Sam Hawksmoor and Teri Terry battle it out at the Amazing Book Awards

And the results? The Gold went to Teri Terry's Slated and the Bronze to Sam Hawksmoor's The Repossession. Has Teri got enough room on her mantelpiece for all the awards Slated has been winning across the country? And did Sam mind Teri beating him again? Read on...

 Sam tells us: “It was great seeing Teri Terry again. We had been rivals earlier at the Leeds Book Awards that she won (grr) and now again at the Amazing Book Awards. I have to say the ABA is really well organised, 21 schools involved and any one of the shortlist could have won with seriously good books from N M Brown, Ed Horgan for example. When we arrived at Shoreham Academy there were all these kids in tuxes and ballgowns and we felt severely underdressed but luckily they were seniors heading off to the prom. Anyway even though Teri yet again walked off with the Gold, I am happy with Bronze and knowing that there is a host of new readers hopefully discovering the sequel The Hunting. As I left, the queue for signing was once again out the door... Slated really does have many fans. And we are so lucky as writers that school librarians take their job so seriously and get the kids reading."

THE REPOSSESSION blurb: Thirty-four kids are missing from the mountain town of Spurlake B.C. Meanwhile, Genie Magee (15) is imprisoned behind bars at home by her mother, who claims her soul is possessed by the Devil. The Reverend Schneider leads all night vigils to pray for the missing kids’ souls, to stop a sickness in the town that seems to drive the kids away. Genie has almost given up. She knows she's slowly going crazy, seeing visions, beginning to think she is as mad as her mother thinks she is. As stormclouds gather over the mountain town, Rian, Genie’s boyfriend, has not forgotten her. He plots a daring attempt to break her out and steal her away from Spurlake forever.

Earlier this year, The Repossession also won the Wirral Paperback of the Year Award jointly with Jon Mayhew's The Demon Collector.

Sam says: “It was great fun going up to The Wirral (Port Sunlight just around the corner I discovered) and the kids were great. Jon Mayhew makes them all laugh and he's got a secret weapon 'fridge magnets'! He's a tough act to follow. The competition was strong and all the authors present made a strong case for their books and the kids asked good questions. I thought for sure that Jon had won as the queue for signing went out the door, but luckily the girls like Genie Magee and are quite loyal to her. First time they'd had a tie I think but it's great to win. All thanks to The Wirral Libraries and the schools that got involved."

@samhawksmoor

Sam Hawksmoor is a former course leader of an MA in Creative Writing and currently lives by the sea in Lincolnshire. The Repossession was the first in a trilogy about Genie Magee - the sequel 'The Hunting' also came out last year. The third ''The Heaviness' is in the edit process now. All three are set in BC Canada and deal with genetic experiments on runaway kids questioning the ownership of DNA and the soul.
Sam is joint editor of the long running web magazine http://www.hackwriters.com You can find Sam at www.samhawksmoor.com


Please join me with a sparkling toast as we celebrate Sam and Teri and their amazing books!

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Tania Tay is an ex-advertising copywriter and has been published in Sable LitMag. She is writing MG and YA fiction, and is on the editorial team at Words & Pictures.