Friday 18 December 2015

Broken Faces and Excitement for 2016

2015 has been a year of getting used to changes. Firstly at home, with the loss at the end of 2014 of my beloved Miniature Schnauzer Max, and the addition of three Spanish rescue dogs from the brilliant Company of Dogs charity based in Jersey who rescues dogs and finds forever homes for them. Our house is now constantly busy and mostly noisy thanks to the playful tactics of Jarvis, Claude and Rudiger.

It's also seen changes for my writing. After beating 7,000 other entrants to be a runner-up in the Good Housekeeping Novel Writing Competition 2012, with my book Broken Faces - a WW1 based romance about unrequited love, betrayal and learning to live with a terrible disfigurement - the book then received a Special Commendation from the Harry Bowling Prize.

One of the judges in the GH competition, the brilliant and lovely agent Luigi Bonomi, asked to read the rest of Broken Faces and then offered me representation. Needless to say I didn't have to think this through for more than a millisecond. I thought 2013 would be 'my year' - it was a good year but not in ways I'd expected. Luigi was wonderful and when Broken Faces almost, but not quite found a home with a publisher, I then wrote two psychological thrillers for him. Both were well received, but didn't get taken up.

Because Luigi only represented me as Deborah Carr and not my alter ego Georgina Troy, I had to keep the two personas separate. The books I write as Georgina Troy are contemporary romances based in Jersey, and books 2, 3, and 4 of The Jersey Scene series are also based in Sorrento, South of France and Vietnam. This series is published by Accent Press with book 4, A Jersey Bombshell coming out next April.

I was also Deputy Editor for Novelicious.com looking after the Alternative Thursday posts, interviews, reviews, etc for six years. But after six years promoting other authors and amicably parting ways with Luigi a few months ago I thought it was time to rethink my days a little and focus on my own writing, although I'll still be contributing and reviewing for Novelicious - because they are the greatest team ever.

However, as of two days ago I saw my debut novel Broken Faces by D M Carr being published by a new imprint, Green Shutter Books. To finally see this book that is so close to my heart finally published it a dream come true. Roll on 2016, I've already been contacted about three exciting events during the year, but none that I can share with you, just yet.

24 comments:

Kate Harrison said...

Congratulations on the publication of Broken Faces - and on your refocusing. Hope it brings lots of wonderful opportunities in 2016!

Kate xx

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Thanks very much Kate! I hope 2016 is a fabulous year for you too. xxx

Jenny Woolf said...

Well done! It is indeed a very difficult route to publication but clearly you are now well and truly on your way. Happy Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Good luck with everything, Debs. It's both scary and exciting when new things happen but it's always good to keep moving forwards. Will look forward to keeping up with events.
Sue
x

Anita Chapman said...

Congratulations and good luck with Broken Faces, Debs! I remember you talking about this novel when I first joined Twitter, how exciting that it's now published, and out there. Happy Christmas and best wishes for a fantastic 2016 x

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Thank you very much, Jenny. It's been a long trek but I'm very happy to be where I am now and hope people enjoy reading Broken Faces.x

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Thanks very much Sue. Sometimes it's hard to keep moving forward when things seem to be going backwards but I find that usually things work out for the best and I feel very positive with everything right now. x

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Thanks, Anita. I'm so excited that this book has been published, it's very close to my heart and I have a few surprising stories to tell about my research which I'll divulge here over the next few months.

Merry Christmas to you, I hope 2016 is the brilliant year I feel sure it will be for you. x

Pat Posner said...

What a fantastic thing to do, Debs, you and yours giving a forever home to those three beauties. I'm sure Max knows and approves (HUGS).

Congratulations on all your writing successes and here's to many more in 2016 xx

Flowerpot said...

That's brilliant news Debs - the best Christmas present ever! Look forward to hearing your other good news. And well done you for the canine additions too! X

Rosemary Gemmell said...

That's fantastic news, Debs - many congratulations on your success with all the different writing! Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Deborah Carr said...

Thanks very much, Pat. These little guys have made us happy again, theyre adorable. x

Deborah Carr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
joanne fox said...

Well done on your exciting news. And happy Christmas!

Deborah Carr said...

Thanks very much Sue, Rosemary and Joanne and I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and 2016 too. x

Teresa Ashby said...

It is lovely to see your three happy rescues - what a massive difference you have made to them. And lovely to hear about Broken Faces. Thank you, I now have another book to look forward to reading. Happy Christmas xx

Deborah Carr said...

Thanks very much, Teresa. The three boys are so sweet and cheeky and very different to each other. We love them. I hope you enjoy Broken Faces, it's a book that's very close to my heart. x

Melissa Amateis said...

Such wonderful news! I hope that 2016 is fantastic for you!

Deborah Carr said...

Thanks Melissa, and for you too. x

Cathy said...

Congratulations on the publication of Broken Faces and best wishes for 2016. Cathy

Deborah Carr said...

Thank you very much Cathy and the same to you.

Karen said...

It's so sad to lose a pet, it happened here too. We're hoping to get a new one this year, the house doesn't feel right without a doggy!

Lots of luck with Broken Faces, it deserves to do so well :o)

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

We never thought we could cope without having Max in the house, but adopting Jarvis made all the difference.

Thanks very much Karen, I'm still over the moon that you enjoyed Broken Faces so much! xxx

Unknown said...

it is so sad to loose a pet dog.it happened same here.
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