Truth is stranger than Fiction!

 At half past 7 last night I was in the toilets of a London hotel trying to stop a nose bleed – how surreal is that? I’ve not had such a gushing flow for a long time and I wondered if it would stop before I headed across town to catch my train home. Would I have to sit all bloody on the tube with a wodge of tissue stuffed up my nose?

(I had visions of the beginning of If I Can’t Have You by Charlotte Levin – if you’ve never read it I urge you to look it up.)

Fortunately, I stemmed the tide, left the loos, exited the hotel, crossed the road to Marks and Spencer’s, and bought myself a coronation chicken sandwich and some sparkling water. It’s the little details that make all the difference.

I guess you want to know why I was even there, some shady assignation perhaps? Oh, believe me the truth seems even more unbelievable than what I’ve just written, although every word happened.

You see I won an award last night – does that sound like the work of fiction? Actually, most of my writing thus far has been recounting real life so I won a prize for best non-fiction book.

The Ink Book Prize has been set up to reward those of us who have self-published.

(Although I am published by Resolute Books, we are a collective of independent authors each with our own responsibilities for self-publishing, the Resolute logo is a badge of honour – each book goes through a strict review process to earn it.)

This was the inaugural award with prizes for fiction, non-fiction and children’s fiction, alongside an award for best debut. Established by award-winning author Abiola Bello and award-winning publicist Helen Lewis.

I was up for debut as well but put on my gracious loser face when it was awarded to Claire Linney for children’s book Time Tub Travellersand the Silk Thief.

She spoke incredibly well and her book sounds amazing. It is about children who travel back in time and discover black characters in British history – something so many of us do not realise. I can’t wait to read it.

My friend Claire from Resolute was up for the fiction prize for her historical novel Wheel of Fortune. She also didn’t win, but didn’t have to practice her gracious loser face as unfortunately she was unable to attend.

The fiction prize was awarded to Eva Asprakis for Thirty-eight Days of Rain. A young writer with obvious talent and so much better at public speaking than she believes!

Then they read out the blurb for the non-fiction and it was so obviously my words.

winning books

You dream of getting an award and composing yourself to deliver your thank you speech, but I can’t say I prepared anything, I stood there, waved my arms about and told the potted history – came home, Andrew collapsed, word turned upside down and started blogging – I think telling the story is now like muscle memory, I've repeated it so often.

winning authors

Did I ever believe when I started this almost 14 years ago that I would end up here – well honestly I hoped I would, I want my story out there if I’m brutally honest. Mostly for altruistic reasons, I want to dispel the taboo of bereavement and grief, I want to get people talking about these things so they become just a little easier to deal with. I want to give people permission to speak about their loved ones, I long to hear their stories too.

Real life is sometimes so much weirder than what we can make up.

“I can’t believe all this happened to you.” Said Abiola “You made me cry.”

Yes, I do have that effect on people but this is my reward, more icing and cherries on the cake – maybe this is sprinkles. Whatever it is I’m loving it.

And the nosebleed – maybe that was down to pure excitement – but it happened – honestly everything I write is true 😉