Saturday 22 April 2023

From You

A quick note about some of the things which came up as a result of last week's post.






Thanks to Rosemary Gemmel for this – 

The Fiction Desk's latest short story comp ends on May 31st: https://www.thefictiondesk.com/submissions/short-story-submission-guidelines.php


The Writer's Forum have published their final issue – thanks to Sharon Bee for letting us know.

Abbie from The People's Friend has taken voluntary redundancy and her authors have now been split amongst those who remain. If that's you, you should have been notified by now.


From Me

I'll have another short story collection out soon.


(The photos are from our recent trip to RHS Wisley)




11 comments:

Lindsay said...

Congratulations, Rosemary on your Mum Life win. It's a beautiful story and one I could identify with all too well. It was only last week I was telling my daughter how I didn't see her bedroom carpet for several years because of the detritus strewn over it.!

Marguerite said...

Are you doing overtime. Patsy? ;) Yes, as Lindsay said, a lovely tale, Rosemary, and congratulations on the win. My mother must have cursed me as I know I still left lots of clutter behind... and even when they moved much later in life! Thank you for the reminder about Fiction Desk - the ghosty one is of interest to me - later this year. Good luck with the new collection, Patsy. Shame, seems like everyone is trimming down or right out. I note TPF fiction pages too are curtailed from what they were.

Sheelagh said...

Thanks for the updates Patsy. Congrats Rosemary on your win & to you Patsy on yet another book completed. I look forward to reading it.
@ Marguerite, yes it does feel like every short story publishing opportunity is being scaled back or slimmed down. I have to keep those thoughts out of my head when I write though. Who knows maybe a book is ahead of us!

Liz said...

@Marguerite - I'm really puzzled by your comment that 'TPF fiction pages are curtailed from what they were'. I haven't caught up with TPF for a few weeks (I've been away), but according to the online sneak peaks, the latest mags still run their usual seven stories plus serials, series and soap opera, and the latest Special still has 20 short stories. They're still asking for the same story lengths. Have I missed something here?

@Rosemary - congrats!

I've nothing to report, having been in the UK for five weeks, visiting family and friends. I haven't written any fiction at all this year so far. I'm hoping to remedy that over the next few months. I need to sit down and make some writing plans as welll as write.

Marguerite said...

Ah, Liz - the website - the blog pages - under fiction. There were, until end of March, writing prompts every week. There were also occasional articles for writers. There was the weekly writing hour roundup which they summarized (twitter?) - it has been trimmed to a post on a Thursday - sorry, just re-read what I wrote and I meant to say website!

Liz said...

@Marguerite - thanks, now it makes sense! Yes, I've noticed that too, but honestly, there's no way the smaller team can continue to put out a weekly mag, a three-weekly special, the annual, the Christmas bookazine, the poetry books, the pocket novels, and write all that website content without something having to give. Personally, I'd rather lose the website content than the mags, books or pocket novels. I think their digital editor has also taken redundancy as well as Abbie.

Sharon boothroyd said...

Nothing to report apart from that's life mag,the UK version, publishes a short story in their monthly special. I suspect it's taken from the tab fiction stock,so the writers aren't paid any more for it.Also, if anyone fancies writing blog pieces for the coronation street blog, Glenda young is looking for writers to contribute. It's unpaid, I'm afraid but if you're a fan of the show,you could comment on the current plots and see your written piece published.

Anonymous said...

I notice Best have another short story competition - the theme this time being summer. The closing date is 4th June. The only two summer themed stories I currently have are already out. And they’re longer than the 1200 word limit. Though if I can think of something over the next few weeks, I might give it a go.

Michael Donoghue

Marian said...

Thank you to Michael for the post about the Best competition. I like being given a theme and a deadline as it makes me concentrate and stop procrastinating, even if what I come up with isn't quite right in the end!

Marguerite said...

Yes, thank you, Michael - I have made procrastination an art :) and even if it doesn't fit, Marian, it might go somewhere else...

Sheelagh said...

@ Michael, Marion & Marguerite Yes thank you Michael, I'm going to try & edit something already written. I also find deadlines good for getting on with it & it is satisfying to at least make a submission on time.