In From Writing With Love, her inspirational book on writing, Costa Short Story winner Avril Joy shares her writing life - the highs and lows, and everything she learned about writing along the way. 'I came late to writing and after a matter of only months found myself hopelessly in love. I had some modest, early success with publication but then a series of difficult rejections. In 2011 I came dangerously close to falling out of love with the one thing that had changed my life. Writing had brought me a deep and lasting sense of satisfaction and pleasure, it was the only thing I really wanted to do, so if I wasn't prepared to lose it all I had to think again. Much of this new thinking has gone into the pages here. In From Writing With Love, I share with you how I stayed in love with writing, what still inspires me, what helped me cope with success and disappointment in my writing life, how I came to win the Costa short story competition and everything I've learned about the craft of writing along the way.' If you are just starting out on your writing journey From Writing With Love is a book for you. It will inspire and encourage you to find your writer's voice and to grow in confidence. If you are already an experienced writer, From Writing With Love offers hard won advice on writing the short story and the novel as well as outlining routes to publication and helping you re-define and achieve success in your writing life. 'In From Writing With Love I share with you as honestly as I can my writing journey, in the hope that it will inspire you to be the best writer you can be, bring you success and help you celebrate and enjoy this amazing writing life.' This is a book in seven parts: Becoming a Writer, Finding Your Voice, Writing Short Stories, The Novel, How to Succeed, the Writing Life and a Postscript which includes the Costa winning short story, Millie and Bird
About the Author: Avril Joy was born and brought up on the Somerset Levels, the setting for her novel The Sweet Track, published in 2007 by Flambard Press. She now lives and works in the North East of England, near Bishop Auckland. Her most recent novel, Blood Tide, is a crime novel set in Newcastle and Weardale. In this venture into crime fiction she draws on her long experience of life inside a women's prison, having worked for a number of years as a teacher, and subsequently as Head of Learning and Skills, at HMP Low Newton, Durham City. In 2012 she won the inaugural Costa short story competition and was shortlisted in a number of other competitions including the Bristol Prize. She was runner up in The Garden Literature Festival Memoir Competition. Her stories have been published in literary magazines and anthologies including The Story: Love, Loss and the Lives of Women, edited by Victoria Hislop. Her latest collection Millie and Bird and Tales of Paradise will be published by Iron Press in 2014 She blogs regularly at www.avriljoy.com