Our final ‘closer look’ at our Independent Author Book Award winners:

Special Category. The Children’s picture Books.

We gathered together a group of eager beaver readers and listeners under 10 years of age because the WforW team felt it impossible to compare the children’s picture book entries with the others. It was huge fun working with the children, and let me tell you, they know their onions. The decisions were unanimous.

Keep an eye on Frost Magazine and www,wordsforthewounded.co.uk as summer ends to hear our exciting ideas which will provide even  more opportunities for aspiring writers, and help veterans in need at the same time.

1^st Place: Ruby’s Story – (Ruby the Routemaster Series) Text by Christophe Dupuy Illustrations by Tim Duke

Ruby’s Story – (Ruby the Routemaster series)

Judges’ Comments:

Right from the start this glorious book draws in the reader. ‘London, one of the busiest cities in the world, is a place that never sleeps.’

Immediately it promises excitement. What’s more it’s historically accurate. We want to know all about the bus called Ruby who lives in a London bus garage, and travels with her driver, Dave, and Clive, her conductor (remember those?)

We drive along in Ruby doing what she loves but then – a crisis, the first of several. She learns that the Routemaster buses are to be replaced by modern buses. Is it the end for Ruby? She learns she has been sold to a bus company in Scotland, and must drive to her new name. Does she ever arrive?

There is excitement, adventure, disappointment until one day a bloke called Christophe Dupuy arrives and takes Ruby to Somerset to live with him and Kim. (And he really did do this. Perhaps one day he’ll tell us why?)

Lovely story, immaculately told with intricate illustrations that are a rich visual feast. The Routemaster buses live on.

Our children’s reading team agreed it should come first.

Chris Dupuy

Although I was born in Paris, I lived most of my childhood years in South East London and from a very early age I spent a great deal of my time going off on adventures exploring London and all the amazing sights it has to offer. By far the easiest way to get around was on London’s public transport system. In particular was the trusty Routemaster bus. With over 4000 on the road in the nation’s capital, it was always easy to hop on and off once you arrived at the desired destination. They would run every ten minutes or so, and sitting on the long bench seat by the conductors vantage point, I always felt very safe and looked after. This was in contrast to my dysfunctional home life and one could argue that at the tender age of six this was a very risky thing to do. The sad thing is that in reality i was safer in the big bad world than I was in my own home. That in itself is another story to maybe tell another day.

Runner Up: Little Hoglet’s Egg Race   by Richard Middleton

Judges’ Comments:

Who doesn’t love a story about a hedgehog?

Richard Middleton has been clever with this one. The delicious illustrations don’t merely reflect the story, but progress it – something that the children particularly noticed.

You see, as fast as a mother says her eggs won’t want to join in, the illustrations show them doing just that, in spite of mum. So there is tension between the text and the visual images, and a naughtiness that the children loved.

Richard Middleton is the writer and illustrator of the Little Hoglet’s Magical Year series, with Little Hoglet’s Christmas and Little Hoglet’s Egg Race already available, and Little Hoglet’s Bonfire Night coming soon. The seasonal series will be completed with Little Hoglet’s Summer Holiday.  Richard’s other published picture book is The Stinky Hippobottomus, which has been described as “utterly delightful” even though poo is mentioned in the book several times. Richard is a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator and speaks to schoolchildren all over the world about creative writing. He is also the author of the Wyrm Saga series, a series of fantasy thrillers for older children and beyond. The series currently includes the novels The Wyrm Conspiracy and Wyrm Gold, and the chapbooks Arran, Joney and the Goblinensis Flatulata and Gods Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.  In his spare time Richard and his family are taken for walks by their dogs Ellie and Lincoln, who are both trying to learn human speech.

www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

Here we are again to feature our 3rd place winner this time. Such a treasure chest of talent out there. It’s so rewarding for all of us at WforW, We’re professional writers and literary reviewers so know what’s what and we’re really excited this year.

3^rd Place  True Colours by Elly Redding

Kate Fenton found her fiancé Saul Preston in a highly compromising situation with his assistant – just a month before the wedding. But was it actually what it seemed?

Three years later, she’s no longer so sure. Saul’s back with a new proposition – to accompany him on a trip to Majorca as his interpreter. Does she, doesn’t she?

Judge’s comments:

The writing was good, but the plot was a rather predictable. The central misunderstanding could have been cleared up with a conversation and though it is fun, and the author has wit it did feel a bit 1990s. I very much enjoyed reading it in terms of the warmth of the writing and characters and the dialogue. However, that predictable central conflict puts it in third.

Elly Redding:

I’ve always lived with a dream or two bubbling away in my head. Whether it was tap dancing to the golden ‘Oldies’, or dashing through a forest, pursued by felons, my imagination has always sent me soaring to a world where anything was possible. Only it would have been very lonely, if I’d been there by myself.   So I created a hero, someone to share my adventures with and make my dreams come true.

When I’m not writing, I enjoy trying to dance and watching the waves, although not necessarily at the same time!

Thank you for sharing my world. It started in London and is now firmly ensconced in Bedfordshire. Who knows where it will take me and my family next?

www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

At Words for the Wounded, which raises funds to help veterans in need we love this part of our Award – talking about our winners.

The standard has been so high this year and now is the time to hear more about our second place winner – Ellie Holmes. Let me just repeat that we’re so excited about the breadth of subject our aspiring writes are attempting, so much so that we have some new ideas for 2018 we are sorting out and will announce in the autumn.

The Flower Seller by Ellie Holmes

Jessie Martin believes that when it comes to love there are three types of people: the skimmers, the bottom dwellers and the ones who dive for pearls. Jessie is a pearl diver. She had thought her husband William was too. But events prove her wrong.

She dusts herself off, and gets into the dating scene, and hunkers down to create a successful career. What could possibly go wrong?

Judge’s comments:

She writes very well, her writing is fluent and pacy, her characters are well-drawn, and the author does emotions brilliantly. I enjoyed reading it but I had reservations: the 40-something single woman on the dating scene felt more like someone older, and I felt it lacked a bit of courage in the plotting, I felt she played it too safe: perhaps too little conflict, too little choice. Either way, the writing is good and the whole book extremely enjoyable.

courtesy of Paula Guyver

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, The Tregelian Hoard, set in Cornwall, is the first novella in her Jonquil Jones Mystery Series and her next book White Lies is due for release on 27^th June.

http://Author.to/EllieHolmes   www.ellieholmesauthor.com www.facebook.com/EllieHWriter

As promised, we are featuring more about the 1^st place award winning book, and author of our fantastic and exciting competition for aspiring authors. It’s what we do here at Words for the Wounded: provide opportunities for writers while raising funds to help veterans in whatever way we can. So thank you all. Now I know all you want is to read more about Not a Girl, by Chris Donaldson –  our winning entry:

Not a Girl by Chris Donaldson

Not A Girl is a collection of short stories reflecting aspects of the universe. They are a mix of adventure, horror and science fiction. Some are based in a world we can recognise, some are not. All are fascinating, and almost addictive.

Judge’s comment.

For me this is the winner hands down. The author has a distinctive and original voice, his writing is very accomplished and sometimes beautiful, and some of the stories are stunning. Admittedly, not all, and there are very clear influences, but I liked his ability to draw me in, to create a world in just a few words. I think he’s incredibly talented. And yes, he must have a novel in him. However, he clearly isn’t sure what direction to take, so he’s experimenting a bit. I liked it a lot.

Chris taught Skydiving professionally for 26 years, and travelled widely to pursue this.  Bad weather allowed plenty of time for his writing fixation, and after two unpublished novels he turned to short fiction, finding the medium easier to clip and prune until satisfaction was achieved.  Most of his stories, although generally dark and speculative, try to reflect his wonder at the wide, wild and sometimes bleak places of the earth, and of those same places inside each of us.

Chris lives in Peterborough with wife Stéphanie, where he currently works as a fundraising manager for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.  Any spare time is spent cycling the fens and hunting for that rarest of things – a literary agent who deals in short stories…

Chris will be telling us about A Day in his Life soon.

Not a Girl by Christopher Donaldson. pub. Troubador. £8.99 pb.

www.troubador.co.uk

www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

Steven Cree is an up-and-coming young actor and I was given the chance to chat to him for a few minutes…

Steven Cree by Pip

Thanks for giving me a few minutes to chat. You’re not driving or doing anything dangerous are you?

No, no. I’m in my living room just doing a little house stuff.

I’m told you’re a Scottish heartthrob.

(Laughing) It’s never crossed my mind…

What were you like at school?

I was pretty skinny, but I kind of oscillated between a quiet and shy side, and I was undoubtedly a bit of a class clown.

Is that how you got into the acting?

I guess I always enjoyed being the entertainer or performer. When my mum used to have friends round, when I was a kid, I apparently used to put on my Michael Jackson tunes and do a little impersonation for them. Then I got into the school shows and did the musicals at secondary school. I was very lucky – we had an incredible music and drama department. There was a fantastic music teacher called Fiona McKenzie who was one of those teachers who inspired me.

In which part of Scotland did you grow up?

I grew up in Kilmarnock. You may know Kilmarnock from the famous football team. I am a Kilmarnock fan, born and bred. I have to say, when you come from Scotland people expect you to be a Celtic or Rangers fan, but I’m a lot happier being a fan of a small town team. There’s no expectation and when you do win it’s a great feeling.

Do you still go and watch them?

Yeh. My family all still live in Scotland so I go back as much as I can. I got a friend here in London who goes to the Arsenal games quite a lot. Sometimes I go with him and when you go into a stadium with sixty or seventy thousand people and then you go to Kilmarnock where there’s about four thousand, you would imagine that I would enjoy the Arsenal games much more, but I don’t know – if you’re a football fan, there’s nothing like going to see your own team. Do you like football?

I’m a Leeds United fan.

Ah! When I was a kid, about eleven years old, somebody bought me a Leeds United top and Leeds have always been my soft-spot English team. Billy Bremner and all that!

Silly question – how tall are you?

I’m five feet ten inches.

Ooh, does that mean you’re too short to play James Bond?

Probably. I imagine James Bond as over six feet, so if there’s any kind of list for James Bond I would think I’m nowhere near it.

Think ahead.

You never know. In ten years time, maybe.

How about Doctor Who?

Doctor Who? They’re gonna go for a lady, I think. But you know, it’s obviously a cracking programme, but I’ve never seen Doctor Who in my life!

How shocking is that? Considering your career, it started with small parts in big projects, things like Vera, Shetland, The Musketeers, Silent Witness and Outlanders. Do you feel that your career is growing as the years go on?

[Steven in Outlanders]

I spent the first few years out of drama school being the classic actor who never actually got any acting work, so my first few years were spent working in bars, restaurants, offices, that kind of thing, with the odd acting job interspersed. So, yes, my trajectory in the last few years, certainly, is getting better and better. The main thing about it is, I have to say, when you’re going through those times and you’re struggling to get work and it’s really tough, it’s not necessarily the most enjoyable, but then I’m extremely grateful for having had those times because it makes you more grateful for when things are going well.

Have you come across someone who has given great advice?

Actually, Tim Piggott-Smith, who sadly passed away recently. He directed a play that I did when I was twenty-five. Tim was a huge inspiration and he gave some fantastic advice, too numerous to go into. But I remember he said, when you’re not working, just try and do two things every day that are constructive towards trying to get work, be it reading a play or writing a letter to a director or to a theatre company. That kind of thing. Persistence is the biggest one, I think.

Sterling advice. That culminated for you, a couple of years ago, with Macbeth and Kenneth Branagh. I actually saw this as an NT Live production.

Oh, did you?

How was that?

One of my abiding memories about that, which is possibly the wrong one. It was an amazing experience. If you’re gonna do a Shakespeare, because I’d never done Shakespeare before – I haven’t done it since, actually – do it with someone like Ken Branagh. But, I am a massive Andy Murray fan. Huge Andy Murray fan. And when we started the rehearsals, we were in Manchester and on the first day we turned onto the street – and it was the first year Murray won Wimbledon and I had a bet on with a couple of members of the cast that Murray was going to win – and we walked onto the street that we were rehearsing on and it was on Murray Street! I was like, right, this is a sign. And on the Sunday of the final, you very rarely in this country do plays on a Sunday, every time I was offstage I was watching the game before limping back on.

[Kenneth Branagh’s Macbeth]

But it was an amazing experience working with Ken and doing a live theatre performance of something that’s being beamed out to cinemas. Exhilarating as well.

Would you like to do more theatre acting?

Yeh. I would absolutely love to. I mean, I’ve done a couple of musicals in my time. I did Cabaret in the West End a few years ago with Julian Clary, no less. He was a great, great, lovely guy. So, I would love to do more, but the last few years, the way things have gone, it’s been more tv and film. I think film is my ultimate passion.

Stumbling across your Unofficial Facebook page, I noticed the banner picture which shows you in a studio with the likes of Jason Isaacs and Derek Jacobi. What was that project?

Oh, yeh. And Catherine McCormack. That was an amazing cast. That was a radio play called Mayflies and Catherine, in that play, there was a scene where her character had to give birth. And I remember being in the studio watching her doing it, thinking this must be the most convincing giving-birth scene ever heard on radio… That was good. They were all extremely lovely… That’s what actors want to strive towards. You want to work on projects with great people who you can learn from.

Which neatly brings us to your latest project. You’re in a film which comes out in a couple of weeks. I assume it’s not about a dog selling insurance…

Oh, that’s the twist!

No, don’t give away the ending… It’s called Churchill. Who do you play?

I’m playing Captain James Stagg who is a character that I had never heard of. I think, one of the fascinating things about World War Two is that there are so many stories and so many characters that were heroes and their story has not been told. And, Captain Stagg, for me, was one of those guys who played a pivotal part in the D-Day landings because he was in the meteorological department of the Navy. He was the only one of that department who had direct access with Eisenhower and he recommended that they delay the landings by several hours because the weather in the Channel was going to be so bad. And then the next day he suggested there was going to be a break in the bad weather and they should launch then and Eisenhower took his advice. D-Day could have been a complete disaster so he played a really important part in the success of it. He’s a Scottish hero of war… I feel as though I’ve watched just about every documentary on World War Two and I’d never heard of him.

Is history one of your hobbies?

It’s certainly one of my passions. I was lucky enough that five or six years ago I narrated a documentary on World War Two called Apocalypse: The Second World War. It had been colourised and watching it in colour really brings it home.

Brian Cox plays Churchill…

Yeh, it kind of looks at Churchill in a way that I can’t remember seeing in other films before and doesn’t just portray him as the outright hero. It looks at his emotional state and the doubts that he had and the fears he had about making the right decision.

So it’s a good old-fashioned drama, a thriller.

Yeh. I haven’t seen the finished version yet so I don’t know how it’ll come across on the screen.

It would be a surprise if they’ve turned it into a Carry On movie.

It would be an interesting take on it. I have to say, with period dramas, they’re always a fine line away from being a Carry On film anyway. When you get into some of these costumes and some of these wigs…

And it’s so serious.

Exactly. An eyebrow raise away from becoming slightly farcical. It’s a thriller, a biopic, it’s a character-driven drama.

Did you do months of research for the part at the Weather Centre?

I didn’t. Partly because I got the part very late in the day so I didn’t have much time to prepare. I found out as much as I could about Captain Stagg. I found out where he was from – an area in Scotland called Dalkeith – I couldn’t find any voice recordings of him. I adopted a tone I thought would be appropriate for that region and I grew a moustache. The best kind of preparation you can have!

You’ve got two films in post-production. A big film, The Titan. Can you say anything about that?

It’s basically a love story, set slightly in the future. We need somewhere else to live, so there’s the moon called Titan, just passed Saturn, and these astronauts have been sent to see if they can become attuned to living there.

And what’s The Little Princess?

The Little Princess is a film that I wrote and acted in. We made it a couple of months ago and we’re in the process of editing it now. Hopefully we’ll get it into festivals later on in the year. To summarise it, it’s a film about a man who’s going through a deep depression in his life and he happens to have a chance encounter with a little girl who reminds him of the beauty and simplicity of life… We found a little girl, a nine-year-old girl who is absolutely fantastic in it.

Finally, a few quick-fire questions – favourite fruit?

Apple.

Would you prefer a cooked breakfast or a healthy one?

I would prefer a cooked breakfast but I would probably go for the healthy one.

Your favourite book to recommend?

Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold.

Favourite comedian?

Billy Connolly.

Somehow, I knew you were going to say that…

He’s the first one that came to mind.

What’s guaranteed to make you cry?

The theme tune to Cinema Paradiso. Every time.

What’s your favourite kind of music?

Musical theatre. Or Das Punkt!

And, finally, as I know you’re into your animals and charity work – what’s your favourite animal?

Ooh.. er. My favourite animal? Erm… Let’s go for orang utan.

I like it. That is lovely. Well, I wish you all the luck with the movie and everything else you do in the future. Thanks for chatting.

My pleasure. Bye!

The film Churchill is on general release from June 16th. It is certificate PG and stars Brian Cox and Miranda Richardson.

WORDS FOR THE WOUNDED are delighted to announce the results of its fundraising  2017 international Independent Author Book Award

This year, as with every other year the judging team feel the standard had risen, making our task harder but extraordinarily satisfying. Structure, show not tell mostly in place. Crime, non fiction, romantic novels, short stories refreshing in their execution and subject, several written with humour, some inspiring… In all, such a great pleasure for us.

In fact, such was the variety we received, and the number, that we have decided it is time to take the competition up a level and over the next few months we will be finalising plans to provide even more opportunities for aspiring authors in our 2018 Award.

To kick start the new initiatives, and because we received many children’s picture books we have introduced a Special Category this year for Children’s Picture Books. Why? We found it impossible to compare these against entries for the adult and young adult market. This Special Category will be listed at the end of the results listed below.

We will be featuring day by day (starting tomorrow) each of the winners, including the  judge’s comments, biography of the author  and description of the book. So do tune in.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered and helped, especially our judge, editor Gillian Holmes, and the young team who read, or listened to, all the picture books.

Now to business:

1sr Place     Not a Girl: A book of short stories.          Christopher Donaldson

2^nd Place     The Flower Seller                                    Ellie Holmes.

3^rd Place     True Colours                                            Elly Redding

Highly Commended (alphabetical order)

Face Value                                             Ian Andrew

Eye Spy                                                 Tessa Buckley

Front of the Wilderness                         Jeremy Good

An Orchid in Winter                                Michelle Gunner

Not in the Pink                                       Tina Martel

Wyrm Gold                                             Richard Middleton

Uncertain Light                                       Marion Molteno

Accidental Traveller                                Raphael Wilkins

Commended (alphabetical order)

A Jarful of Moonbeams.                           Chrissie Bradshaw

Dorothy Lyle in Avarice                            Ella Carmichael

A Material Harvest                                    Paul Cranwell

Strip Naked and Re-Dress Happiness      Maria Hocking

The Postmistress of Nong Khai                 Frank Hurst

Against all odds                                         Ishbel Kargar

Standing Orders                                        David Rose

Highlanders’ Revenge                               Paul Tors

Special category.

Children’s picture books:

1^st: The Ruby the Routemaster series: Ruby’s Story.     By Christophe Dupuy

2^nd Little Hoglet’s Egg Race.                                           By Richard Middleton

www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

The John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation (JTYAF) would like to congratulate Royal Marine Richie, Amber, Adam, James, Shaun and Tom for their incredible achievement in completing 30,000 press ups at Sainsbury’s Ferndown! Together with 55 JTYAF volunteers their challenge raised an incredible £3,600 in donations from shoppers over the weekend!

This challenge required a huge amount of time and commitment to ensure success and the charity can’t thank the team enough for their support.  Richie however is the main man, he got them all together and ran the whole event.

Thanks must also go to Overhang, My Protein and Letter X, who sponsored the challenge and a very special thank you to Sainsbury’s Ferndown for hosting the event.  They always go that extra mile for the JTYAF.

Congratulations to Karen and Paul who were winners of the One Minute Press Up Challenge and received amongst their prizes 3 months Free at Richie s Fit Camp, a meal for two at the Angel Inn and a Ringwood Brewery Tour. 

Without the generosity of the Sainsbury’s customers this would not have been possible but thanks must also go to those who supported Richie’s Team on line and raised another £2852!

In total Richie and his team raised £6,452 which is an incredible achievement and will make a massive difference to local young people in the year ahead.

This is not the first crazy challenge that Richie has organised to support John’s Foundation.  With Rowathons, 46 Mile Runs, Marathons, Pram Races and 350 Mile Cycles he has now raised £19,000 for the charity!

The JTYAF is extremely privileged to have his support.  All the funds raised will help young people to discover their potential, develop their talents and inspire them to ‘climb as high as they can dream

For more information about the work of the JTYAF please visit their website at www.jtyaf.org