I’m not going to beat around the bush here. The title of this blog post is a bit click-baity, yes, but it’s also technically true.
The big news I am delighted to share with you is that the Arts Council of Northern Ireland are funding me, using lottery money, to write my second novel.
I’m practically shaking with joy, just being able to write that. Each element of the statement makes me want to scream with happiness.
Let me break it down for you:
- I have written a novel.
- I’m writing a second novel.
- The arts council are funding me to do so.
If this is a dream, please no one pinch me!
The book in question is called Life Lessons and is the sequel to my first novel, Full Term. Currently, Life Lessons is sitting at the 10,000-word mark. I have between the 1st of November this year and the end of April next year to finish the draft. Those dates include NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where I’m hoping to get the bulk of it done and CampNaNo, when I’ll be going over it all again before handing it in at the start of May.
Between now and then, I have a letter appearing as part of an exhibition in Glasgow this December. Sadly, I can’t make it to the launch but I still think it’s such a cool thing to happen and I’m delighted to have been included.
I also have a few other opportunities I’m currently waiting to hear back from – there is a residency I have applied for and a competition I have entered book one into. Part of me wanted to wait on those decisions before making this post, but I just couldn’t put it off any longer.
I want to thank the wealth of people who have congratulated me across social media already this weekend so, so much for their love and support. It’s been a long road getting here – I can remember my disappointment this time last year, when I was unsuccessful – but I’m not done yet.
Onward and ever, ever upward 🙂
Today, the winners of Round Thirty-Two of the Sunnydale Memorial Fan Fiction Awards were announced, and I was one of them!
