When it all went brilliantly write!
July 13th, 2009 by Jenny Barden
Lesley Eames
with Imogen Howson
A few months ago, when Lesley Eames received confirmation of a place at the annual Conference of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, together with details of this year’s challenge for the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy, she thought she might ‘knock something together’ with the award in mind, since she had a few free hours. Last Saturday night (11 July 2009), I was a witness to her astonishment when Lesley was awarded the glittering prize.
The trophy is well-deserved. Last year Lesley was runner-up in the Competition, and on the way to the Conference she told me that she had recently had her sixty-sixth short story accepted for magazine publication. Her earnings from story writing are now into five figures. She is a hard-working and exceptionally bright lawyer with a bubbly personality who never stops pushing herself to achieve success through her love of writing.
The Elizabeth Goudge Trophy is awarded for the best novel beginning submitted on a theme chosen by the RNA Chairman, and this year bestselling author Katie Fforde, newly appointed to the chair, picked ‘an email message gone astray’ as the theme. Lesley submitted the opening to a story titled It All Went Horribly Wrong – but clearly it went spectacularly right!
So congratulations to Lesley: the VWC’s award-winning author. Now we’re all looking forward to see where she’ll go next with one of her brilliant beginnings!
July 14th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Congratulations, Lesley. Well deserved indeed.
July 20th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Congratulations, Lesley. The picture is lovely too. A very well deserved winner.