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| Chris Longmuir, winner of the Dundee International Book Prize 2009 |
As a past winner of the Dundee International Book Prize, I
always take a keen interest in the current winner, so when I spotted the
headline ‘Dark Tale Lands City
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| Nicola White, winner 2013 |
This year’s winner is Nicola White, with a book called ‘In
the Rosary Garden’, and the book sounds as if it’s right up my street. It is a
crime story set in Ireland ,
but if you want to know more about it, do what I did and hop over to Amazon
to read the blurb. The kindle ebook is on sale now, and the paperback will be
available soon. And if you want to know more about Nicola you’ll find her on
the Dundee International Book Prize website Winners’ Page.
Nicola is the ninth author to win this prestigious prize,
which is claimed to be the biggest cash prize for an unpublished book, in Europe . If you want to see the previous winners you can
access them on the Winner’s page as well, and if you click on 2009, you’ll find
me.
One thing I did notice when I looked down the list of past
winners was the prevalence of Scottish writers. Five of the nine winners were
Scots. The year I won it, I remember one review commented that the prize was
always won by a Dundee writer, and this took
the pleasure of the win away. In my case the comment wasn’t true because,
although I base my crime series in Dundee , I
don’t live there. However, when I looked down the list of previous winners the
strange thing was that the first three were all based in Dundee .
Number four lived in France ,
I was number five and live in Angus. Number six came from Wigan, and number
seven from Dublin .
Last year’s winner was from New York , and this
year’s winner is well travelled, because although she lives on the Clyde coast,
she grew up in Dublin and New York .
Since winning the prize I haven’t given much thought to the
comment about all the winners being Dundonians. But thinking about it now I
feel that this is actually a compliment. It means Dundee
is full of talented writers, because I cannot imagine the judges will know the
geographic location of the authors who submit entries.
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| Nicola's winning book |
I can understand what Nicola is feeling right now, because it
will be similar to my feelings back in 2009. A blend of excitement and disbelief.
The feeling you are going to wake up the next day and it was all a dream. All I
can say to Nicola is, ‘Enjoy it while it lasts, and if there are any snide
comments in the reviews your book gets, ignore them. You know your book is
good, the judges knew it was good, and now the readers will get their chance to
find out how good it is.’
I can’t wait to read it.
Before you go, one of the runner ups to the Dundee Book Prize is offering her short listed book as a free ebook download today. I'm not sure how long this offer will be up there so I would advise you to check it out right now. The author is Elizabeth Kay, and the book is titled 'Beware of Men with Moustaches'. It looks like a cracking good read, and I've already downloaded my copy.
Before you go, one of the runner ups to the Dundee Book Prize is offering her short listed book as a free ebook download today. I'm not sure how long this offer will be up there so I would advise you to check it out right now. The author is Elizabeth Kay, and the book is titled 'Beware of Men with Moustaches'. It looks like a cracking good read, and I've already downloaded my copy.
Chris Longmuir
3 comments:
Great blog as always Chris.
I remember when you won and how amazed I was that you were able to keep it a secret until it was officially announced. And yes, the moustaches book is an excellent read. I thoroughly recommend it.
Thanks fort lovely comments
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