Christmas has come early for Tatum Flynn!

Well, Christmas has certainly come early for Tatum Flynn!  Take a break from the mania of late night shopping and wrapping paper to raise a glass of mulled wine in honour of Tatum and her two book offer with Orchard Books!

So where did it all begin?

Tatum decided that writing was the career for her at the early age of seven but has in the past worked as a croupier on cruise ships in the Caribbean, as a travel magazine writer, an English teacher in Italy and as a poker player travelling the world, "lying to people for profit" as she puts it! 

@Tatum_Flynn

But during the of winter 2012/2103, Tatum sat down to write Brimstone for Breakfast.

"Brimstone for Breakfast is a children's novel about Lucifer’s youngest son, who is hopeless at being evil, and the funny and crazy journey across Hell he’s forced to undergo. It features a little ninja girl, a Stardust-addicted vampire bat, a dangerous underground library, a demon sloth, and the scariest carousel horses you will ever meet." 

Then in May the next year Tatum went on her first ever SCBWI retreat. She says:

"I had high hopes, and I wasn’t disappointed: I met lots of lovely writers, ate a bit of cake, drank more than a bit of wine, learned a lot, and even joined in a pyjama party. By the time my meeting with the editor came round on the Sunday, I was just hoping she wouldn’t hate my writing and rain on my parade, because I was having so much fun." 

 What she got was much better. Expecting the promised critique, Tatum was gobsmacked when the editor launched into a flurry of compliments and made Tatum promise to send her the full manuscript. Tatum says "I accepted as quickly as I could before she changed her mind". However, fast forward a couple of months and Tatum had both failed to hear back from the editor and failed to find representation with an agent. After nearly a hundred queries Tatum was close to giving up on Brimstone and move onto the next book. She took herself off on holiday to France, and began writing a new story; "I tried to be optimistic, but rejections kept pinging up on my phone, cackling evilly at me and reminding me how much I sucked. At the end of the week, I sadly boarded the train home". But there was a not-so-little light at the end of the Euro Star tunnel!

 "A little outside Paris, magic happened: An email pinged up on my phone, but it wasn’t a rejection. I stared at it, then stared some more. It was the editor from the SCBWI retreat. ‘We would like to invite you to our offices to meet the editorial team,’ it said. ‘We are enthusiastic about your manuscript.’ If I’d been in a movie, bluebirds would definitely suddenly have appeared." 

In the weeks that followed, Tatum describes how her good luck continued. She received several agent offers and decided on the brilliant Zoe King of The Blair Partnership (JK Rowling’s agency!)’. Here’s what Zoe King said about Tatum’s novel:

 "Tatum’s submission hit me between the eyes: highly original, full of imagination and heart and with characters to fall in love with – her manuscript has masses of appeal. She’s naturally talented and in the right hands will be a great success." 

In a few meetings and weeks later, Tatum had a two-book offer! And we are thrilled to celebrate, thanks in no small part to SCBWI, that Brimstone for Breakfast will be published by Orchard Books in 2015, with a sequel to follow! Who says evil doesn’t pay? ...But best stay on the nice list just in case though!

Tatum can be found (way too often) on Twitter, and also on her website.

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Clare Welsh joined SCBWI in February 2013 after her marriage to her lovely husband James was under threat from constant chunterings, questions and readings aloud over the football.  She is thoroughly enjoying all that SCBWI has to offer, including helping Tania celebrating SCBWI successes, and is pleased that her marriage is still firmly intact.

Stop biting your nails about UV – Book Bound can also help you on the road to publication!

This week congratulations go to SCBWI author/editors, Sara Grant (UV co-founder), Sara O’Connor (UV co-founder, Hot Key Books), Jasmine Richards (OUP) and Karen Ball (Little, Brown) for the launch of their brand new venture, Book Bound. The inaugural Book Bound residential retreat in May 2014 is an exciting opportunity for writers to polish their novel and get it in front of agents. And all with the help of these four amazing authors and commissioning editors who clock up over 30 years combined editorial experience on more than 1,000 books! 

Bookbound Team: Sara O'Connor, Karen Ball,
Jasmine Richards & Sara Grant

At the launch event a few weeks ago, the Book Bound team were brimming with enthusiasm as they told us all about the retreat and where the idea came from. Each of them gave us some writing tips to whet our appetites for the workshops that they're teaching on the retreat. 

SCBWI members Sarah, Nick Cross, Michelle Newell,
Miriam  Craig, Linda Lawlor

It was a fun afternoon and really inspiring to hear how teamwork has helped Sara, Sara, Jasmine and Karen in their writing careers, and how they want to help new authors get published. 

The venue in Kent looks absolutely gorgeous, and the four agents attending are Julia Churchill (A. M. Heath), Zoe King (The Blair Partnership), Polly Nolan (Greenhouse Literary Agency), and Claire Wilson (Rogers, Coleridge and White). 

You can read full details about the retreat and how to apply here. And our lovely editor Lorraine Gregory has blogged about the launch event here. Meanwhile here are some pix and soundbytes from the Book Bound Team and the many SCBWI members who were there....

Sara Grant: “I’m thrilled by the people we’ve had here today. What we want to build is a writing community and we want a retreat where writers, agents and editors will all learn from each other."

Linda Lawlor & Jasmine Richards

Linda Lawlor: “It’s great to have something for more advanced writers, who are almost ready to be published.” 

Miriam Craig: “I was really interested to hear Jasmine’s point about making sure you can say ‘But’ or ‘Therefore’ about what happened from chapter to chapter, rather than just ‘And then’.” 

Nick Cross & Lorraine Gregory

Nick Cross: “I won a one-to-one with Sara O’Connor. My pitch went on for about five minutes, so I might have to shorten it slightly! Sara kept smiling despite it all.” 

Karen Ball: “I hope it’s an opportunity for a group of writers to become friends, hear expert advice, benefit from the workshop and go home inspired and full of confidence. PS the venue is awesome!” 

David Richardson, Sara Grant,
Vivienne Dacosta

David Richardson: “The prospect of meeting with agents and polishing my work is really useful for me at this stage.” 

Clare, Annie Walmsley

Annie Walmsley: “To have the chance to meet people who are as passionate and eccentric about children’s literature as myself is invaluable.” 

Jasmine Richards: “We want to give an honest and realistic view of the children’s publishing industry, as well as support and guidance for writing a novel that will be published.” 

Sara Grant, Sara O'Connor, Jasmine Richards & Karen Ball

 Lorraine Gregory: “Sounds like an amazing opportunity for some lucky writers.” 

 Larisa Villar Hauser: “So much enthusiasm, energy and expertise all in one team. Wow!”

Sara O’Connor: “Book Bound has been so long in the making I’m so glad we’ve finally kicked it off with so many lovely people!” 

If you get your skates on and submit before 31 October you can get a £50 discount when you join their mailing list. So let’s wish the team a big Hurrah! for launching such a fantastic retreat. And if you need some distraction from wondering whether you’ve made the UV longlist, why not give Book Bound a try?

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

Network News: North West Writers Chasing the Publication Dream

 Report by George Kirk

The North West Professional series 2013 events began on 16th March when Manchester City Library was full of the joys of spring. And why wouldn’t it be? Okay the sky was greying and the temperatures were dropping to Siberian levels. But the brilliant Lil Chase was preparing her presentation ‘Books that Sell and Sell Well’, and our publication hopes were rising like the daffodils outside.


If you really want a professional who knows their commercial onions then you can’t go to anyone better than Lil. With A career that has taken her from Mills and Boon, through Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and finally to the massively successful book packager Working Partners as commissioning editor, she really can claim to know exactly what it is that makes a book sell. And Lil was not just there to give us the theory because she has applied all that she has learned to launch her own writing career. She is currently working on her third early teen novel. Her first two, ‘Boys for Beginners’ and ‘Secrets, Lies and Locker 62’ both currently have 5 star ratings on Amazon.

There were technical issues on the day of course; the laptop and projector did not want to talk to each other. So while turns were taken to mediate between them, the rest of us compared notebooks. After all everyone knows a great story has to begin in a fabulous notebook doesn’t it? Or maybe not, because with all techno differences smoothed over Lil never gave them a mention in her talk, even though she admits to having a big collection herself. 

What Lil did treat us to was a presentation that was like, ‘How to Write for Children and Get Published’ BUT with a lot more laughs. She cleared our path through the maze of concept, positioning, structure, protagonists and hooks to name but a few, before taking us out the other side with the covering letter.

It was a lot of fun. She taught us always to bait our hook with a really good but, while we dazzled her with our brilliantly inventive concepts. And who could ever forget the dilemma of Terry and Susan’s new bed sheets?

The afternoon flew by and we were so absorbed most of us forgot to eat or drink. We all left with a really clear idea of what it is we are aiming for if we want to make our work commercially attractive. So if you listen carefully, that tap tappity tap you can hear coming from the North West is the sound of the next best sellers beginning to bloom. It’s just as well the next North West event is all about the agents, we’re going to need them.

Speed Dating for Writers will be held on the 13th July at Manchester City Library. A panel of professionals including Zoe King and Elizabeth Bonsor from the Blair Partnership, agent Catherine Pellegrino and Philippa Donovan of Smart Quill Editorial will be delivering a range of talks. And there will also be the chance for a one to one for those who have pre-booked.

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George Kirk
@GeorgeKirk2

George wrote as soon as she could hold a pencil but never anything factual.  She teaches at a primary school in East Lancashire and finds the relationships and diversity within the White British, Bengali and Pakistani community it serves, truly inspirational. George has been published in A Pocketful of Moondust and in 2011, her picture book text 'Once Upon a Princess...' went on to win a national award. She is now developing two series - a respectable snot fantasy for 7-9 year olds and a culturally diverse fantasy for 9-11.