12 September 2019

Janet Ellis: ‘My writing is very character driven and the stories start when I hear voices’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students

Janet Ellis was our 16th former student to secure a book deal. After taking our three-month course in London in 2014 she was signed by Curtis Brown literary agent Gordon Wise. Her debut historical novel The Butcher’s Hook was published by Two Roads in 2016. Her second novel How It Was was released this August. We caught up with Janet […]

05 September 2019

#WriteCBC: Writing tip and writing task from Cynan Jones

by admin Events, Writing Tips

It’s September, and #WriteCBC is back! Yes, it’s the return of our monthly Twitter writing competition after our summer break, and this month’s splendid guest is Cynan Jones, author of five novels including The Dig, The Long Dry and Everything I Found on the Beach. He has won a Betty Trask Award and the BBC National […]

04 September 2019

Jennifer Kerslake: ‘Keep moving forward and keep writing’

by Jennifer Kerslake Writing Tips

Hello! I’m delighted to be writing my first blog post for Curtis Brown Creative after joining as senior manager for courses and operations. Despite a few technical difficulties, including one tense moment on my first day when I crashed the website (only for a couple of minutes, but obviously not ideal – thank you team […]

29 August 2019

How to give your novel pace and momentum

by Anna Davis How To ..., Writing Tips

This week, the Curtis Brown Creative team are back in the office after our respective dreamy summer holidays (sigh), and I decided to run a little Twitter poll: Having read a few disappointing books while I was away this year, I asked people to name the ONE thing that makes them want to abandon a holiday […]

29 August 2019

How audiobooks make you a better author

by Hannah Mary McKinnon From Our Students, Writing Tips

Hannah Mary McKinnon had a successful career in recruitment, then she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. Hannah took our six-month online novel-writing course back in 2014, she is now the author of three novels. Here she shares the benefits of listening to audiobooks and how they’ve helped her become a better author.   Once upon a time, […]

28 August 2019

Sarah Linley: ‘The first draft is just the start of the journey’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students

Sarah Linley studied on our 3-month online novel-writing course back in 2015 – now she has an eBook deal with HarperCollins. We caught up with Sarah to find out more about her time studying with us, her debut thriller and her approach to writing …  What was the first thing you did when you found out […]

15 August 2019

Summer reads from the literary agents

by Katie Smart From the Agents

Barack Obama recently shared his summer reading recommendations which include the works of literary great Toni Morrison, Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winning novel Wolf Hall and Haruki Murkami’s short story collection Men Without Women … Here at CBC we can never have enough books on our to-be-read pile… So, this leads us to ask the […]

08 August 2019

Introducing the Jane Fallon Scholarship winner

by Katie Smart Course News

We are thrilled to announce that Clare Milling has been awarded the Jane Fallon Scholarship. Clare will join our 6-month online novel-writing course, taught by Lisa O’Donnell, this September. We received over 140 applications, and competition was high! We are immensely grateful to everyone who applied and were overwhelmed by the quality of writing. We […]

01 August 2019

Theo Paphitis, Kirsty Eyre, Jilly Cooper, Helen Lederer and Laura Steven (photography by Steve Burton, Smartpicsuk)

Kirsty Eyre: ‘comedy writing is an art in itself’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students

Kirsty Eyre took our London-based 3-month novel-writing course in 2017. Cow Girl, the novel she was working on with us has gone on to win the inaugural Comedy Women in Print Unpublished Prize and a publishing contract with HarperCollins. Here Kirsty talks comedy, writing tips and finding her trusted readers … You were working on your debut […]

30 July 2019

Allie Reynolds: ‘Keep revising and re-submitting’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students

We caught up with Allie to find out more about her experience studying with us, her book deal and how her former snowboarding career helped inspire the setting of her debut thriller …