Hope you’re doing well and not getting caught up in the mania that seems to come with this time of year. It feels like this mad rush to get everything done before the end of the year and I keep telling myself, it will all get done. It will. Stop worrying. This happens every year.

In that spirit, I’ll do my best to write a nice, calming letter with loads of thrilling news.

Let’s start with Blade in the Shadow, Jillian Halket’s memoir about living with undiagnosed OCD and finding the light at the end of the tunnel. Not that it has a fairy tale ending, but it is incredibly hopeful. And here’s the news – Scot Lit Daily announced that Blade in the Shadow is their 2021 nonfiction book of the year! We’re thrilled, and honored. Many thanks ScotLit. You can take a look at all of their 2021 awards here and read their review of Blade here.

We’re also thrilled that Aidan Martin (Euphoric Recall) landed on the same award list, their ‘Rising Star’ award. Love it. And indeed he is. Just after that award, Aidan announced that he signed a contract with a literary agent – Jenny Todd of The Literary Office, former Publisher and Director of Canongate Books and Marketing Director of Penguin Press. So, I think it’s safe to say Aidan has achieved liftoff! Well done Aidan, so happy for you.

For John Gerard Fagan (Fish Town), his Big Scottish Book Club episode aired on 5 December and it was wonderful! When I asked John about it, he said it went better than he remembered. Which is understandable as I can imagine some nerves were involved in standing in front of a studio audience reading from his debut memoir, and oh yes it was also being recorded for television. The episode was fascinating with the host Damien Barr chatting it up with Miriam Margolyes, Pete Paphides, Jackie Kay (poet laureate of Scotland) and John was the spoken word performer. You can watch the episode here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012cxy (episode 6, series 3)

So proud of you John, Aidan and Jillian! The rock star trio.

Other exciting news – on 24 November we celebrated our two-year anniversary and the publication of Stories About Penises. The vibe that night was glorious with readings by Alex Carrigan, Anthony DiPietro, Liam Hogan, Molly McLellan and Thaddeus Rutkowski. A blissfully enjoyable evening reminding me how talented these writers are, and brave. Yes. Because I don’t know many people who would do what they’ve done, write what they’ve written, and say, fuck it, I don’t care what anyone thinks. It takes a certain kind of ballsyness to do that. Which I admire immensely. Sending many thanks to Alex, Anthony, Liam, Molly and Thaddeus (and everyone who attended). I loved every minute of it. And, I recorded it. You can watch it now on our blog: gutspublishing.com/post/stories-about-penises-readings-watch-video

Other other news – I would like to introduce you to Richard Wills, someone I’ve been working with for the past three months in my role as ‘publishing coach’. Richard is a former social worker and has written a manuscript called Bloody Social Worker – Stories from a life working in Social Care. Which is what we’ve been working on. Not only editing the manuscript but also fine tuning his pitch and synopsis, and finding publishers to approach. It was a full on project and I have to say something I really enjoyed. Just yesterday afternoon Richard sent a testimonial which I’m delighted to share with you:

“I had written the first draft of Bloody Social Worker – Stories from a life working in Social Care and although I enjoyed the process of writing and found it cathartic, I knew there was room for improvement. But I didn’t quite know how. I knew I needed help with pacing and getting the narrative arc to move forward in a coherent fashion and Julianne gave me the tools to do this. Her editorial skills are sharp, and on the mark, and she was supportive and understanding throughout. The skills I have learnt will be invaluable to me for the rest of my writing life.” — Richard Wills

Aw, I’m blushing. Thank you Richard for sending this! 

If you’d like to find out more about the Publishing Coach service visit gutspublishing.com/publishing-coach

Also, if you are a writer and have sent your work to Guts please feel free to send a follow up email on your submission. I know how annoying it can be to wait for a reply. Send your email to: guts.submissions@gmail.com. I’ll reply as soon as possible.

I think that’s about it for now. Wishing you a lovely Christmas and all amazing things for 2022. Stay safe and well. Oh, by the way, although the covid situation in the UK sounds rather grim when you read the news, we are all hanging in there and most people seem to be wearing masks. Although I tend to think Scotland is handling the situation much more proactively where the English PM basically said oh, just have nice normal Christmas but we might do restrictions afterwards. And I was like, what?