Young Crime Writers' Competition
A teenage crime writer from the West Midlands has won the first National Young Crime Writers' Competition.
More than 600 stories were received from all over the country. The eventual winner, chosen by outgoing CWA Chair, Margaret Murphy, and Laura Wilson, Guardian reviewer and winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award, is Nicole Hendry, age 15, of Sutton Coldfield, with The Demolition of Lives (read the winning story online). The judges praised her story as ‘daring and effective - a convincing emotional journey with a sympathetic protagonist, good motivation and a clever plot.’
The highly commended writer is Lara Denaro, age 16, of Teddington, London, with The Phone Box.
More about the Young Crime Writers' Competition 2010, and the winning story.
Meldrum Writers' Group Crime Fiction Competition
Judges Rhian Davies and Roger Morris awarded joint first place to An Inconvenient Wife by Jacky Fowler and The Best Tool For The Job by Nettie Thomson.
Rhian said that Jacky's story had, "Realistic dialogue and good plotting, with an excellent opening hook and a strong, individual authorial voice," while Roger thought, "An Inconvenient Wife was very well written - good dialogue, nice double twist, good writing, and I think it's very professionally done."
Of The Best Tool For The Job, Roger Morris "liked the lightness of tone and the pace and the characters. It just seemed to have a really fresh voice and the characters struck me as believable, the situation didn't seem overdone. Most of all I liked the voice: it seemed authentic."
The winning stories were on display in Meldrum Library during Crime Fiction Week.
Crime time competition - Surrey Libraries
The winner of Surrey Libraries' crime writing competition was Jane Offler. Entrants were asked to write up to 250 words of an opening paragraph for a crime novel. The runners up were Mark Taylor and Tony Dunn.