The sky is still a cloudless blue, the sea an invitingly cool blue, and some of the prettiest flowers in my garden right now are blue. I'm not blue myself – just a smidge exasperated with some aspects of this writing lark.
Free entry competition news
Wasafari are looking for, "critical essays of an exemplary standard, which constitute the most exciting academic work happening today across the field of international contemporary literature." There's a £250 prize, plus other benefits for the best entry.
I've never written anything like that, and doubt I ever will (not enough of a blue stocking?) How about you?
Thanks to Alyson for reminding we about this competition from Comma Press. £500 is on offer for a short story with the theme of Music. All shortlisted entries will be published in an anthology.
Womag news
Nothing much to report! I'm not getting acceptances, or rejections. It feels as though everything I submit is slithering into a heap behind a metaphorical sofa out in cyberspace.
I have had an acknowledgement of a submission and a response, but not an actual answer, to a query about long outstanding submissions.
Yours have stopped sending the automatic responses, so now we don't even have the reassurance that our story arrived safely as we wait for a response which might not come. The website states Yours Fiction don't send rejections, but Yours does. They no longer provide a cut off period past which you may assume your story will not be used.
Email subscriptions to this blog
To the right of this post is the option to sign up for email blog updates. Some people have reported that it doesn't work very well, or that they're unable to add their email to the list. I'm sorry about that, but don't know how to fix it. If anyone does know, please tell me!
If you do subscribe, you should get a confirmation email with a link to click to activate your subscription. You may also get scary warnings about it not being secure!
Sorry, I can't add anyone myself. That's probably a data protection thing. I do have a newsletter you can sign up for, which does seem to work, but that's not news about my writing, not blog updates.
I've added a link to an alternative way to subscribe, just in case that's helpful. If you try it, please let me know if it works!
Sorry not to be better and more professional with the technology side of things.