The Regional Awards Ceremony for the winners was held at Yate Library in Yate. We had a terrific turnout and I was delighted to present the regional runners up with a certificate and an invitation to my book launch in June. The Regional Winner received book tokens, a certificate and a book launch invitation – and her story was immediately forwarded to the national shortlist. The overall winner will be announced during National Crime Fiction Week in June.
I was absolutely knocked out at the variety of the stories, which ranged from gangs and burglaries to kidnappings and vampires. Settings varied too. Some were set in cities, some at night, one was set on an island in a violent storm.
The main characters varied widely too, with detectives, soldiers, innocent bystanders and police. Some were truly gruesome! But one thing struck me and that was that the imagination behind each story was unique, individual and incredibly creative.
Now, for the winners!
The winner of the Young Crime Writers' Competition is Nicole Hendry age 15 from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. Lara Denaro age 16 from the London region is Highly Commended.
The winning entry has been posted on the Crime Fiction Week website www.crimefictionweek.co.uk
Congratulations Nicole and Lara!
Regional Winner of the 2010 Young Crime Writer of the Year Award
Nicole Wootton-Cane for Young and Ferocious
This story was hard, fast and real. It used the theme of gang initiation and from the first sentence I had an instant rapport with the main character. I could feel their fear, their desperate hope to belong to the gang as well as their terror of the initiation.
The end was shocking, a real surprise, and left me wondering how the rest of this young person's life was going to pan out. This story stayed with me long after I finsihed it, which is a real testament to the author.
Well done, Nicole!
Runner Up
Adam Timothy for Gone Forever
This was a vampire story, beautifully written and incredibly atmospheric, set in the eighteenth century. I could almost smell the streets of London, the reek of refuse and poverty. It was brooding, dark and dangerous with a startling and violent ending that had me almost shrieking out loud!
Highly Commended
Josh Timothy for Crime and Death
I loved this story, which was like reading a TV or movie script. It was unrelentingly fast and gripping with a good twist at the end. A really cracking story – and the entrant is the youngest, aged nine. Well done, Josh.
Shortlisted, in no particular order:
Emma Robinson for Us
Rebeka Benedek for A Murder in My Room
Dan Panesar for Rook
Madison Halladay for Licensed to Kill
James Millward for Elite Squadron 5
Congratulations to everyone! And remember, even if you weren’t short-listed, don’t lose heart. Even JK Rowling didn’t succeed at first, and nor did I! Keep writing, and keep telling those stories.
*CWA members are all professionally published writers of crime fiction and non-fiction and the world famous crossed dagger logo is our emblem.
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