Lipscomb English professor Dana Carpenter won the 2014 Claymore Award, which has earned her a fast track to debuting as an author.
Carpenter knew she wanted to be writer since she was a little girl. However, she wanted to have a more stable career, so Carpenter earned her Ph.D in English. Carpenter teaches creative writing and American literature at Lipscomb.
About two years ago, Carpenter was preparing for a sabbatical. She planned to write a novel during that time. A character named Mouse, who is the main character of her novel Bohemian Gospel, had been in her head for a while. She started writing, and within six weeks, she had a 400-page novel.
It took a year for Carpenter to complete the process of editing and finding an agent. The Bohemian Gospel manuscript was sent to several publishers, but no one wanted to take a chance on a first-time author.
In August, Carpenter entered Bohemian Gospel into the Killer Nashville conference. Killer Nashville is a writer’s conference for new writers to get their manuscripts into the publishing world, and it is the third largest conference in the nation for thriller and mystery writers.
At the conference, Carpenter took home the top prize, the Claymore Award. By September, she sold her book to Pegasus Books.
“I went home and emailed my agent to tell her I had won the award,” Carpenter said. “She emailed some editors at publishing houses we hadn’t heard from yet. Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity, and everyone wanted the book.”
Bohemian Gospel is set in 13th century Bohemia, which is what we would call the Czech Republic today. Mouse discovers she has some unusual talents. Some people call her a witch; some people call her an angel. However, Mouse is just looking for her place in the world.
The book is set to be released in the fall of 2015.
Carpenter gets to share her journey with her students. Most of her students have plans to publish work of their own once finished with school. Carpenter’s success provides students a live insight into the publishing world.
“It’s inspirational to me because I would like to publish something,” said Lindsey Brake who is one of Carpenter’s students. “It’s awesome to hear her share her journey, and to see that she has undergone the process and got it done.”
Carpenter already completed book two of the series, which will be titled The Devil’s Bible.
To get a closer look at Bohemian Gospel and Carpenter’s journey, visit her website.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb.com