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Dear Friends of TLC,
Welcome to TLC's November Newsletter.
We have an exciting month of activity and announcements at TLC, as we approach the end of the year.
We start with a special online invitation to watch an exclusive livestream of our 25th anniversary birthday celebrations. Join us via this link on the 25th November 7-8pm GMT to celebrate with us. The evening will feature a screening of a specially commissioned short film with novelist Ashley Hickson-Lovence, a dance-poetry performance from Dancing With Words, and a special ‘What Editors Want’ podcast with Philip Connor speaking to Marianne Tatepo. We hope to see you there!
Staying on the theme of our 25th birthday, as some of you might know, TLC was started at the kitchen table of our founder Rebecca Swift. To celebrate 25 years of supporting writers and the literary community, we have created a digital ‘kitchen table’ and we'd love for you to leave us a message about how TLC has been part of your writing journey. Poems, postcards, doodles and videos are all welcome - so don't forget to share your story, and pop your message onto our kitchen table!
While we spend this month looking back on 25 years of working with writers, we're also delighted to be looking into the future, as we welcome a new in-house recruit to Team TLC! Amy Lord joins us in the newly created role of Marketing and Communications Officer. From November, Amy will join the Writing Services team, working part-time and remotely from her base in the North East of England to help develop TLC’s marketing, communications and audience development strategies. Welcome, Amy!
As always we're featuring a TLC client in our monthly Showcase - this time it's the supremely talented Bobbie-Jean Huff, and her book The Ones We Keep, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Dzanc Prize for Fiction. We have a first for our monthly TLC Blog, as we're delighted to welcome back long-time TLC Reader, Mentor and novelist, Ashley Stokes, with an epic two-part blog. Do look out for part two next month. Ashley wrote for us back in 2018 on how he had decided to abandon a book project. He now returns with a piece appropriately entitled 'The Art of Not Giving In', as he celebrates the launch of his novel Gigantic.
Finally, it's that time of the year when we need to start getting Christmas presents sorted, and we're excited to bring back our popular TLC Christmas vouchers! There's a special 10% discount offer on personalised vouchers for the writer in your life! More details below.
As always, happy writing, reading, and editing.
TLC
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Inspired by the fact that TLC was started at the kitchen table of our co-founder Rebecca Swift, we have created a digital ‘kitchen table’ to celebrate a quarter century of supporting writers and the literary community. We’d really love to take this moment to invite you to pop a message onto our kitchen table. Share your story of how TLC has impacted your writing, and the connection you've had with us over the years!
Please feel free to be as creative as you like: messages, poems, postcards, doodles and videos are all welcome. The Kitchen Table will be on display at our 25th Anniversary Birthday Party on 25th November. Don't forget you can join the livestream by clicking this link here, on the day.
Leave your message on the Kitchen Table now!
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TLC has appointed Amy Lord into the newly created role of Marketing and Communications Officer. From November, Amy will join the in-house team, working part-time and remotely from her base in the North East of England to help develop TLC’s marketing, communications and audience development strategies. Amy joins Joe Sedgwick and Nelima Begum in the Writing Services team, supporting strategy across TLC’s writing services and public programming.
Amy is an arts marketer from North East England. Since completing an MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University, she has worked in a number of marketing roles across the North East and Yorkshire, including nine years in the cultural sector where she worked for a range of museums and theatres. She also works as a freelance marketer with several small arts organisations. Amy is also an award-winning blogger and published novelist whose debut, The Disappeared, was the recipient of a Northern Writers’ Award and was published by Unbound in 2019. Amy’s next novel has been supported by a K Blundell Trust grant from the Society of Authors.
Read more about Amy and what she had to say about joining TLC here.
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TLC Christmas Vouchers 10% Discount
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TLC Christmas gift vouchers are now available, redeemable against manuscript assessment and mentoring (fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poetry and scripts), Online Writers' Surgeries, and Submission Package Reports. A unique and inspiring gift for the serious writer in your life, offering them professional feedback on their creative project by a highly experienced editor. You can also buy a voucher for £50, £100, £200, or any custom amount.
Some ideas:
For the Short Story Writer: Gift a critical assessment of a short story by a short fiction specialist (up to 2,000 words, £100 inc. VAT)
For the Budding Writer: Gift a critical assessment of the first 15,000 words of their novel-in-progress (£225 inc. VAT)
For the Intermediate Writer: Gift a full manuscript assessment (from £450 inc. VAT)
For the Writer who's about to Submit to Agents: Gift a Submission Package Report (£280 inc. VAT)
For the Writer with a Project: Help them realise their dream by gifting, or putting money towards, a unique TLC mentorship to help get their book to completion working one-to-one with a professional editor, plus the chance to meet agents and publishers (£2,200 + VAT, Classic / £3,499 + VAT Premium, 12-18 month programme)
Throughout the month of November, TLC Christmas Gift Vouchers are available at 10% discount.
Order up until December 13th for Christmas delivery.
Order now!
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TLC Blog: The Art of Not Giving In (Part One)
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"In January 2018, all the cool kids sat in stunned silence and wept into their berets when, on this very blog I announced – grief and emotion adding palpable shake to my intense, kinetic and showoffy prose style – that I had abandoned my novel The North Surrey Gigantopithecus. It did not chime with the delicate sensibilities of the new mass. It was dead now, no more than wasted time trapped in a Word file forever. It had become yet more regret and shame to shovel onto my regret and shame slagheap. It was mental illness incarnate, my madness and my doom."
We're excited this month to welcome back long-time TLC Reader, Mentor and now novelist, Ashley Stokes, in the first section of an epic two-part blog. Ashley wrote a blog for us in 2018 on how he had decided to abandon his book project. He now returns with a piece appropariately entitled 'The Art of Not Giving In', as he celebrates the launch of his novel Gigantic. It's great to welcome Ashley back onto the blog, and look out for Part Two next month.
Read Ashley's full blog here.
Do you have something on your mind, about books, literature and the value of literature, or publishing, that you'd like to blog about for us? We are actively seeking pitches to: joe@literaryconsultancy.co.uk We pay an honorarium of £50 per blog.
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TLC Showcase: Bobbie Jean Huff
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"The woman beside her buttons her shirt, then wheels her cart back to the corner opposite where the other woman is squatting. Are they friends? It doesn’t appear that way, although they are of similar age and equally decrepit. Olivia remembers reading about them recently, the women who inhabit that bathroom. The article said there was no official attempt to oust them. Olivia was surprised to read that, and glad. She can’t imagine what their lives must be like, other than the obvious—that they each must have left a situation more untenable than the Port Authority ladies’ room."
We've been really pleased in the last few months to be able to feature some real TLC Talent in our monthyl Showcase, and this month in no exception! Do be sure to read an extract from The Ones We Keep by TLC writer Bobbie Jean Huff, who found success with her gripping novel, after receiving manuscript feedback from TLC Reader Anna South.
Read more about Bobbie Jean's work in the November Showcase.
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A reminder that there are still a handful of places left for Being a Writer members and non-members on our new Write Club Plus programme, beginning in January. Designed to help you get your writing project finished, this brand new year-long facilitated programme includes practical workshops, motivational Masterclasses with industry speakers, monthly peer writing groups, weekly prompts, a 12-month creative roadmap, and much more. Tickets are just £199 and capacity is strictly limited. You can click here to find out more and sign up.
Other things from around the web to inspire you this month...
* The Rebecca Swift Foundation is recruiting for three new Trustees to join the Board ahead of the next round of the Women Poets’ Prize in Summer 2022.
* TLC Director Aki Schilz was featured in Allbright's recent feature on female founders and building brands.
* The Literary Film and TV you need to Stream in November, via LitHub
* 5 great pieces of advice from Stylist to help your mental health in Autumn.
* TLC Press Craft and Creativity Mini Guides are on sale and cover such craft elements as 'Dialogue', 'Plot' and 'Voice'. Pick them up for just £1 each (or the full bundle for £8) here.
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Thank you for reading this newsletter. For further information on TLC's core services including manuscript assessment, mentoring, and other editing services including copy-editing and proofreading, do visit our website. All general enquiries and manuscript submissions should be sent to Writing Services Officer Nelima Begum at info@literaryconsultancy.co.uk.
We also have Facebook and Twitter pages where we share information and insights, articles on writing, editing and the publishing industry, as well as tips and recommendations.
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