A triumphant week for the PWA!

I've written before about the fabulous PWA - our online (and occasional in-the-flesh) writing group. And while my NaNoWriMo efforts have been an epic fail (due to proofing I hasten to add, wasn't slacking completely...) two PWA members had awesome success this week!

First up Bernie McGill's novel The Butterfly Cabinet was chosen by Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year! For those of you unfamiliar with Julian Fellowes he's currently best known as the writer of the international hit series Downton Abbey. I love Downton Abbey (and not just because fellow PWA-peep Julie Agnew and I enjoy drooling over the delectable Branson...) and am quite jealous of the US audience who haven't seen the third series yet. Of The Butterfly Cabinet he writes, "McGill has the ability to enter into the brain and heart of her characters and so to make us sympathise with people who commit acts we abhor."

And secondly short story writer Mandy Taggart has won the 2012 Michael McLaverty Short Story Award (run by the Linenhall Library, Belfast) with her story Ways of the North. It will be published in an anthology along with the two runners up. If you want to hear Mandy talking about her win you can listen (for 30 days only!) to her Radio Ulster interview. (Mandy's bit is at the end.)

Congratulations to both lovely ladies! I'm feeling suitably inspired by their success to get the proofs finished and get some writing done!

The proofs have arrived!

Exciting times in the McCune / Murph household - the uncorrected proofs of Death & Co. have arrived! The picture at the minute is the Hot Key logo but I've seen the first draft of the 'real' cover and absolutely love it - it really captures the spirit of the book!

This is the first time I've ever seen something I wrote bound into an actual book - and it was amazing flicking open the pages and finding my words inside. Up until now the book has only existed on the computer screen or a dog-eared, heavily marked print out. Suddenly the book seems so much more real!

And as if this wasn't cool enough check out what they've done at the start of each chapter - I am loving the 'woodcuttings'. You can catch a sneak peek at the first couple of paragraphs of the Prologue here...