Mentors & Consultants
An award winning team
Our mentors are highly skilled mid-career writers who also have a proven commitment to supporting and nurturing new talent. They have expertise in a wide range of genres. If we haven’t got the right mentor for you we’ll find a new one.
Founder & Director
Marion Urch has over fifteen years experience of working with writers and has helped many along their journey towards success. She regularly works with literary agents and specializes in the production of an effective submission package.
Before setting up Adventures In Fiction, she worked as a reader and administrator for the Literary Consultancy. She also has a wide range of experience within the literary community including organizing the groundbreaking Green Ink Irish Bookfair in 1993, facilitating a creative writing programme for Green Ink Irish Writers and running workshops in libraries, community settings and in HM Women’s Prison Holloway. She has an MA from the Royal College of Art and a significant track record as a video artist and lecturer, including running her own department at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London.
She is the author of two novels, Violent Shadows (Headline Review 1996) and An Invitation to Dance (Brandon 2009), also translated into Russian and German. Her radio play The Long Road, won the LBC Radio Playwrights Festival Award in 1991 and was broadcast on RTE (Radio Telefïs Éireann). In 2002, she wrote two episodes of the TV series Little Ghosts (CITV). Short stories have been published in England, Canada and America.
She covers commercial and literary fiction, including women’s fiction and psychological thrillers.
Mentors & Consultants
All our mentors are highly skilled mid-career writers who also have a proven commitment to supporting and nurturing new talent. They have expertise in a range of genres including: commercial and literary fiction, crime, science fiction, fantasy, fiction for children and young adults, adventure, historical adventure and romance, postmodern literary fiction, dirty realism, middle-market commercial women’s fiction, memoir, autobiography, literary historical, thrillers, psycho-thrillers, comic fiction, satire, horror, chicklit, modern gothic and romantic fiction.
Marion Urch/Violent Shadows
“Past secrets erupt into the present in this powerful novel about the nature of history and identity.”
Sunday Telegraph
Commercial/Literary/Women’s/Historical
Sara Bower is the author of two critically acclaimed historical novels, The Needle in the Blood and The Book of Love (Snowbooks 2007 & 2008). She is also a prize-winning short story writer. She teaches creative writing at UEA and the Open University.
“Should have won the Booker.” Susan Hill
Tom Bromley has worked in publishing for over a decade as an editor, author and ghostwriter. He spent five years working as a commissioning editor and publisher for Little, Brown and Anova Books. He is also the author of more than eight titles including the novels, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Half A World Away (Pan Macmillan).
“A bittersweet gem.” The Times
Clare Brown is the author of The Creation Myths (2005) and Dream Laboratory (2007), two highly original novels that negotiate the boundaries between commercial and literary fiction. (Both published by Bloomsbury.) A third novel, Mothers’ Day was published in France and the Netherlands in 2011. She is currently Writer in Residence at Nottingham Academy.
“Clever, funny, high-concept storytelling with bucketfuls of social comment.” The Guardian
Children & Young Adult
Brian Keaney is an acclaimed children’s author and a specialist in the market for children’s fiction. As the author of over sixteen novels for young people, his writing has been translated into eleven languages and shortlisted for several awards. He has also worked within the publishing industry as a series editor for both MacMillan Education and Stanley Thomas Publishing. His teaching experience ranges from one-to-one coaching to running intensive workshops.
“Talented… original… unusual. I applaud the author’s seriousness of purpose and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.” Philip Pullman
Miriam Halahmy writes for children, teenagers and adults. Her cycle of three young adult novels, Hidden, Illegal, Stuffed, is published by Meadowside Books (2011/2013). Educational publications include commissions for the BBC, Cancerbackup and the Refugee Council. She works with a wide range of people, including asylum seekers who want to write their stories through English PEN.
“Written with clarity and immediacy…. a book to counter bigotry.” The Sunday Times
Catherine Johnson has written over twelve novels for children and Young Adults. She also has writing credits for film and television, including Bullet Boy and Rough Crossings. She has been writer-in-residence in Holloway Prison, mentored writers for the Royal Literary Fund and the British Council and taught creative writing in London, Albania and Malawi. Her latest book is The Curious Case of Lady Caraboo. (Random House 2015)
“I could not ask for more in a YA novel, to be honest. I’d give it all the awards if I could.”
YA Book Prize judge
Crime
Martyn Waites is the author of more than eight crime novels including The White Room, which was a Guardian Book Of The Year in 2005 and The Mercy Seat, which was nominated for the Crime Writers Association ‘Ian Fleming’ Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year 2006. Born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, he was an actor before becoming a writer. He has held two writing residencies, one in Huntercombe Young Offenders Institution and one in HMP Chelmsford. He is currently RLF Literary Fellow at the University of Essex.
“A whiplash plot combined with contemporary issues results in that rarest of feats: a blockbuster with soul.” The Guardian
Peter Guttridge is an award-winning novelist with a back catalogue that includes both crime and comic fiction. He is also an expert on international crime fiction and the crime fiction critic for the Observer Newspaper. As a Royal Literary Fund Fellow he is currently writer-in-residence at the University of Southampton. His most recent novel is Cast Adrift. (Allison and Busby 2006)
“Bringing intelligence and caustic wit to the hard-boiled genre has always been Guttridge’s speciality.” The Times
Laura Wilson is an awarding winning crime writer. Her fourth novel The Lover won the 2004 Prix du Polar Europeen for Best Crime Novel of the Year In Translation and was also shortlisted for the 2004 Gold Dagger and the Ellis Peters Award. In 2008, she won the Ellis Peters Award with her seventh novel Stratton’s War.
“One of our most original and sensitive crime writers.” Daily Express
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Liz Williams is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in Glastonbury, England. She is the author of more than nine novels and one short story collection and is published in Bantam (US) and Tor Macmillan (UK). Her work regularly appears in Realms of Fantasy, Asimov’s and other magazines. Her novel Banner of Souls has been nominated for both the Philip K Dick Memorial Award and the Arthur C Clarke Award.
“British SF finding an instantly recognizable voice.” The Guardian
James Lovegrove is a prizewinning author of fiction for adults, children and young people. His novels include The Hope, Days, Untied Kingdom, Provender Gleed, Redlaw, and the New York Times bestselling Pantheon series. He is a specialist in SF, fantasy, horror and adventure and a regular reviewer for the Financial Times.
“The kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write.” The Guardian
Picture Books
Andrea Shavick is the author of twenty books including the best-selling picture books You’ll Soon Grow Alex, Stop Elephant Stop! and The Truth About Babies. She has over twenty years experience of collaborating with illustrators and children book publishers and has extensive knowledge of all aspects of the market
“Superb illustrations bring this fabulous story alive.” Book Trust
Diana Kimpton is the author of more than forty books for children, including the highly successful Pony-Mad Princess series. Her work includes picture books, chapter books for newly confident readers, novels, non-fiction and animation scripts. She loves creating stories and enjoys helping other authors do the same.
“Brilliantly addictive… An irresistible blend of glitz, glamour, horses and adventure… a must-read for girls with a penchant for palaces, princesses and ponies.” Blackpool Gazette