Tabloid reporter Clara Bishop feels that life has served her far too slaps and not nearly enough kisses. When she is suddenly jilted by her philandering husband, she follows him to London, determined to win him back. Armed with a suitcase of her grandmothers clothes that she inherited, Clara discovers that clothes really make the woman. Dressed to kill, she adopts a new femme fatale persona and sets out to seek revenge. But on her road to realisation, Clara discovers an unfinished film script that sheds light on her grandmothers mysterious death many years ago. As Clara’s life is transported into a living, breathing film from the fifties, she discovers not only the secrets of her grandmothers but the chance to write her own ending too.

‘My Life in Black and White’ is an absolutely captivating story that had me enthralled from the very start. The story is wonderfully written, transferring from 1952 to present time the story is seen through the eyes of Clara Bishop as she relays her story to a policeman recalling her unlikely adventure in London. Clara, plays the unfortunate femme fatale, determined not to give up on her failed marriage, she follows her husband to London but what transpires is far from the reunion that Clara longs for. With a single suitcase of her grandmothers clothes, a former femme fatale actress, Clara has no choice but to dress like her grandmother in the city and it’s not just Clara’s appearance that changes. Suddenly her life becomes a film noir and she has the female lead, in a world where the year is 1952 and films are created in black and white, Clara herself becomes a different character, she becomes dynamic, confident and sexy as uncovers secrets of grandmothers life.

I loved ‘The Jane Austen Marriage Manual’ but I adored ‘My Life in Black and White’, I thought it was a unique concept, that certainly made for a gripping story. Clara is a great lead character, as the story develops, she changes from a meek, eager to please woman to quite a cocky lady that certainly made for entertaining reading as she left a trail of men in her path.

Beautifully written with fast paced dialogue and breathtaking costumes, ‘My Life in Black and White’ is a witty and glamorous story where hell has no fury like a woman scorned!

You can buy My Life in Black and White on Amazon from will be available to buy from good bookshops.

Curated by Sinéad Connolly, the programme includes a wide range of events for all ages, including the Get Drawn In initiative, which will see 500 school children taking part in events all over the city, featuring top European picture books makers Hervé Tullet (France), Sarah McIntyre (UK) and Ireland’s Laureate na nÓg, Niamh Sharkey. The Ark are hosting an Irish language programme for schools with Patricia Forde, Aine Ní Ghlinn, Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and Diarmuid de Faoite.

There are plenty of events for children at the week-end, with a choice of indoor and outdoor workshops; and author events with Costa award winner and dyslexia advocate Sally Gardner, master of horror Darren Shan, Jennifer Gray’s witty Cat burglar, Andy Briggs with his re-imagined Tarzan series, and debut novelist Dawn O’Porter.

Budding young teenage writers will be taking part in workshops throughout May with poet Dave Lordan, leading to a performance as part of the popular and streetwise Brownbread Mixtape (featuring the best Irish spoken word performers, comedians and musicians).

The festival also examines the science of programming children’s events, bringing together representatives from the Discover Story Centre, Southbank Centre in London, and Fighting Words and The Ark in Dublin for Drawing Children In, an event highlighting innovative new approaches to literature programming.

This year’s stellar line up includes, amongst others, a rare visit from American literary master James Salter; author of one of the bestselling novels of all time Dan Brown; Booker prize winning heavyweights Thomas Keneally, Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle and John Banville; and compelling contemporary poets Robin Robertson and Frank McGuinness. Proving that feminism is alive and well, Caitlin Moran will bring her sparkling wit and razor sharp intelligence to bear on a dizzying array of topics.

For more information about the festival and a full programme listing, check out the Dublin Writers Festival website.

Some of the stories are –

Everyone’s against Claire marrying Barry in Don’t Marry Barry. Claire is determined to prove them wrong. If only she could get a significant ex out of her head …

Soldedad had thought she had finally tamed womaniser Lance in The Clause. But leopards can’t change their spots and when a mystery woman catches Lance’s eye on holiday, sparks fly …

Each short story is followed by exclusive extracts of each of the authors upcoming titles.

I am loving the sound of this collection, featuring some of my favourite authors, this is definitely one ebook I will be downloading and with it being free, there is no way to can resist this literary treat!

You can download The Perfect Escape
to your Kindle from 27th June 2013.

It’s easy to become horribly self conscious – ‘Is this any good? Will anyone publish/buy this?’ And those thoughts can be really hampering and restricting. So anything you can do to write freely, without that self consciousness, will help your writing. I think it’s important to find a style and a voice, which feels authentic and that you feel comfortable with. A lot of it is instinctive – you know when it feels right, and the more writing you do – every day, ideally – the sooner you’ll arrive at that. There’s a lot of trial and error involved.
Fiona Gibson

The nominations revealed for the shortlist are -

CHARLOTTE STREET, Danny Wallace (Ebury Press)
YOU HAD ME AT HELLO, Mhairi McFarlane (HarperCollins)
SUMMER DAYDREAMS, Carole Matthews (Little Brown)
WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE, Maria Semple (Orion)
ELEANOR & PARK, Rainbow Rowell (Orion)
THE WEDDING DIARIES, Sam Binnie (HarperCollins)

Congratulations and good luck to all the authors nominated. The winner will be announced in June 2013.

For more information about the Melissa Nathan award, see the website for details

As teenagers, Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ by the press and were dealt with by the courts. Years later, having led completely different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened while Serena wants no-one to in her present to know about her past. But some secrets will not stay buried and if theirs is revealed, everything will become a living hell all over again.

‘The Ice Cream Girls’ is the first book that I have read by Dorothy Koomson and I have to say that right from the very start, I thought it was a wonderfully compelling story that had me captivated from the start.

Serena and Poppy, the lead protagonist were such a pair of strong and fiercely independent women, that I immediately found them intriguing. I warmed to Poppy in particular, having spent most of her life in prison, she is a hard, insecure character who finds it difficult to trust people and longs for her parents forgiveness and love to return. In a series of flashbacks seen from the perspectives of both Serena and Poppy, we join them as they reminisce on the lives that they used to have and as they both tried to escape the memories of their pasts which haunted them on a daily basis. Life for Serena has been a little bit easier for her, now married with a family, she finally feels secure in her life, until Poppy is released from prison and treks Serena down, insisting she is innocent and imprisoned wrongly, she wants Serena to admit to a crime, that Serena maintains that she never committed.

This story is truly gritty and disturbing, touching on the subjects of abuse of all levels, mental, physical and sexual. It embarks on the remarkable and troublesome friendship of Poppy and Serena as they both fall for the same man. The man, Marcus is an absolutely heinous character that I disliked with such a passion that I actually worried myself. Sexist, abusive and manipulative, his actions and words regularly shocked me to the core as he played the two teenage girls against each other.

A story of love, abuse, heartache and innocence until proven guilty, ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ is a dark, intense and definately a thought provoking story that will have you hooked and with fantastic unexpected twist at the end that will leave you wondering if you ever really know those closest to you.

You can buy The Ice Cream Girls on Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

The story of ‘The State We’re In’ is –

What are the odds that the stranger sitting next to you on a plane is destined to change your life? Especially when they appear to be your opposite in every way.

Their pasts are such that they can never make one another happy and it’s when they get off the plane that their true journey begins…

I have been a fan of Adele’s books for a number of years, I have enjoyed her powerful stories of love, loss and happiness and ‘The State We’re In’ sounds like another stunning roller coaster of a tale.

You can pre-order The State We’re in on Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 4th July 2013.

1. Who am I and what do I do?
   I’m Sam from the Headline Publicity department. I’m a Senior Publicity Manager, which in a nutshell means my job is to tell you, yes YOU, how great our books are. And then the hard bit is to make YOU, yes YOU, tell your friends how great they are too. Easy right?

   In her #WeLoveYA post, my colleague Vero Norton is going to focus on traditional coverage whilst I’m going to talk about the online pr aspects of my job. Online is a huge part of my job now. Literally huge. Centuries ago when I started as a publicity assistant, days would go by where I wouldn’t even turn my computer on. Now I wake up with my iPad stuck to my face, with a Google search for “Tell me everyone who is talking about Tanya Byrne” imprinted on my forehead.

2. An average day
   A typical day in the life of a publicist (for me) goes something like this. When I get into the office the first thing I do is load up my Hootsuite, which has a number of searches set up for the YA books and authors I work on. This is a great way for me to keep track of coverage from international territories that has happened during the night/early hours of the morning. I can see reviews that people have shared, news articles that include mentions of my authors, and individual readers saying that they have started or finished a Headline book. The latter gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, particularly when someone is telling their followers how amazing a book is!

   I will also scan online newspapers for interesting content to share, as well as breaking news stories where my authors might be able to give comment and share their expertise. As a publicist it is good to be on top of the news and social media makes it much easier to keep up! A news story such as Maureen Johnson’s CoverFlip campaign can break on twitter and then break out on to news sites such as The Huffington Post, and then all be over by the time you’ve put the kettle on.

   During the course of the day I will post the reviews and content I have found on our Which Book Next? facebook and pinterest boards, our new online home for YA fiction from Headline. We have only just launched and alongside our marketer a big part of my job will be to grow our fans over time. Rather than concentrating solely on our own titles, we want these areas to be a place where readers can share recommendations for YA books they are reading and be where conversations happen rather than us simply broadcasting messages about our own books.

   On this fictional average day, I might spend an hour brainstorming a social media campaign idea for a title we are working on with our hotshot marketing team. This might be coming up with a hashtag that can be used in all communications about the book – something that will resonate with readers and be easy to track. Or it might be dreaming up a clever social media campaign that we can run on publication that will raise awareness of the book and encourage people to think, I just might buy that! For example, on publication day for Tanya Byrne’s Follow Me Down which is set in a boarding school we ran a #SchoolSoundtrack competition on twitter where we asked people for suggestions for songs that reminded them of their schooldays which we added to a Spotify playlist. We picked our five favourite tracks, with the winners receiving a signed hardback.

   I get a limited amount of proof copies for forthcoming titles, and a big part of my job now is to identify online reviewers who will a) like the book and b) tell lots of people how much they like the book. I will send out proofs to people who contact me direct, approach contacts I have relationships with, and often tweet about proofs to see if there are any new bloggers that I haven’t come across before. Bloggers are very important to me, and I’m always on the lookout for new reviewers!

   And the day might end with my most favouritist of things, a launch party or book event! This is where I get to meet online people in real life, and chat about books they are reading, exciting new books we have coming out and occasionally other things too such as “Who is your favourite member of One Direction?” I will take pictures and tweet snippets from the event and share them on our social media. I guess it is a bit like being there, except you don’t get the free wine or crisps!

3. My favourite YA novel
   Well the last Headline YA title I have read is the amazing Forgive Me Leonard Peacock which we are publishing in August. It is written by Matthew Quick who wrote Silver Linings Playbook, and is about a high school student who is writing to say goodbye and has four gifts he gives to people who have been important in his life. He is preparing to do something awful – and I’m not going to say anything more than that as I don’t want to give it away! After I read it I sat very quietly for a long time, and thought “this is such an important book, and everyone needs to know that.” And in the spirit of sharing the love of YA, I urge you all to read The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough!!! It has such a clever central concept, characters you take to instantly, and is very scary. And John Green loves it. So what are you waiting for? BUY IT!

To celebrate the Which Book Next campaign, Headline have thoughtfully given me a bag of their YA books to give away which will include the Crypt series and The Body Finder series, plus new releases Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne and This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E Smith. To be with a chance of winning this great book prize, simply tell us what your favourite YA book is in the comments below. Winner will be revealed on Thursday 30th May!

Read more about Which Book Next? online or follow on Pinterest Which Book Next?

When Adamma Okomma has to leave her glossy life behind in New York for a dusty English boarding school, she thinks it’s the end of her world, Then she meets quick-witted Scarlett Chiltern who introduces her to Crofton College’s darkest corners and Adamma realises that there is much more to her new school than tartan skirts and hockey sticks. She and Scarlett become inseparable, but when they both fall for the same guy, the battle lines are firmly drawn. Adamma gets the guy, but loses her best friend. Then when Scarlett runs away, Adamma finds herself caught up in something a lot more sinister than a messy love triangle. Adamma always knew that Scarlett had her secrets but some secrets are too big to keep and this one will change their lives forever.

In ‘Follow Me Down’ Tanya has created a character that plays both the hero and the victim of the story perfectly. Adamma is plucked from her life in New York, long gone are nights out with friends and instead she has to make do with living in a boarding school in a small village where nothing much happens. It is there that she meets self-obsessed, selfish tear-away Scarlett who likes to run away at the drop of a hat, hoping to finally fulfil her dream of a life on stage. Scarlett takes Adamma underneath her wing and introduces her to sexy rogue and photographer Dominic, where they all embark on a heated friendship that seems to thrive mostly on jealousy and betrayal. As the two lead characters of the book, I enjoyed them both immensely. I liked Adamma for her quiet nurturing quality as she looked out for her friends and her curiosity of the school, as a reporter for the school’s newspaper, she was always seeking out a story especially when a number of attacks had taken place in the forest beside school, she turns investigative reporter looking for clues and suspects. Scarlett was the friend that we all encountered at some point in our lives, beautifully spiteful and gloriously jealous, she made for entertaining reading when the spotlight was on her.

The story is told solely from Adamma’s perspective and starts on the day that Scarlett, first disappears, the story then takes a wonderful twist as alternative chapters are set both in the past and the present. Throughout there is intriguing undertone of tension which makes the story even more compelling and creepy as suddenly everyone becomes a suspect. In the true style of ‘Heart Shaped Bruise’ Tanya has once again achieved a thrilling story that I was unable to put down. Filled with angst, illicit affairs and jealousy, this is an addictive book that had me reading late into to night, with her fresh voice, gritty narrative and dialogue, Tanya Byrne is not only the voice for the Young Adult genre, she is the voice for the Adult generation.

You can buy Follow Me Down on Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

The story of ‘It’s Up To You New York’ is –

Inspired by her own experiences: Tess takes us behind the scenes again in this glamorous and hilarious read about Holly Collins, an ordinary girl in an extraordinary world. When’s she’s picked from obscurity to take part in a television series on the hunt for fashion’s next big model, life finally seems to be taking a turn for the better for the happy-go-lucky twenty-something.

But soon it feels like everything – and everybody – is conspiring against her, so Holly heads for New York with her best friend Meg. The magic of Manhattan quickly has Holly in its grasp, but when she’s faced with the biggest decision of her life can she make the fairy tale become her new reality? And will she find love in the city where dreams are made?

With a beautifully glittering cover of the New York skyline, this story sounds like another captivating read from the popular television presenter.

You can pre-order It’s Up to You, New York on Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 23rd May 2013.