Having a lovely time!

 

We're away in the mobile writing retreat / campervan, in part to celebrate our wedding anniversary, at the moment. Depending on the weather, I'm either writing a lot or not at all. 

Free book!

My book With Love And Kisses, a collection of 24 short stories, is currently free to download. I'm hoping that making it free will lead to a few more reviews as for some reason, this book has hardly any.

More free entry writing competitions

Free entry writing competition news

Thanks to Ruth for the link to this competition from the Scottish wildlife trust. They're looking for up to 1,000 words in any form on the theme 'from source to sea'. You can write in English, Scots or Gaelic. (I confess, that despite sometimes having needed a translator for my mother-in-law, I hadn't realised Scots was a separate language!) There's a prize bundle of stuff likely to appeal to wildlife lovers. UK residents only.

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for sending this - 

In case you can't read the small print, it says unpublished (when it comes to novels) UK residents without an agent, over 18  only. Self published is OK.

Sharon and Alyson both found this short story competition. It's open to everyone, they want up to 550 words featuring braille, audio , community, or all three. The first prize is an echo dot. Second prize is a book token. The fact I understand the second one but don't know what the first does probably says something about my age, or technical abilities. Honestly, you're lucky this blog doesn't come in the form of totally unreadable handwritten notes.

Thanks to Aly Rhodes for sharing the details of this short story competition. They're looking for a murder mystery story with a fun twist. 

I asked the organiser for clarification on the rules and have been told, 'It’s open to anyone over 18 with an original story that’s not published elsewhere."

Calls for submissions

Thanks to Liz for the info that Flametree are looking for romantic fantasy submissions for two anthologies. They pay 6p per word for first publication and 4p for reprints. 

Free as a bird

 

Free entry competition news

I think I may have mentioned this short story competition from Croydon Writers before, but as there's still plenty of time to enter and £100 prize, I thought it wouldn't hurt to include it again. Thanks to Fiona for reminding me about it - and thanks for everyone who is on the look out for competitions, news and opportunities to pass on for the blog. 

The skua in the photo was on the look out for threats to its nest. We beat a hasty retreat when it seemed to place us in that category! I don't think many of you are that ferocious - are you more more like puffins, oystercathers or fulmars?

Tuesday top tip - write regularly

Ever taken a break from writing and then found it difficult to get started again? Or wanted to get on with writing, but struggled to find a couple of free hours of peace without interruptions? 

Yeah, me too. The answer is to get used to writing regularly. Not necessarily every single day, but at least a couple of times a week, even if it's just for a few minutes. At first it might seem like you're not getting very far, but trust me, you WILL make progress. I wrote my first two novels (Paint Me A Picture and Escape To The Country) mostly in tea breaks at work and on trains going to meetings. Now a great deal of my writing is done in the van at photographic locations, waiting for the right light. I might have hours to write, or have to stop before the laptop has booted up. I'm not saying that's ideal, but you definitely can learn to work that way.

To get into the habit of writing in spare moments, how about trying short exercises every day? My book A Year Of Ideas; 365 sets of writing prompts and exercises, has suitable exercises for every day of the year - plus prompts and suggestions for turning them into a longer piece if work if you get the time.

This tip was brought to you by Patsy Collins. 

If you'd like to contribute a tip to this blog, here's what to do

Over to you

No blogger is an island – I benefit greatly from the help I get from readers who pass on info, leave comments, share posts etc. Thanks everyone!

Please share writing related news – successes and failures, details of free entry writing competitions, updates about the womags you submit to, any other publication opportunities, and raise any queries you may have. All these things will help other readers of the blog, and help me to keep it going!

As always, feel free to use my photos as writing prompts. If you prefer words to images for that purpose, take a look here.

Free entry competition news

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for sending me the details of this flash fiction competition from Green Stories - it's good to know they're still going. They want stories under 500 words on the theme of epiphanies. The first prize is £300, with seven runner up prizes of £100!

My news

One of my short story collections, Slightly Spooky Stories I is currently on sale for 99p / 99c.

International news - not all bad!

 

Womag news

This (paraphrased) info comes from Liz. It's been announced this week that Woman's World (USA) sister publication, First for Women, is being closed down, and its subscribers moved across to Woman's World (if they want to). There have been redundancies from Woman's World as well as First for Woman, among them Sienna Sullivan, one of the two editors who worked on the WW fiction (as well as some of the features). It's unclear as yet what this means for the two fiction slots in Woman's World.

Since I made the post, Liz has learned more -

A follow-up to my info regarding Woman's World - two new fiction editors have been announced. One (Shay) will look after the mysteries and the other (Melissa) the romances. The email addresses remain the same: Fiction@womansworldmag.com for writers who haven't published with Woman's World before, and FictionPro@womansworldmag.com for those who have. I'm hopeful that having two editors again, one for each slot, will make the role less overwhelming (they look after other parts of the magazine as well as the fiction). 

And from Sharon Boothroyd "If anyone is interested in writing nostalgia/ memory pieces, Best of British monthly mag want around 800 words, with photos. One photo must be a headshot of yourself. If it's accepted, they pay £20." Sharon also informs us that That's Life in Australia has resumed the Fast Fiction slot. Neither of us know if they're accepting unsolicited submissions.

Here's a link Fiona found, about how magazines are perhaps being appreciated differently.

Free entry competition news

The BCSA are running a competition for up to 2,000 words of prose. There's an optional theme of 'liberation' and other compulsory criteria. First prize is £400.

Calls for submissions

From Liz - The June issue of The Simple Things is asking for readers to submit microfiction (300 words). There's no money or prize (that I can see), but the best submissions will be published in next June's issue of The Simple Things. See the mag for more details. The Simple Things is a great mag that includes a commissioned short story in every issue. They're more literary than in the womags, but I've really enjoyed several of them. 

The Heroines Anthology reimagines women in myth, fairy tale, folklore or legend, & tells women's lost histories and untold stories. Submission is open to women writers from around the world, and all submissions are considered for the Heroines women's writing prize, which is $500.

More free entry writing competitions

 

Free entry writing competition news

This competition is run by the Scottish Mental Health Festival, but is open to all. They want fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction on the theme of 'comfort & disturb'. Shortlisted entrants will be invited to read at the awards ceremony (pretty sure that will be optional). The shortlisted and winning pieces of writing will also be published in an illustrated print and digital book. 

Thanks to Marguerite for this short story competition. The theme is heat wave and there's just a couple of weeks left to get your entry in and possibly win an Amazon voucher.

Thanks to Alyson for this short story competition with £100 prize.

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for the info that Scribble magazine have writing competitions which are free to enter for their subscribers, and that The Oldie magazine have a regular free poetry competition with a £25 prize.

New blog feature! 

Here's a discussion point, hardly at all intended to justify littering the blog with my travel photos! 

Do you think writing is like peeping in through a window, or walking straight through the doorway?

'Fess up!

Free entry writing competition news

This competition is for fiction or non-fiction 'that respond to the entangled social and ecological challenges of our contemporary world. ' Top prize is €1,000. Winners and honourable mentioned will be published in a virtual exhibition.

Here's another free to enter competition found by Fiona. They're asking for 'essays' on 'The worst writing mistake I’ve ever made.' The competition is open to anyone anywhere, over the age of 16. Prize is £100. It doesn't actually state is must be true, but I guess that's what they want. Shouldn't be a problem though, as there can't be many of us who haven't messed up somehow!

Anyone fancy confessing to one (or more!) of the daft / funny / downright weird ways they've gone wrong in connection with their writing? 

I have (more than once) intended to submit a single short story and accidentally attached an entire file of stories, not just the one I meant to send. On both occasions the editor concerned found the correct one and very tactfully informed me what I'd done.

Calls for submissions

Myslexia are looking for fiction and poetry on the theme of 'blue'. They pay for everything they publish.

Womag / competition news

Thanks to Pamela Gough for providing the details to the Best short story competition, in a comment on last week's post – The Best comp is for a Summer romance, max 1200 words. 1st prize is £500, 2 runners up get £200. Closing date is 20th July. Send your entry, with name, address and phone number to bestfiction@hearst.co.uk, with 'Summer romance fiction 2025' in the subject.

The People's Friend have slightly amended their word count requirements. The biggest change is that it's no longer acceptable to go over any stated word count. Full details here.  Thanks to Eirin, Alyson and others for checking I'd seen the news - it's easy to miss these things.

My news

Most of my time is currently taken up with processing photos. This post contains a random selection - although only this last one is particularly appropriate for the blog!

From Fiona!

Thanks to Fiona for sending me the link to this short story competition. As Fiona says, it's one for Dr Who fans. You could possibly get away with watching a few episodes as research, but my guess is that being a regular viewer would be an advantage. There are detailed instructions on the website. You're asked to send a proposal for a 5,000 word story and the prize is to have that commissioned.

Btw, in case you missed seeing the comment last week, Fiona took part in a writing project run by Philip Holyman with Birmingham Uni last autumn. Her poem, True Voyage, Returning, made it into the anthology and a podcast. It’s read by actress Beth Organ in Podcast 10 (1hr 13 minutes in!) you can listen here https://philipholyman.com/true-voyage-is-return

And here's another one from Fiona. This one is for those who live in the Milton Keynes area. They want fiction, factual pieces and poems on the theme of friendship. The prize is to read your piece at a Zoom event, for which you'll get free entry (others pay).

I know it's frustrating to see an interesting competition and not be able to enter because of restrictions such as the area you live – but if you do happen to be eligible, they're a good opportunity. This event is to mark the international day of friendship on 30th July. I imagine there's likely to be more competitions with the same theme.

To show my appreciation, I've included a few flowers for Fiona.

Over To You

 

Please share writing related news – successes and failures, details of free entry writing competitions, updates about the womags you submit to, any other publication opportunities, and raise any queries you may have. All these things will help* other readers of the blog, and help me** to keep it going!

* It can be very reassuring to know we're not the only person who gets rejections, finds something confusing, or has doubts. It's also very encouraging when people we've heard of and know are real people, something like us, win competitions or get published.

** It takes time to find new free competitions every single week and it's very difficult to keep track of markets I don't submit to. Your support through sharing information, and leaving comments, makes a big difference. (Never worry you're telling me something I know – reminders are welcome!)

Here's the rest...

These are the things I didn't get the chance to include in Saturday's post. My life hasn't got any less busy so, although I'll try to post each Saturday, be prepared for some randomness!

The photos were taken at Bodnant Gardens in Wales a few days ago. It's looking magnificent!

Womag news

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd and others for alerting me to the fact that My Weekly are advertising for a new fiction editor. The details are here, in case you fancy applying. I don't yet know what difference, if any, this will make to submitting fiction to this magazine, or what is happening with Kirstyn – something nice, I hope.

Free entry competition news

Thanks to Fiona for all the following ...

This competition is for UK authors who have been published at least once. You'll need to send a proposal, first three chapters and a statement about how your work 'contributes to the sustainability discourse'. First prize is £15,000.

This one is for true, 50 word stories on friendship. The details state that entries from those resident in Scotland will be considered for a book, but it seems you can still submit something if you live elsewhere. Unpublished authors only.

You definitely have to be resident in Scotland to enter this 'Gothic Aberdeen' short story competition. Having been to Aberdeen several times, I can see why the organisers consider it a suitable location for a gothic tale. Prize is £300.

Are any of you resident in Scotland? If not, I won't continue to post details of competitions with that restriction.

My news

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for reminding me I'm the People's Friend writer of the week. I'm sure I was told the date the interview would appear, but had completely forgotten about it.

One for the poets

 Thanks to Aly Rhodes for the details of this poetry competition.

Tuesday top tip - do your tax return

 We're already a month into the new tax year. This is the perfect time to send in your return (if you're required to do so). You need to do one if you earn more than £1,000 from your writing. That's income not profit.

I know it's not a fun thing, but it won't get easier or more enjoyable if you put it off until the last minute. Doing it early saves stress, and means that if you discover there's something missing from your records you have time to sort it out without risking a fine for being late.

In case you didn't realise, the date you send in your return has no impact on when you have to pay.

NB the above applies to the UK - other countries may have different rules.

What the editors want

Thanks to Babs Trevitt who sent me the following which she spotted on Twitter. I no longer use that platform, so hadn't seen it.

Obviously these are the requirements for The People's Friend submissions. If you have guidelines from a different publication with different instructions, then you should follow those for that particular publication. Otherwise, I don't think you'll be going wrong by adopting the above for all submissions.

Btw, I don't use Word to write. Before submitting I 'save as' a Word document and that works fine, so don't worry you'll need to buy Word if you don't already have it.

If anyone is concerned / confused about submission guidelines (for any publication) then contact the editor concerned - but feel free to mention it here. If there are queries about a publication where I have a contact, I'll attempt to get an answer.

To any magazine editors who may happen to see this - I'm always happy to post any guidelines / tips / requests / super exciting gossip you may wish the share! Same thing goes for organisers of free to enter writing competitions.

So busy!

You might have noticed I've not been posting or commenting as much as usual. I did have a bad cold (recovering now) but mostly it's because I've been really busy with non writing stuff. That's going to be the case for a while now, so apologies in advance for any sparseness, or even half completed posts! I'm hoping something now and again is better than nothing at all.

A lot of the business involves photography, some of which I'll randomly share. (Nothing new there!)

Free entry writing competitions.

Thanks to Marguerite and Sharon B for the link to this free poetry competition. There's lots of time to come up with something funny (which is what they want). There's a £25 book token prize for the winner in each category.