Inky Elf News: Patricia M Osborne on her debut novel House of Grace

My protagonist, Grace, was born during a writing exercise inspired by George Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier. She later featured in my dissertation, a screenplay, to complete my BA degree in Creative Writing. While I was completing my screenplay, I became aware that there was a lot more story to be developed, so once my degree was completed in June 2013, I decided to take a year out from study and write my first novel, House of Grace.

House of Grace is a historical fiction family saga. It begins in 1950 and ends on Christmas Day of 1969. Because it’s written in two parts this allowed me to skip ten years in-between.

House of Grace is completely fictionalised but uses a lot of my memories as well as my late mother’s, plus an enormous amount of research. I spent four years of my childhood in Bolton and remember these times as special which is what inspired me to feature Bolton in Part I of my novel.

I like to edit as I go along. I treated each chapter as a short story and revised before moving onto the next. Of course this didn’t mean it was finished, I still completed a major edit once I got to the end. In fact I’m not sure how many complete drafts I edited before I was happy. My editor was a rock, not only did she stick with me in proofing draft after draft but she kept my confidence up when at times I wanted to abandon the whole thing.

I finished what I thought was my final edit in 2015, sent it out to a couple of publishers without success, although Myriad said it was a great story, but too commercial for them. The manuscript then sat around on my PC while I concentrated on my MA degree. After visiting Swanwick, The Writers’ Summer School, last August, I returned home inspired to become an indie author. From that point I resurrected House of Grace and began to edit, yet again. In December last year I submitted my completed manuscript to the formatters. At the same time I instructed an illustrator for the book cover. Early in March, after a few stressful months, a proof copy of House of Grace popped through my letterbox. Strangely, I didn’t feel excited but the opposite, sick. After speaking to my editor she advised me to press the button to submit. She had a glass of wine poured ready to toast Grace for when I gave her the signal that the deed was done. I sent the email to instruct my formatter to publish and poured myself and husband a glass of Prosecco. That was the moment I felt relieved and proud. I had done it. House of Grace had arrived. The publication date was 9th March, 2017 and since then it has been exhilarating to follow my readers’ comments about House of Grace.

Readers keep asking, is there going to be a sequel? Yes there is. I’m in the process of writing another novel, The Coal Miner’s Son which has a child narrator. I hope to return to this fully once my MA module concludes in May. The Coal Miner’s Son will run alongside House of Grace. The plan is to write a third novel in the series, to take over from where House of Grace and The Coalminer’s Son finish and this will conclude the story.

As well as being a novelist I also like to write short stories, screenplays, and poetry. I like to write poetry in-between my novels, especially if I am short on time as I can start a poem in a few minutes whereas getting back into novel writing can take me a couple of hours. I am presently Poet in Residence at a local Victorian Park.

House of Grace blurb on the back of the book….

It’s 1950 and all sixteen-year-old Grace Granville has ever wanted is to become a successful dress designer. She dreams of owning her own fashion house and spends her spare time sketching outfits. Her father, Lord Granville, sees this frivolous activity as nonsense and wants to groom her into a good wife for someone of his choosing…

Grace is about to leave Greenemere, a boarding school in Brighton. She’s blissfully unaware of her father’s plans when she embarks on a new adventure. The quest includes a trip to Bolton’s Palais where she meets coal miner, Jack Gilmore. Grace’s life is never the same again.  

Travel with Grace through two decades as she struggles with family conflict, poverty and tragedy. Is Grace strong enough to defy Lord Granville’s wishes and find true love? Will she become a successful fashion designer? Where will she turn for help?

Where can you buy a copy of House of Grace?

It’s available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com – Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Paperback version.

House of Grace

My email: Patricia.m.osborne@gmail.com

Website: http://patriciamosbornewriter.wordpress.com

For anyone that is interested in Swanwick: The Writers’ Summer School. Here is the link.

http://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/

Inky News: Event: Symposium on Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Sarah Layzell Hardstaff

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It’s no exaggeration to say that one of the most exciting moments of my life was receiving the course materials for the Open University’s EA300 module in children’s literature. It was the start of an epic quest that is still ongoing as I work towards my PhD in children’s literature.

One of my favourite things about EA300 was the balance of classic and contemporary children’s literature. One notable novel on the course list which falls into both categories is Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, now in its fortieth year in print.

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I’m currently helping to organise a symposium to celebrate Taylor’s novel, which will take place on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th September at Homerton College, Cambridge. We’ll be taking Roll of Thunder as our starting point for wider discussion on children’s literature, literature in the classroom, and issues such as diversity, representation and authenticity in books for young readers.

We’re also hoping to bring together a broad group of people to join in these discussions, so whether you’re a writer, teacher, student, academic or librarian, why not come along?

You can find out more about the event here:

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/events/conferences/rollofthunder40/

 

 

 

 

Inky News: Warrior’s Bible by Bones

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Bones is a performance poet. His new book Warrior’s Bible is now available. Keep your eyes peeled for his Inky Interview. For now, here is the introduction to his book:

 

Now I don’t know if you’ll agree but I KNOW it to be true! These lyrics this book ‘we’ wrote for you. Who’s we?

Me and d Higher Power, who’d be sendin me d lyrics hour after hour. Lyin in mah bed conversin wid HP in mah head, then 1 day they started sendin me lyrics instead.

It’s due seh I’m spiritual the Most High helped me become lyrical as well as inspirational, instructin and inspirin me to write this warriors bible for d people, for d likes of you aidin you to rise up and come through, cause believe me it’s way past due!!!!

You may think there’s spellin mistakes but it’s my kinda piss take pon d English language, sandwich that and street wid mah own lil beat, hope ya’ll find it sweet enuff to eat.

Digest it cause I’m no conformist had to express my individuality through non conformity cause I CAN’T abide what you perceive as normality!! Am I revolutionary? Absolutely!! And through dat I do tings differently!!!

I hope you enjoy readin as much as I liked creatin/writin. For me it was exhileratin, enlightenin and excitin. We’re badly in need of savin, let’s hope this is d salvation. Let’s unify, be of ONE mind, we ALL humankind, you best get ready cause your minds about to be fried.

Why you waitin? Stop deliberatin bout time d pages started turnin so you can start your TRUE learnin!!!!!

 

Get your own copy of Warrior’s Bible:

Email: warriors_bible@hush.com

Facebook

Phone: 07852 321149

 

 

 

Welcome Back to Ink Pantry

Welcome back to Ink Pantry. We have been offline for some time while the elves took a much needed break over the summer. As you can see, we have had a bit of a makeover while we have been gone which we feel better suits the new direction that Ink Pantry will be taking in the coming months.

Let’s Start With The Good News

Ink Pantry is now in the capable hands of our new Editor-in-Chief Deborah Edgeley who has been one of our longest serving elves and whom we feel will take great care of the project moving forward. Deborah is keen to hear from anyone interested in joining her team as an Inky Elf – both new faces and returning elves are welcome. Please get in touch with Deborah by emailing her at deborah@inkpantry.com

Now For The Bad News

During our hiatus, we became the victim of an attack on the site and a great deal of our archives were wiped out. Due to a technical hitch while changing hosts, our backup files were corrupted. That’s why you may notice that some of the content previously published on our site is no longer available. If you did previously have some content published here that you would like to see reinstated then please email it to us at deborah@inkpantry.com and we will get you back on site as quickly as possible.

It saddens us to have lost so much of Ink Pantry’s history, but we are looking forwards and relishing the opportunity to make a fresh start.

Thanks for sticking with us during our hiatus!