The Story Behind Monster Down Deep
News, events, resources and opportunities
WriteMentor Picture Book and Novel Awards, in partnership with Darley Anderson Agency: Submissions are open now until 11:59pm on Tuesday 31st March 2026. We accept entries from all genres of fiction from PB up to Adult.
Spark Mentoring: whether you want to work with one of our experienced mentors on a monthly or one-off basis, we provide an affordable and flexible set of options to help you get the help you need to elevate your manuscript.
The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition (full-length novel for readers aged 7-18) and The Broken Binding Prize (YA sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction) - Both prizes open for entries on 9th January and the deadline for submissions is 1st June 2026.
Thank you to author Christopher Fielden for featuring the WriteMentor Novel & Picture Book Award on your competition listing page. Check out Christopher's website for further competitions and writing advice.
Hub Calendar (all times GMT/BST)
January
Editor Session Monday 26th 7pm with Ashley Thorpe
Agent Q&A Tuesday 27th 7.30pm with Julia Churchill
PitchHero Friday 30th (pitch on Thursday 29th) with Julia Churchill
February
Monthly Catch-Up Monday 2nd 8pm with Melissa
YA Chat Tuesday 3rd 7pm with Melinda Salisbury
MG Chat Thursday 12th 7.30pm with Vashti Hardy
Agent Q&A Tuesday 17th 7pm with Emily Talbot
Writing Short Stories Workshop Thursday 19th 3pm with Florianne Humphrey
PB Chat Thursday 19th 7pm with Clare Helen Welsh
PitchHero Friday 20th - pitch on the Thursday 19th - with Emily Talbot
Meet the Author Wednesday 25th 7pm with EL Norry
All sessions are recorded and available to watch back, so don’t fret about being there ‘live’. This is just a few of the many sessions/opportunities that happen every month in the Hub and are all available on catch-up if you join now.
What is the Hub?
The WriteMentor Hub is a group chat you actually want to be in. Writing club meets social hangout, here we cheer each other on, share knowledge and advice, level up our skills, and have fun doing it.
Everyone’s invited and our doors are open all year round. From absolute beginners to multi-published authors, we all have something to share and something to learn. No gatekeeping, no cliques, no secret handshakes. Just a welcoming crew of writers who understand that success is not about perfection, pressure, or pretension. It’s about connection, collaboration, and community.
More than just a space to chat, the Hub is a creative playground of inspiration: live talks and workshops, structured courses, and an ever-growing library of resources to help you hone your craft. Join critique groups for honest, constructive feedback, take part in interactive writing sprints to boost motivation, or pitch your work to agents in our monthly contests.
Whether you’re looking for advice, accountability, or a creative spark, join the Hub today.
The Final Word
The Story Behind Monster Down Deep
by Amy Fellner Dominy
I often talk about the writing life as a journey. It’s a long, winding road and the destination is uncertain. Also, I tend to crash. A lot.
I’ve been writing most of my life. I submitted my first story to a magazine when I was thirteen. It took another 30 years before I got my first sale. But that first middle grade novel was followed by other books, including middle grade, picture books and young adult novels.
When MONSTER DOWN DEEP comes out in the UK on February 12th, it will be my 10th book. You’d think I had it all figured out, right? But in many ways, this story been the most difficult journey of them all.
Rewind the calendar to 2020. That’s when my last book, a young adult romance titled HOW TO QUIT YOUR CRUSH, came out.
Remember 2020? That was the start of COVID. Think of how much has happened in your life and in the world during that time. Even when years go fast, days can go by slowly. And during all those days, I was writing. I was working on my next book.
I tried a lot of ideas and wrote a lot of stories. They all ended in my trash, or in rejections.
At the same time, my agent of 16 years parted ways with me. She had helped me sell my very first book and all the books that followed. I wondered if I’d ever sell another book?
I started searching for a new agent. I sent out pitches for me, for my stories, for anything anyone might want to represent. For more than a year, all of those ended in rejection, too.
When you’re in the middle of failure after failure, it’s really hard to imagine the journey ever ends anywhere else. It’s also really hard to accept failures without feeling like a failure.
I’m not sure why I didn’t give up. I thought about it. But I still loved to write more than anything else. Somewhere during that time, I’d started playing around with a new idea for a middle grade. It was about an ancient fish trapped in seaweed and a girl hunting for treasure. Every time I got stuck and abandoned the manuscript, I’d hear this fish in my head, urging me on with his story. So, I’d pull it out again.
It took over a year, but by the end of 2023, I had an almost-finished novel that I had fallen in love with. But now what? How could I get an editor to read it? I didn’t have an agent and very few editors allow writers to submit to them directly.
That’s when I opened my inbox and saw this headline from the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI):
Exclusive: Pushkin Press Opens Submissions to SCBWI Members
I’d never heard of Pushkin Press. A UK publisher? How would that work? But the more I learned about Pushkin and the editor, Sarah Odedina, the more I knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t let pass me by.
The story I’d titled MONSTER DOWN DEEP was close to being finished. A couple more months was all I needed to make it perfect. But I didn’t have a couple of months. The opportunity came with a deadline.
Could I do it in 4 weeks?
I finished the manuscript with about 3 days to spare. I wrote Sarah Odedina an email and hit send.
A few weeks later I heard back: Sarah had received over 200 submissions. She’d narrowed it down to a few authors she wanted to talk to. One of them was me. Would I be willing to chat?
The rest, as they say, is history.
I’m so excited to introduce this book to readers. MONSTER DOWN DEEP is an adventurous, funny story of friendship. But for me, it’s also a story of resilience. It’s a reminder that failure doesn’t have to be an ending. It can also be a middle.
I hope you’ll love the book as much as I do.
Order here: https://pushkinpress.com/book/monster-down-deep/
Writing can be lonely, but it doesn’t need to be
May the Force be with you!
Stuart, Florianne and Melissa