A SUB-EDITOR who works for Bullivant Media Group, which publishes this newspaper, is urging readers to try his debut novel – Heathens – online.
And, if they enjoy it, he hopes they will give him the votes which could help him land a £50,000 publishing deal.
Website Libraro.com runs an annual competition which awards a publishing contract to the best new fiction or young-adult novel on the site.
The shortlist of books for that prize is in part determined by Libraro reader votes and Max is asking people to visit Libraro.com, create a free account by hitting the ‘sign-up’ button, and search for ‘Heathens’ or ‘Max Hall’ – and get reading.
As a carrot, there is a £10,000 prize available for one of the readers who nominates the eventual winner.
‘Heathens’ by Max Hall.
Heathens is a love letter to the Black Country. It recounts the heart-warming stories and unlikely escapades of the folk of Sedgemere Heath.
Fuzz is welcomed into warehouse life by Roy, a man who claims to have been a secret agent, world-class footballer and rock star before ending up among the fountain pens and protractors. Lea’s suspicions about Siri-style voice-activated technology are confirmed when he opens a direct channel to an unlikely recipient and Pete dreams of riches as he pans for gold in the shadow of shuttered foundries.
Heathens is a story of struggle, fulfilment and the importance of hanging on to your dreams. Most of all, though, it’s about the search for an elusive blue pallet.
The author
Max has been a news and sports reporter, sports editor and sub-editor at newspapers including The Independent, the Birmingham Post, the Daily Post Wales, the Surrey Advertiser and a swathe of local weeklies. He recently joined Bullivant Media as a sub-editor and page designer. He has also had a string of less interesting jobs in communications across various sectors.
Max grew up in Stourbridge and has since wandered to north and south Wales, Surrey, Worcestershire, Berlin and London before shipping up in the northern Italian port of Genoa.
Heathens was the brainchild of Max in 2020, following a jog at a crumbling municipal running track in Reggio Calabria, in the far south of Italy. During that run, he had the idea for his first chapter, which eventually became ‘Fubtubfub’.
Finished off just as Italy’s Covid lockdowns were lifting, Heathens has gathered e-dust ever since, albeit with more than 300 readers dipping in at the Wattpad.com website.
The would-be author already has a bunch of ideas for a follow-up novel which would be set in an Italian piazza but he is stubbornly refusing to get down to writing unless he can pin down an elusive publishing deal for Heathens.
Max would also like it known he flew to Kiribati in 2004 and played second division football during a failed bid to become an international. He has since become a Wales international at the nerdy fantasy miniatures game of Blood Bowl but neither of those footnotes ever survives the pen-pic cut-off.
Visit: Libraro.com and sign up, before searching for ‘Heathens by Max Hall’ to read Max’s book.
