Exciting News

Saved my blogging until Tuesday this week to coincide with the announcement of the contenders for this year’s Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award. The list includes little me!!!!

Fellow Choc Lit authors Lynda Stacey and Victoria Cornwall are contenders too, so I’m sure we will have a fun time on 18 May 2017 in London, when the winner is announced.

The shortlist is made up of authors whose debut novels have been published after critique by the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers Scheme. Each year 250 places are offered to unpublished writers writing romantic fiction. They can submit a complete manuscript to one of the Association’s published authors for comment, as well as being able to attend RNA events.

The Award will be presented at the RNA Summer Party on Thursday 18 May at The Royal Over-Seas League, Park Place, London SW1A 1LR at 19.15.

The Joan Hessayon Award is sponsored by gardening expert Dr. David Hessayon OBE, in honour of his late wife Joan, who was a longstanding member of the RNA and a supporter of its New Writers’ Scheme.

The full list for 2017 is:

Victoria Cornwall – The Thief’s Daughter – Choc Lit

 Kate Field – The Magic of Ramblings – Accent Press

Terri Fleming – Perception – Orion

 Jen Gilroy – The Cottage at Firefly Lake – Forever, Grand Central, Hachette

              Morton Gray – The Girl on the Beach –  Choc Lit

Vivien Hampshire – How to Win Back Your Husband –  HQ Digital

April Hardy – Sitting Pretty – Accent Press

Emily Kerr – Who Does He Think He Is? – Crooked Cat

Abbey Macmunn – Touched  – Tirgearr Publishing   

Arabella Sheen – Castell’s Passion – Beachwalk Press Inc

Lynda Stacey – House of Secrets – Choc Lit

All eligible books are judged by a panel of experienced RNA members who are already published authors.

Good luck girls! See you in London on 18 May 2017.

Maybe my blog readers could read all of the books and see if you can predict the winner! Having said that, in my eyes we are all winners – we did it, we got a book written and published. I hope that all of the contenders have a successful publishing career. Yay!