And so we come to the last stage of the inaugural year of the Words for the Wounded Georgina Hawtrey-Woore Award for Independent Authors. The excellence of the entries, especially that of the winners would please Georgina enormously, just as it has pleased the judging panel.
Georgina died, too young, in 2017. As a senior editor at Arrow, Georgina was determined that her authors should fulfil their potential, and, more, she was also a great supporter of WforW. To commemorate her life, the three grannies who run Words for the Wounded determined that Georgina should be honoured. To this end Jan, Margaret,and Penny renamed the competition and re-jigged its structure. So now there are four categories.
This year they are delighted that not only are the entry numbers up, so too is the standard: ‘It is heart warming to see so many excellent entries, and a great treat to read them and Georgina would be thrilled.’ Of course, though, there have to be winners and ultimately the team led by Milly Adams, one of Georgina’s authors, reached unanimous decisions. As in the Non-Fiction Category, the WforW judging team decided on joint 2nd place winners in the Fiction Category: ‘Just too close to call‘ was their comment.
In alphabetical order:
Joint 2nd Place winners of the Fiction Category.
A Painted Samovar by Sarah Roux.
A well crafted and evocative novel which takes us from the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 in which Isaac fights for his country, Czarist Russia, only to seek refuge in Britain post war. Later war beckons again, but this time Isaac has further decisions to make: whether to fight for his adopted nation, Britain, or to return to Russia which is in a state of growing political turmoil. He returns to Russia, leaving his wife and children. Will he ever see them again? Only if he undertakes a perilous journey. Does he, doesn’t he? And what were the reasons for leaving Britain in the first place? Read it and see.
As with life, either decision would have had problems, and how does one ever know what is/was the right one. and this was skilfully handled by the author.
A fascinating period, well handled; a human story set in a chaotic context, which after all, is so often the case in world affairs. An epic story, with a complete structure and bags of human interest. It left the team with lots to think about.
Sarah Roux writes under a pen name; a convergence of her grandmothers which sadly never happened in real life. Born and bred in North London, she now resides in Buckinghamshire with her husband and son.
When she’s not writing, researching or parenting, she can usually be found wandering the stacks of the local community library where she is a volunteer librarian and trustee.
Sarah let us know the backstory to A Painted Samovar and it was interesting to hear that as an ardent lover of history, Sarah has always felt the sting of injustice when discovering an untold story or a forgotten figure hidden in the footnotes.
Her way of dealing with this is to write novels. A Painted Samovar was born out of the discovery that her maternal grandfather, a Jewish immigrant from the Russian Empire, was one of four thousand men expelled from Britain during the Great War and plunged into the Russian Revolution. Her grandfather was one of the lucky ones who eventually made his way back to Britain after four years away.
Although he never spoke a word about what had happened, Sarah likes to think he would be happy to have his life and those momentous times remembered; albeit in an entirely fictional way.
Learn more about Sarah on: www.sarahroux.co.uk
A Painted Samovar available on: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Painted-Samovar-Sarah-Roux/dp/1999795709/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528377700&sr=8-1&keywords=A+painted+samovar+by+sarah+roux
Joint 2nd Place in Fiction Category
Renaissance – The Fall and Rise of a King by Marla Skidmore
Set in the time of the Plantagenet Richard III and his challenger, Henry Tudor, Renaissance captures the essence of that turbulent period, galloping the reader into Richard’s battle to retain power in the face of Henry Tudor’s challenge at the Battle of Bosworth. We can hear the clash of weapons, see the fist of mail, the thunder of hoofs, and then – the death of the perhaps much maligned Richard III. But is it death?
Marla Skidmore grasps the nettle of her research and invests it with her interpretation, and a good dash of imaginative realisation, to bring to life this period which is clouded by myth and legend. The author uses the relationship between Richard and his celestial mentor Father Gilbert to discuss and reveal a different slant on Richard who might not after all be the monstrous villain of William Shakespeare’s play, and of the Tudor histories.
The premise was fascinating, and the execution skilled.
A memorable novel of what ifs…
Frost Magazine was delighted Marla Skidmore had the time to tell us more about herself and the writing of Renaissance:
I grew up in Richard III country, in a small medieval city located on the edge of the Yorkshire dales – between Middleham and York – where I met and married my soldier husband at the tender age of 18. After following the flag for a number of years, I decided to return home to become a mature student at Leeds University – I told my family “it will only be for 4 years.” 7 years later I emerged with a BA(Hons) in English and History, a Masters in English Literature and a PGCE and went on to teach in Further and Higher Education.
It was during a prolonged break in my career, due to a serious health issue, that I returned to writing. I had dabbled in it on and off for years – writing short stories, poems and even the beginnings of a couple of novels, but life in the shape of career and family commitments always got in the way of me giving it my full attention. It was natural therefore that when I was forced to take a ‘time out’ my love for literature; for words and a fascination for history would lead me down the path of writing a historical novel.
I was well into the 5th chapter of a romantic murder mystery, set during the Napoleonic Wars, when at lunch with a group of university friends, at the time of the rediscovery of Richard III’s grave and the ensuing controversy about his reburial place, I speculated about what he would have made of all the fuss. A member of the group (a respected medieval historian) challenged me to write the story – “do one about Richard in blue jeans” were her words. The idea took root and snippets of a story constantly inserted themselves into my mind. Finally, I had to put aside my Napoleonic novel – the result is ‘Renaissance – The Fall and Rise of a King.’ My Richard did not turn out to be in blue jeans but I did bring him into the 21st century – in my own way.
I promised myself that I would resume writing the earlier story as soon as ‘Renaissance’ was written but now ideas for a sequel are running through my head – about that most loyal of Richard’s friends, the mysterious Francis Viscount Lovell. So…here I am… with a published novel, one partially written novel and another in the researching stage – which one of the latter two do I tackle first? Can one write two novels simultaneously?
Breaking News…
Marla tells us: ‘Renaissance’ was reviewed by author Helen Hollick’s team of Bloggers on 24th May and it has received their ‘Discovering Diamonds’ seal of approval as a recommended read.’
‘ It gets better…when I got back from holiday on Monday evening I found another email from her informing me that the book was winner of ‘Discovering Diamonds’ Cover Design for the Month of May and will be put forward for Cover of the Year in December.’
She is being interviewed on a podcast which will go out on UTube; the Richard III Society is publishing a review in the September issue of their quarterly magazine – The Bulletin; and their American branch would like her to do an interview for their June Newsletter. Bravo…
https://www/facebook.com/MarlaSkidmoreAuthor/
The book is available on Amazon:
Also on Booklinker: http://mybook.to/TheRiseofaKing and you can also find Marla on Twitter: @marlaskidmore44
And this ends what has been a fabulous list of authors and books, and a most impressive inaugural WforW Georgina Hawtrey-Woore Award for Independent Authors. Frost Magazine will be meeting the winners of next year’s award in 2019. We can’t wait.