Henry Fry

“I started HackLand to speak specifically to LGBT+ teens, and TLC’s Free Reads is a fantastic opportunity for me to have the space to develop my work and hopefully speak to a new generation of YA readers. I want to show young readers that there is a voice out there that supports them, that understands them, and, hopefully, will inspire them to feel proud and confident in who they are, whatever their differences.” From the Introduction

Previous Showcase Authors

TLC Pen Factor Special – winner Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

“I open my eyes to see a Mexican wave of women dashing to their…
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Melanie Gilbert

"As soon as we leave the building he lights a cigarette and puffs hungrily.…
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Tom O'Rourke

"This future life is unknown to you. Now at this moment you look up…
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Christine Laurenson

“The bird swooped down over them, landing a short distance away, near the dragon.…
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Sai Murray

"They pick me up from the police station in the early morning. I am…
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Leonardo Boix

“A leap away from becoming ghost. She stood erect, her bathing floral suit, sugared…
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Jill MacLean

“Priest and wise-woman have left him alone with a man whose brothers are afeard…
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Elliot Sweeney

“The day it happened was a black day. I’d had a good run of late,…
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Kamala Jackson

“As arranged, I met with Satyan in a solitary shack found where the margins…
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Vanessa Onwuemezi

“Routine was the word. I liked routine, a route to somewhere in time. A…
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Lynne Hudson

Hello, my name is Scruffy, and I’ve lost my blanket. Where can it be?…
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TLC Pen Factor Special – winner Adam Sharp

"The carpet on the stairs is thin and tattered. A thousand shuffling footfalls have…
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Mike Wood

“On the road ahead a wagon was on its side. Two German soldiers were…
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Sagheer Afzal

Sidra stepped forward and looked out again. She looked around apprehensively. She knew she…
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Cherry Radford

"The horror of coming ashore for good. God. A punch in the gut, and…
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Peter Wood

“Within a year I would not even look at Alec. I seemed hardly to…
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Harun Rashid

“Wadud’s story was entangled in the story of his nation, bookended by the two…
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Romalyn Ante

“This is the most important secret my father told me: Whenever you are lost,…
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Maán Jalal

“Noor’s mother wore black and the air was scented with gardenias when they stepped…
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Anne Goodwin

“I put my eye to the peephole and flick the switch on the wall.…
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Bethan James

“Empress Cixi was a woman on a mission, but onlookers in the palace gardens…
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Alice Burnett

“Over the previous few days, Leonie had asked Venus questions in bursts. Where was…
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Alick Glass

“He had always felt more Scottish than Jewish. For his Barmitvah he had learned…
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TLC Pen Factor winner special – Neema Shah

"Asha walked out towards the vast water, stretching so far that it looked more…
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Tia Williams

“Feet first. I supposed that would be the way to do it, the way…
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Akeem Balogun

“She watched with her hands holding onto her knees and her legs tightly closed.…
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Liz Coward

“For two years, we’d been meticulously drilled on how to respond when we were…
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Maeve Clarke

“All their mother’s warnings about what a dangerous place it was and how they…
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Bernard Hall

"Lorraine unlocked the car doors and they climbed in. A nervous passenger at best,…
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Elizabeth J. Jones

“A small girl had darted out from the trees, made her way barefoot to…
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Sheila Chapman

“Taksheel looked resigned. It was the conclusion he had reached himself but to have…
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Sabo Kpade

“I hurried to the veranda and found him in a tangle with Amarya. I…
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Jane Liffen

“I go to fetch more water but I am thinking about the picture. In…
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TLC Pen Factor Special

“He’d check for signs of life in a moment. For now though, he just…
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Anna Mazzola

“Miss Sowerton stopped before a black door and produced a large key. A rumbling…
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Julia Webb

“There is faraway bird-call, the startled flap of a fresh waked pigeon, A…
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Rhiannon Lewis

“William was called away by one of the crew before he could respond. For…
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Andrew Malcolm

“I wanted to know if Martyn and Spry were involved at all. In a…
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Deirdre Shanahan

"If it were not for the sun glinting on the pool of rainwater in…
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Richard Buxton

“In the centre of the square, under the American flag, a loose halyard slapped…
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Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott

“Truman wills himself awake, peacock-plume eyed, empty champagne bottle in his lap. He squints…
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Michael Forester

“11.00pm glides on oil into midnight and 12.30 am, until Tolly finally finds the…
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Jane Aitken

“The Prime Minister’s posture looks relaxed, but if you look closely he still has…
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Béatrice Crawford

“Day after day, GM, the Great Wall lent me its ramparts in the grand…
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Alan Evans

“She had been the centre of his life for many years but now she…
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TLC Pen Factor Special

““I’ll get straight to the point”, said Dr. Mangan who proceeded to do no…
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Emma Norry

““Sorry! Sorry – am I late?” The clock on the wall wobbles because the…
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Jane Corbett

“She asked about life in Berlin before the fall of the Wall and he…
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Dilys Daws and Alexandra De Rementeria

"Studies show that fathers experience the same physiological response to a baby’s crying as…
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Liam Brown

“You’re writin your name now I see? Well good on ya. That’s all a…
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James Cook

“Ever since writing my first callow lyrics aged 14, I’d been striving to develop…
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Caroline Chisholm

“My birth was hailed not by a single star, but by many bright lights…
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Michelle Wareham

“Eli wrote every week from the Western Front, until his letters stopped arriving two…
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David Turner

“I marvelled at the vastness and flatness and emptiness of the parched red desert…
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Pen Factor Special

"I turned about the room, toe to toe, making the smallest circle. What I…
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Bernice Landry

“What I find interesting, he says, is that your clothing is all white, like…
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Jennifer Makumbi

“Now the crowd was in control. Everyone clamoured to hit somewhere, anywhere but the…
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Rebecca Swirsky

“Celia, on the other side of town, is kissing the tiny, sweet brown moles…
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Daniel Pembrey

“The glade was peculiarly dense around Vogel’s ungated entranceway. Pine, maple, and scrub oak…
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Amna Boheim

"I lay in darkness, unsure of what had stirred me. Sleep still clung to…
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Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch

“Tristan did not consider himself brave. But then he did not consider himself a…
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Stephen Chance

"This period he can picture. If he saunters down to the Thames after his…
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David Spon-Smith

"A cold breeze blows over my face. Then something warm an’ wet, stinking of…
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Ann Bone

"The back of the house beyond has already sunk into obscurity. I do not…
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Rosanne Daryl Thomas

"The annual Christmas present debate was abruptly suspended. Their adored maestro, Walter Albero, PhD,…
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Balvinder Banga

“Looking at the calendar of Ravidas, and the photograph beside it of the grandchildren…
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Piers Bearne

"I should have been in London, not this Essex midden swirling with pigeon-chest men…
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Tina Seskis

“In the end they settled on Caroline Rebecca, although Frances didn’t particularly like either…
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Neamat Imam

Mass graves were discovered in different parts of the country. The buried were exhumed…
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Damien Brown

“So I shrug. Again. No idea what to say. No idea even what to…
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Julia Ross

“I remember tiny pin-points of calm when I looked into his eyes. There are…
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Sarah Butler

“Time will catch up with you, she tells me – by which she means…
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Pete Smith

“I was born south of the river in Brixton in the 1950s, well-before it…
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Philip Makatrewicz

"Ibimina’s husband has come once again to call. He must want something - a…
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Ruby Cowling

“Behind these fences are big houses; the houses of plump-skinned people who soften their…
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Adam Courtenay

“In 1542, Spanish conquistadors travelled east from the Peruvian colony of Quito, over the…
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San Cassimally

"I experimented with two pebbles in my mouth to puff my cheeks up a…
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Nicholas Lim

Dudec nodded. He fluttered a hand. “This could be something new!” “Rafal, when you…
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Suhel Ahmed

"‘That’s when I made the mistake,’ Amina exclaimed. ‘I should have taken the money…
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Terry Cudbird

“I have now reached the age when I have to choose between sex and…
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