Wednesday 21 July 2021

Over to you! (and free entry writing competitions)

The winner of the copy of Violet's War as offered in my last post is Lindsay Bamfield. Congratulations! I'll be in touch soon to arrange delivery of the ebook.

I'd love to hear your competition news.

My apologies for accidentally publishing the half finished version of this post last week and having to quickly take it down as it conflicted with something else! And thanks to Liz who spotted what I'd done before I did and commented with a link to this free to enter novel writing competition.

Thanks to Alan Barker for sending me a link to this competition, which he spotted while on holiday.  They're looking for poetry and short (500) word stories with the theme of 'touching the wild'. Work cannot have been previously published – you may submit up to three pieces.

Have you entered any writing comps? Had any luck? Heard about interesting contests? Got any tips to pass on? (Although I only feature free to enter competitions in my posts it's fine to share news about other competitions too.)

Do you have any
 womag news?

Sorry, I don't yet have an update on the ALCS issue with DCT publications (which I posted about here). Do you know anything more?

Are you researching, writing, subbing? Had any acceptances or rejections? Any other news?


Feel free to use this photo as a picture prompt. If you'd like other writing prompts, short exercises and story/scene suggestions then you might find this book useful.

Do you have writing tips to share, questions to ask, or suggestions for this blog?



15 comments:

Liz said...

I've sold a couple of short stories to TPF since the last Over To You, and also got the green light on a serial.

Good luck with your workshop!

I saw this competition mentioned on Twitter earlier: https://www.watsonlittle.com/about/the-watson-little-prize/ It's for novelists over 50, so some of your followers might be tempted.

Liz said...

Congrats to Lindsay on winning the book.

I had another TPF sale since I replied to your original post - a long crime read, so I was very happy with that. It seems like they're starting to get through their backlog.

Lindsay said...

Oh, how lovely. That's a lovely surprise for Melbourne's 5th lockdown! Thank you!

Marian said...

I was lucky enough to win the Best magazine summer short story competition. It was such a lovely surprise and a great boost. Other than that, I've had a few rejections, so its been swings and roundabouts!

Marguerite said...

Congratulations Lindsay! I had a surprise in my birthday week - I won the Erewash Writers' Romance Competition :) also another story selected for Secret Attic. My aim for this year is to get shortlisted (?) for Writing Magazine :( not happening at the moment. Thank you for the competitions, Patsy.

Eirin Thompson said...

Congratulations to Lindsay and to Marian on their competition wins, and to everyone else who is having a successful writing month. I was thrilled to have a Christmas story accepted by The People's Friend this week - it's always exciting to have work appearing and to see the accompanying artwork, but the illustrations for the Christmas stories are possibly a little bit extra-special, I think.

ChrisC said...

I ve had one acceptance from TPF but had more luck with competitions of late. I was shortlisted for the erewash Holiday Romance short story comp, shortlisted in the Writers Forum flash fiction and winner of the Glittery Literary short story comp,, so thanks for info on more comps to enter, I seem to be having more luck with these than magazines atm!

New girl on the block said...

No magazine news, but another story selected for Secret Attic this month. Good to hear that TPF is getting through the backlog. I'm still hoping for my first story acceptance from them. I've only been successful with one poem so far.

Elizabeth McGinty said...

Congratulations Lindsay and also to everyone who has had recent acceptances or competition wins. It's great to hear success stories. I have been concentrating on writing to a longer length, and have completed first draft.


Kitty-Lydia Dye said...

Congrats to everyone on their acceptances and wins :) I'm currently waiting to hear back on my very first TPF pocket novel submission.

On another subject, I was wondering if anyone could help with a question I had?
I've seen on author blogs and websites quotes of Amazon reviews of their books, but can we use these reviews on our blogs? I wanted to do a page about my Phantom of the Opera short story collections on my blog and include a line or two from previous reviews left by readers, but wasn't certain about the legalities of this.
I've tried looking it up and some say permission is needed from the reviewer while others say they can be used.

What would you do in regards to this? Thanks ^.^!

Anonymous said...

To all who have had sales or won competitions a big 'Well Done'. I've just had a sale to My Weekly, which is pleasing given sales are few and far between these days! Bit shocked to read about the ALCS issue with DC Thompson, though - my yearly pay out usually paid for an 'out of season' cottage break. Good wishes to all. Kate Hogan.

Unknown said...

Hi Patsy, I was wondering if you know the magazine That's Life Australia has published one of your stories. They were sold to Bauer Media and are now owned by ARE Media. They have published one of my stories without my knowledge. I know of several well-known writers this is happening to. I was published with them for ten years and once they were sold they ignored me.
Regards, Rosina Owen.

Patsy said...

@ Liz – thanks for the links and congratulations on the sales.

@ Lindsay – Well done. I've messaged you about your prize. If you've not seen that, please get in touch.

@ Marian – Oh, well done!

@ Eirin – Congratulations o the sale. I hope you get a really good illustration.

@ ChrisC – Excellent results! I'll keep looking out for more competitions.

@ New Girl – Well done with your Secret Attic success.

@ Elizabeth – It's great to have that first draft finished, isn't it?

@ Kitty-Lydia – I'm not a legal expert, but I believe it's OK to do this.

@ Kate – Well done on the sale. Yes, the loss of ALCS is a blow.

@ Rosina – I did know about my story, but only because a friend told me – I wasn't informed officially. I believe this was a reprint of a story they bought a few years ago. The contract I signed allowed them to do this, but that contract was with Bauer. I'm not sure how that works if the magazine is sold.

It seems that all the stories being published in That's Life! have previously been in the magazine. I don't think that's really fair to the readers.

Charlie said...

It has been quiet on the acceptance and rejection front for me but keeping my fingers crossed for a mag sale soon. I wanted to mention that Yours fiction has changed their word count yet again for their short stories, I’m only noticing this as I buy the magazine when it comes out and they keep asking for stories of different lengths - not helpful when you send them stories of a length they asked for a few months back.

Patsy said...

@ Charlie – That's frustrating!