2015 has been a year of getting used to changes. Firstly at home, with the loss at the end of 2014 of my beloved Miniature Schnauzer Max, and the addition of three Spanish rescue dogs from the brilliant Company of Dogs charity based in Jersey who rescues dogs and finds forever homes for them. Our house is now constantly busy and mostly noisy thanks to the playful tactics of Jarvis, Claude and Rudiger.
It's also seen changes for my writing. After beating 7,000 other entrants to be a runner-up in the Good Housekeeping Novel Writing Competition 2012, with my book Broken Faces - a WW1 based romance about unrequited love, betrayal and learning to live with a terrible disfigurement - the book then received a Special Commendation from the Harry Bowling Prize. One of the judges in the GH competition, the brilliant and lovely agent Luigi Bonomi, asked to read the rest of Broken Faces and then offered me representation. Needless to say I didn't have to think this through for more than a millisecond. I thought 2013 would be 'my year' - it was a good year but not in ways I'd expected. Luigi was wonderful and when Broken Faces almost, but not quite found a home with a publisher, I then wrote two psychological thrillers for him. Both were well received, but didn't get taken up.
Because Luigi only represented me as Deborah Carr and not my alter ego Georgina Troy, I had to keep the two personas separate. The books I write as Georgina Troy are contemporary romances based in Jersey, and books 2, 3, and 4 of The Jersey Scene series are also based in Sorrento, South of France and Vietnam. This series is published by Accent Press with book 4, A Jersey Bombshell coming out next April.
I was also Deputy Editor for Novelicious.com looking after the Alternative Thursday posts, interviews, reviews, etc for six years. But after six years promoting other authors and amicably parting ways with Luigi a few months ago I thought it was time to rethink my days a little and focus on my own writing, although I'll still be contributing and reviewing for Novelicious - because they are the greatest team ever.
However, as of two days ago I saw my debut novel Broken Faces by D M Carr being published by a new imprint, Green Shutter Books. To finally see this book that is so close to my heart finally published it a dream come true. Roll on 2016, I've already been contacted about three exciting events during the year, but none that I can share with you, just yet.
