Guest Post- Shawn Simmons

I am thrilled to have Shawn Simmons joining us today! Shawn is the author of Murder on the Red Carpet! Her debut novel!!

As readers we’ve all experienced the excitement of discovering a brand new author. We’ve all fallen in love with a new voice or discovered a new series and a new set of characters that we can’t wait to revisit in future books. New authors bring varied voices and new insights to the literary world, and keep us avid readers supplied with plenty of new books to read.

The road to publication isn’t always an easy one. Sometimes it takes years of work, endless submissions and almost as many rejections before an author can break through to publication. For this reason Malice Domestic offers a grant program for two unpublished writers every year. The William F Deeck-Malice Domestic Grants Program for Unpublished Writers was founded by Beth Foxwell in 1993 and is designed to foster quality Malice Domestic literature and to help the next generation of Malice Domestic authors get their first work published.

The Malice Domestic Grant is awarded based on a demonstrated commitment to the Malice Domestic genre and currently includes a $1500 award plus a comprehensive registration to the following year’s convention and two nights’ lodging at the convention hotel.

The submission period for the Malice Grant is almost here. Submissions will be accepted between September 15th and November 15th.

If you have written a manuscript that fits within the Malice guidelines and genre, we encourage you to submit it to be considered for the Malice Grant. Many of our previous grant winners have begun successful writing careers and there are many more winning authors still emerging. We are excited to be able to support the publishing community and to perpetuate the Malice genre through this program.

For more information on the Malice Grant program or about Malice Domestic in general, please visit our website at www.MaliceDomestic.org.

Happy reading!

Shawn Reilly Simmons and the Board of Malice Domestic

Shawn Reilly Simmons handles Public Relations and Registration Services for Malice Domestic, the annual traditional mystery convention that takes place in the Washington DC Metro area every spring. Her first novel, Murder on the Red Carpet, was published in February of 2014. Her second, Murder on Location will be released in the fall of 2014.