The Woman Before Me

From Legend Pres website:

The novel is published on 28th August.

Ruth was the winner of the 2009 Luke Bitmead Writer's Bursary. Below is the blurb:

They came for me, just like I knew they would. Luke had been dead for just three days.

Rose Wilks’ life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Emma Hatcher has all that Rose lacks. Beauty. A loving husband. A healthy son. Until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.

Now, having spent nearly five years behind bars, Rose is just weeks away from freedom. Her probation officer Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for Luke’s death, or whether she remains a threat to society. As Cate is drawn in, she begins to doubt her own judgement.

Where is the line between love and obsession, can justice be served and, if so… by what means?

‘Dark, disturbing and authentic’ CWA judging panel.

Lucy

Luke Bitmead Bursary

FROM LEGEND PRESS:

Submissions are now open for the 2010 Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary. The award
was set up shortly after Luke’s death in 2006 by his family to support and
encourage the work of fledgling novel writers, with the top prize being a publishing
contract with Legend Press, as well as a cheque for £2500.
We are pleased to be continuing this brilliant bursary for a third year, and hope to
follow in the success of 2008 winner Andrew Blackman, who published his debut
novel On the Holloway Road in February 2009, and last years winner Ruth Dugdall
who publishes her hotly anticipated novel The Woman Before Me in July 2010. The
deadline for submissions is 31st August 2010, with the winner announced in
the week of 27th October 2010. For further details visit:
http://forward.legendpress.co.uk/mainsite/luke-bitmead-bursary.html

The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall (Legend Press, 21st August)
Rose Wilks’ life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to
intensive care. Alongside her is Emma Hatcher, who’s just given birth to Luke.
Joel dies and Luke is thriving, until tragedy strikes and Rose is the only suspect.
Told through a series of letters from Rose’s prison cell, her probation officer
Cate must decide whether Rose is remorseful for Luke’s death, or whether she
remains a threat to society. Can justice can be served, and if so… by what
means?

The James Version

The James Version

My first novel, The James Version, has just been re-published. Very excited to see the listing on Amazon today! Here`s the blurb:

‘The airless cottage stifles me, and I cannot breathe. The glass reveals another world, but it entombs me. I am captive, but I have seen the outside. It is November 1826 and I am thirty-one years old... There is a storm brewing’
New Year 1851
Rector James Coyte arrives at his bleak Suffolk destination. Full of apprehension, he expects his first post to be provincial and unchallenging. But Polstead is a village with a secret.
A young woman murdered in a frenzied attack, then buried in a shallow grave in The Red Barn. She was just twenty-seven, and only six weeks before birthed an illegitimate baby.
Based on true events which shocked nineteenth century Britain, The James Version is set in 1851 when Ann Marten, nearing the end of her life, reveals the story to the novice Rector. Through their meetings, the truth of the murder is gradually uncovered to its shocking climax.
Ruth Dugdall was inspired to write by her experiences working as a probation officer. The James Version, her first novel, was an award- winner at the Winchester Writers` Conference. Her second novel, The Woman Before Me (published by Legend Press), won the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, and her third, The Sacrificial Man will be published by Solidus in late 2010.
Published by Back to Front
www.back-to-front.com
CRIME WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION
DEBUT DAGGER WINNING AUTHOR

Back to school...

I had a week off from writing last week, which is something I don`t often like to do, but it was so nice...
Being half-term the kids were off, and hubbie also took leave, so we had some family time seeing animals (even feeding some new-born lambs!) watched films (Invictus & Princess and the Frog)ate pizza and generally chilled out.

So, the kids are back at school, hubbie`s back at work and I`m back at my pc.
Coming to my writing fresh was a good idea, and I`ve worked better today than I have for a while. Let`s just hope it shows in the end-product!

London calling...

I`m just back from a few days in the big smoke - in fact, I had 4 meets in my diary and was late for every one. How do you Londoners cope with the trains? I was practically rocking, it was so frustrating. A fire in Battersea delayed the train by 40 minutes, and I was nose to armpit with several men, standing in a swaety carriage.
Also, no-one speaks, do they? Except for into their mobiles, though most people were texting.
When a pigeon entered the train I said, "Oh! Look!" and rather than looking at the bird everyone looked at me like I was nuts.

Anyway, I did meet up with the wonderful people at Legend Press, who are publishing The Woman Before Me in June. Oooh, I`m sooo excited! We talked marketing and covers and launches and I came away a very happy bunny (until boarding another train and realising that a happy face is interpreted as madness on the tube!)

Snow Day

You novelists with children will know what I mean, when I say Christmas just gets in the way of writing. I mean, I did my best, but frankly I was looking forward to school starting up so I could get back into routine. I`m a bit like a sodding racehorse with my training schedule, and get jittery if I`m off it...temperamental.

So, Tuesday I dropped the kids at the school gates and raced back to my comfy chair and laptop, switched on and loaded up. I`ve finished editing The Sacrificial Man & The Woman before Me, but I still have Family Snap to work on. I`m meeting Laura Wilson, my mentor, in a few weeks and want my first 3 chapters to sparkle. It felt so good to plan out my timetable of what chapters I`d look at each day and start honing words, but then...
THE HEAVENS OPENED!

Snow. Beautiful, isn`t it? Makes everything so clean, like a blank canvas.
And the children just loved being sent home early. I turned up at the gates with the sledge, and pulled it home, both kids on it, pelting me with snow balls and shouting `mush`. Hard work, but I consoled myself I was burning calories. "Faster, mummy! You`re too slow!" Perhaps that was when my joy started to falter.

Friday. Snow still around. We did a long walk, which was abruptly ceased when my son announced that he had no socks on! Imagine wearing wellies with bare feet. I marched them home, chastising him all the way with tales of Scott and frostbite. Miraculously, his feet felt toasty when I pulled the boots off.
We`ve had the video on, but now I`ve sent them upstairs (how can they have nothing to play with when Christmas was just 2 weeks ago?) and loaded Family Snap up again. But I feel guilty. Surely a good mum would be out there, sledging. Or at least rallying the kids into a game of Monopoly.
Hmmm.
Modern dilemma. Good writers make bad mums, discuss.
Who else saw the Enid Blyton biopic and winced?