ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
It’s always a joy to report on awards where indie writing is truly celebrated. So I’m thrilled to be able to string a couple of such into this ALLi news column.
First comes the announcement of the second edition of the Caliburn Prize. The prize is funded by, and the brainchild of, the writer Tony Lee. It awards £2,500 to an as-yet unpublished writer of comics or graphic novels. As you will know from this column, this is a popular part of the reading universe. And one that is increasingly accessible for self-publishing. In recognition of this, ALLi is delighted to be offering a year’s free membership to the winner. They will also benefit from a year’s membership of the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund; and get a table and hotel at 2025 London Film and Comic Con from Showmasters events. Last year’s winner, Michael Lomon, credits the connections made through winning with helping him launch a successful Kickstarter for his debut, The Palace of Tears.
And from a prospective win to one just awarded. Publishers Weekly has awarded the 2023 BookLife Prize to Christopher Hawkins’ horror novel Downpour. BookLife is the section of Publishers Weekly that celebrates and reviews indie books. Hawkins’ novel fought off hundreds of other books to become the first horror winner of the award.
And speaking rather more frivolously of awards, I want to finish with another contender for the D’oh Prize. This follows Demetrious Polychron’s outstanding achievement last December in the field of an author shooting themselves in the foot when he sued Tolkien’s Estate for copyright infringement of his fanfiction The Fellowship of the King. This was rewarded, you will recall, by a countersuit that resulted in a fine and an order to destroy every extant copy of his own book.
Sentencing an Author
Last week saw the sentencing of Nancy Crompton Brophy. She is the author who seemed not to have learned from one of the key scenes in Basic Instinct. The one where Sharon Stone’s character is approached by police with a gotcha moment when they remind her she wrote a book about killing someone in the way she is suspected of doing in real life. She replies that she wouldn’t be so daft as to write about something she then went and did. Only of course she did do it. Crompton Brophy, an (eek) indie author, wrote an essay titled “How to Murder Your Husband.” Last week she was sentenced to life in prison for guess what…
