Welcome!

I've set up this blog so that all my friends, relations and colleagues in the world of writing can keep up to speed with what I'm doing - from now on, I'll never have to say sorry for not keeping in touch.

Or anyway, that's the plan.

So do please link up with me on Facebook and Twitter - https://www.facebook.com/margaret.james.5268 and https://twitter.com/majanovelist

You can find my novels as digital downloads on Apple iTunes, Kobo, Kindle and Nook, and most are available as print paperbacks, too.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Who will win?

The day for announcing the winner of the second Exeter Novel Prize is getting close!  We at CreativeWritingMatters chose the longlist back at the end of December 2014. It was a long and fascinating process but, as we settled on our final top twenty, we decided we were very happy with a great mix of novels and styles of writing. All the longlisted entries are openings of stories that are excellent in their own way.

But we were still more than happy to hand over the longlist to our judge, the London literary agent Broo Doherty, who has now selected the shortlist and who will announce the overall winner at a ceremony in Exeter on 28th March. This ceremony will take place in the historic St Stephen's church in central Exeter, and readers, writers and members of the general public are all invited. So, if you're in the city on that day at 2 pm, please come along.


The six finalists are all winners and will all take home a trophy and a cash prize.  We hope their writing careers will go from strength to strength and that being finalists in the Exeter Novel Prize will encourage them to believe they can be successful in their chosen fields. 

The Exeter Novel Prize competition for 2015 is not yet open, but we at CreativeWritingMatters are already making plans and will be accepting entries soon.

If you're not a novelist but you still fancy making your mark on an international competition, why not consider writing something for the Exeter Story Prize? Stories up to 10,000 words in length are eligible. So, long or short, the choice is yours! There are lots of prizes to be won! http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk/