs.  There were lovely speeches from Andy, MD of National Express, paying tribute to the Award and books of the genre and a confident, and very moving, speech from Sam, Melissa’s son.  Joanne Trollope, who announced she was stepping down after 6 fabulous years, also went on to explain how the Melissa Nathan Award will develop.  As of next year the goal posts will be widened and the award will be altered to include comic books about ‘Life and Love’.  The illustrious judging panel, including the likes of: Morwenna Banks and Sophie Kinsella, then announced the winner of the Award.  Jenny Colgan scooped the top prize for ‘Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe’ (published by Sphere - Little, Brown) and spoke fluently, thanking those who had helped her on her way and congratulating Jane Lovering on just being amazing, all at the same time. 

 

It was a fantastic night (they brought out the canapés another time, oh, those fish and chips...) and we tried to get round and snap some of the runners-up as people talked.  Thank you so much to the organisers of the Melissa Nathan Award, and National Express, for inviting us to share the evening.   

 

Jo Brand introducing the award

 

 

The fabulously nice Allie Spencer loves Novelicious (and we love you Allie)

 

 

Jane Costello (oh my goodness, she was so friendly, and how lush is her dress?)

 

 

Jenny Colgan, Jane Lovering (winner of this year’s RNA Award) and Cesca!

 

The Melissa Nathan Award 2012 Shortlist

We're so pleased with this year's shortlist and have enjoyed each and every one of these titles.

AN AUTUMN CRUSH, Milly Johnson (Simon and Schuster)

GIRL ON THE RUN, Jane Costello (Simon and Schuster)

MEET ME AT THE CUPCAKE CAFE, Jenny Colgan (Little Brown)

SUMMER LOVING, Allie Spencer (Arrow/Random)

YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY YOU LOVE ME, Sarra Manning (Transworld)

PLEASE DON'T STOP THE MUSIC, Jane Lovering (Choc Lit)

Good luck to all short-listed authors!

The winner of this year's Melissa Nathan Award will be announced on June 12th at a gala evening in London.

Find out about the Melissa Nathan Foundation

More information about the Melissa Nathan Awards

Novelicious Undiscovered - The Top 20

It only seems like a moment ago that we announced this year's Undiscovered competition! We never expected to get such a fantastic response and are thrilled by the high quality entries you have sent in for us. You guys are so talented - it was an absolute pleasure to read your work. Thank you!

We had over 200 entries into the competition and after three rounds of judging by three members of the Novelicious team, we have chosen our top 20 for public vote.

The names listed below are the entries we feel had that certain something special; whether it was a stand out voice, made us laugh, an intriguing set up or just good old fashioned page-turnability. The judging team didn't agree on every entry - not by a long shot- and in those cases, the story went to another reader and the majority vote counted.

If you are not on the list below, this does not mean that your work was not good and that you won't someday be a published writer. Every entry had its merits, but ultimately we went with those we enjoyed the most and think our readers will enjoy too.

So, without further ado, here are the top 20 Undiscovered entries that will go through to the showcase and public vote.

NOVELICIOUS UNDISCOVERED 2012 TOP 20

 

Dancing Queen by Chloe Kent

A Ghost of a Chance by Cressida McLaughlin

Four Left Feet by Sue Jackson

The Irish Poet by Brigid O'Connor

Anna in the Works by Clare Wartnaby

Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Jill Steeples

The Chocolate Project by Celia J. Anderson

The Nanny's Revenge by Nikki Goodman

A Friend Like You by Jennifer McDermott

Occupied by Neal Doran

Knickerbocker Glory by Kate Rhead

With Every Heartbeat by Colleen Downham

Millie in the Middle by Liz Eeles

A Dark Horse by Annette Frampton

Vicki's Work of Heart by Jan Sprenger

Many Mansions by Laurel Remington

LookeyLikey by Emma Seaman

How To Be In Love with Eddie Izzard by Alison Dunne

Baby Steps by Louise Cannon

Dream Catch Me by Becky Gulc

 

Well done, finalists!

What Happens Next?

Each weekday in May (starting on the 1st) we will be showcasing the above entries on this site (one per day). You can read and comment on the entries but won't be able to vote for your favourite until June 5th once all of the entries have been posted. Voting will be by way of a form (no facebook votes - don't worry!) and we will have a system in place to prevent repeat votes from one person. Voters will be entered into a draw to win a selection of 20 books!

The entry with the most votes will win the People's Choice Award (prize info here)

From the remaining entries, the Simon & Schuster UK Fiction Editorial Team will choose the Books and the City Choice Award Winner (prize info here)

Further information on all prizes can be found here

The Top 20 will receive an email today with further instructions

Thanks to everyone and do stay tuned for the next round of Novelicious Undiscovered! 2012

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Vote for your Romantic Novel of the Year (and maybe win an ipad 2!)

So the RNA awards just happened, and the winners of each individual category have now been put forward to a public vote which, when combined with the judges vote, will decide the winner of the prestigious 'Romantic Novel of the Year' award.

You can pop on over to the RoNA site and cast your vote, where you will be entered into a prize draw to win an ipad2.

The winner will be announced in May.

Romantic Novelists' Association Award Winners 2012

Congratulations from Novelicious to the winners of this year's RNA Awards. The winning books are as follows:

 

CONTEMPORARY ROMANTIC NOVEL

Summer of Love    By Katie Fforde

 

EPIC ROMANTIC NOVEL

The Kashmir Shawl   By Rosie Thomas

 

HISTORICAL ROMANTIC NOVEL

 Highland Storms     By Christina Courtenay

 

ROMANTIC COMEDY NOVEL

Please Don’t Stop the Music      By Jane Lovering

 

YOUNG ADULT ROMANTIC NOVEL

Dark Ride  By Caroline Green

 

THE RoNA ROSE AWARD

The Dangerous Lord Darrington   By Sarah Mallory

 

THE HARRY BOWLING PRIZE WINNER

A Dark Flowering by Natalie Lloyd-Evans 

 

Read the full list of nominations