Exclusive First Chapter of ‘Little Bones’ by Sam Blake

    The door to the back bedroom hung open. Pausing at the top of the narrow wooden stairs, Garda Cathy Connolly could just see inside, could see what looked like the entire contents of the wardrobe flung over the polished floorboards, underwear scattered across the room like litter. The sun, winter weak, played through a window opposite the door, its light falling on something cream, illuminating it bright against the dark denim and jewel colours of the tumbled clothes on the floor. Cathy’s stomach turned again and she closed her eyes, willing the sickness to pass. There was a riot of smells up here, beeswax, ghostly layers of stale perfume, something musty. She put her gloved hand to her mouth and the smell of the latex, like nails on a blackboard, set her teeth on edge. Until thirty-six hours ago Cathy had been persuading herself that her incredibly heightened sense of smell and queasiness were the start of a bug. Some bug. But right now her problems were something she didn’t have the headspace to deal with. She had
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The Winners of our Open Submissions Month

Twenty7 is the major new publishing venture from Bonnier, devoted specifically to publishing debut authors across all fiction genres. Twenty7 is dedicated to finding new talent and for the first 27 days of September 2015, it was was open to unagented submissions, with the support of Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. 462 submissions were received which have been expertly narrowed down to just five manuscripts. They have been selected as the submissions with the most potential and all five authors will receive an editorial consultation, with the aim of providing focused guidance and support as they develop their narratives as well as the chance to have their manuscript considered for publication. The titles which have been selected for feedback are: The Residents by C.J. Tudor (thriller) Blue Gloves on a String by Eleanor O’Reilly (reading group) The Husband Shop by Jaimie Admans (women’s fiction) No Place by Katharine D’Souza (women’s fiction) Unlawful Things by Anna Sayburn Lane (thriller) Twenty7 editor, Joel Richardson comments: ‘We really enjoyed reading all of your submissions – and the incredible variety of ideas, characters, and styles which came flooding in. Thank you
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The Novice Novelist – Twenty7 Open Submissions

Looking for inspiration for our 27 Days of Open Submissions, which we’re running in association with Cornerstones? Author Colette Dartford describes what she learned about writing in the course of producing her wonderful debut novel, Learning to Speak American. Like all authors with Twenty7 Books, I am debut novelist. Learning To Speak American will be published as an e-book on November 5th and as a paperback next July. And if you are reading this as part of the ‘27 days of open submissions,’ you probably harbour aspirations of being a published author too. You daydream about that elusive book deal and as someone who has been in that position, I’m happy to report that it’s both possible and wonderful. What inspired me to write my first novel was a trip to California’s idyllic Napa Valley. My husband and I were so smitten that we bought a run-down wooden house and spent the next two years travelling back and forth from Somerset to oversee its renovation. My protagonists in Learning To Speak American do this too, desperate to move on from a
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