Pauline Rowson spends a special evening with aspiring writers on the Isle of Wight and signs copies of her crime novels in Waterstones

Over seventy people attended the prize giving ceremony last night of the Wight Fair Writers Circle, Winter Short Story Writing Competition in Newport on the Isle of Wight. 

Audience in waiting

I was very honoured to be asked to  give a short talk at this wonderful event and to present the prizes to the adult category of the competition in the Castlehold Baptist Church and new reception rooms in Newport.

I'm very grateful to Wightlink who generously sponsored my trip across to the Isle of Wight from the mainland at Portsmouth.  All proceeds from the competition, organised by Carol Bridgestock and the Wight Fair Writers Circle go to the Love Russia Charity, The Multiple Sclerosis Society and The Barely Born Appeal.

Crime author Pauline Rowson giving a talk before the prize giving ceremony

I was also delighted to sign copies of my novels, two of which are set on the Isle of Wight, a thriller In For The Kill and an Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, Blood on the Sand. The Suffocating Sea (another Andy Horton crime novel) is also partly based on the Island.

It was a great evening and I was thrilled to see so many young people participating  in the competition and especially an overwhelming number of boys.  I seized the opportunity to tell the audience about the forthcoming Young Crime Writers Competition organised by the Crime Writers Association and urged all those under 18 years to get themselves down to one of the Isle of Wight's eleven libraries (which could possibly be cut to two in an appalling act of government vandalism - but don't get me started on that!) for an entry form on 10 January when the competition launches. ( More on this later).

Prize winners with Pauline Rowson at the back - just in front of the Portsmouth FC Mascot ( Pompey were one of the sponsors)

I was pleased to meet fellow crime writers Bob and Carol Bridgestock.  Bob is a former Detective Superintendent so has great inside knowledge of murder investigations, which he has put to use in his first crime novel, Deadly Focus, co written with his wife Carol. 

Carol and Bob Bridgestock with Pauline Rowson

Their second crime novel Consequences is being published by Caffeine Nights in 2011 along with the re release of Deadly Focus.

Before I attended the award ceremony I dropped into Waterstones in Newport where I met the manager, Paul and signed copies of my thriller In For The Kill.  I was very proud and pleased to discover this is one of their most popular fiction novels alongside that of fellow thriller writer Robert Goddard.   I promised Paul that I would return to  Waterstones in Newport, hopefully during National Crime Fiction Week ( another CWA initiative) where I can meet readers, sign books and maybe do something special...!