English department faculty wins Claymore Award
Janel Shoun-Smith |
Killer Nashville, a national writer's conference based in Nashville, awards Carpenter its top honor for 2014
By fall of next year, bookstore shelves across the nation will hold an award-winning novel by one of Lipscomb University’s own faculty.
Dana Chamblee Carpenter, associate professor of English, won the Claymore Award in August for her historical fiction manuscript “Bohemian Gospel,” and by September she had sold the book to Pegasus Books with a fall 2015 release date.
The Claymore Award, presented at the annual Killer Nashville writer’s conference for the thriller, mystery and historical thriller genres, was created in 2009 to help writers advance their careers and to open a new path to publication. It honors the best unpublished manuscript submitted, and many of the finalists and winners of the Claymore Award have gone on to publishing and movie deals.
Now Carpenter has joined that exclusive crowd.
“An award like this gives you a real boost of confidence,” said Carpenter, who said she wasn’t even going to submit it until her husband encouraged her to.
Hundreds of unpublished manuscripts are submitted yearly for the Claymore Award.
In 2006, the Killer Nashville conference was formed to combat the increasing difficulty for new writers to find agents and get their work in front of publishers, much less get published. Killer Nashville brings together writers with potential agents and publishers in one place to network and to attend relevant seminars on the craft and business of writing. It is the third largest conference in the nation devoted to thriller and mystery writing.
Carpenter attended the Killer Nashville conference in August to receive her award and used the time at the conference to explore and lobby for internship positions for Lipscomb’s English majors. Several have already interviewed for or been offered internships at the Killer Nashville organization and the film company American Blackguard, both operated by Clay Stafford.
She also spent some time scoping out publishers herself, which paid off when her name was announced as the Claymore winner.
Carpenter’s novel, “Bohemian Gospel,” takes place in 13th-century Bohemia (what would be the Czech Republic today) and focuses on a young girl named Mouse. Mouse knows nothing of her past, as she was raised in an abbey, so when she discovers she possesses some unusual abilities, she sets off to find her place in the world and to see what she can find out about where she came from. During the course of the book, Mouse runs across King Ottakar, a real king from the 13th century who worked hard to improve the quality of life of his people.
About two years ago, Carpenter was preparing for a sabbatical during which she planned to write a work of literary fiction, she said. The image of a girl named Mouse, standing on a battlefield came into her mind, and she sat down to write about it -- just to start disciplining herself to write every day.
Six weeks later she had a 400-page novel. Then she went back to do research of the time period, ensuring that locations were accurate, that food and clothing was described realistically, that descriptions of medieval warfare were correct, she said.
“As a writer, your life is full of highs and lows. You put all this work into it and you want people to read it. I want to people to know Mouse the way I do. But breaking into the traditional publishing world is almost impossible. So when I have people who I don’t even know telling me it’s good, it’s a real boost,” she said.
Carpenter’s experience is also benefiting her students who get to see what it is really like for an unpublished author to break in to the publishing scene.
“Every new experience I have teaches me more about the publishing world,” she said.
Carpenter is already working on a sequel.
About “Bohemian Gospel”
Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Some call her angel. Mouse doesn’t know who—or what—she is, but she means to find out.
Even when she is swept up in the deadly turmoil of the royal court at Prague and faces off against unthinkable evil, Mouse relentlessly searches for a place to belong. But as she begins to dream of a life with the young king, Ottakar, the secrets of her past emerge to threaten her hopes of happiness and force her to make heartbreaking choices.
Set against the glorious historical reign of the Golden and Iron King in the beauty of medieval Prague, “Bohemian Gospel” follows Mouse’s journey to discover her past and to define her destiny. But is she prepared for the dark truth she unearths and the future that awaits her?