All being well, there will still be regular(ish) posts, written and posted from the mobile writing retreat (aka our campervan). If any are sparse, or look like I got distracted before I finished them, it might be due to poor internet access, but will most likely be because I did get distracted! We're going to Orkney and there's so much there I want to see. Hopefully you'll make allowances.
Competition result
I have the result of my book cover design competition. Thank you to everyone who took part - and congratulations to the winner!
Hannah, who is providing the prize, says –"I really enjoyed reading all of them. I would like to choose the entry of 'The Italian Connection' by Elizabeth McGinty as the winner as it sounds like a wonderful story that I would love to illustrate!"
If Hannah and Elizabeth are happy to share the result, I'll show that in a future post – and if anyone else offers a suitable prize* I'll run more competitions here.
*Anything vaguely writing related, or chocolate, cake, cash etc
Free entry writing competitions
Here's a competition from ALCS for educational writing. It's only for 'traditionally published' work though. I couldn't see how they defined that, but they do ask who the publisher is. The prize is £2,000 in total.
My news
Crime In Mind is a sister publication to Criminal Intent – both contain 24 short crime stories and are available as ebooks, paperbacks and through kindle unlimited. They can also be ordered in bookshops, or requested in libraries.
20 comments:
Thanks Patsy I might have a go at the less than 50 word story competition. Congratulations to Elizabeth on winning the book cover, it would be lovely to see it at a later date.
Love the photo of the erigeron, it's so irrepressibly cheerful & resilient- way to go!
Enjoy your travels Patsy, I'd love to see the Orkney islands so look forward to your photos of same
Enjoy your travels, Patsy. Orkney is on our list to visit, too.
I always have a go at the On The Premises comps. The mini ones throw up some very clever stories sometimes and the people that run it tell you if you came in the top ten per cent.
Alyson
Oh wow, I've just seen this thank you so much Patsy and Hannah I am delighted to have won this competition and can't wait to see Hannah's illustration.
Thank you for offering this wonderful prize.
x
Have a good trip, Patsy.
The On The Premises competition sounds like fun. I'm going to have a go at that.
Congratulations to Elizabeth, and happy travels, Patsy.
HB
Congratulations, ELizabeth. Would love to see it on here... no pressure! Thank you for the competitions as always, Patsy, and enjoy your sortie. I'm half thinking about keeping a tally of how many times you mention chocolate and cake... 😉
Patsy, why don't you run a little short story comp on here?
The first prize could be a sort of goody bundle - I'm suggesting a couple of your books,2 medium bars of choc, a few pairs of cute socks, a pretty notebook and pen, a stack of post it notes, a mug maybe, and some sachets of hot chocolate.
There could also be a runner up prize.
The prizes needn't be expensive,but it'd give us a reason to enter. (Plus, you may acquire new readers from it).
I'd send something in for a chance to win a nice goody bag! You'd be the judge and maybe the winning stories could be published on this blog or one your other website.
I subbed a short story competition to an author website - won and received an ebook and a critique. I was chuffed with that :) Chocolate's always good :)
An e- book and a free crit as part of a first prize bundle would also be good.
I won a goody bag bundle as a prize few years ago, as my entry was a runner up in a Xmas story comp.
It was really nice to receive, even though it was just small treats with a few little bits thrown in!
Really doubt Patsy has the time or inclination to run a short story competition on top of her travelling and her own writing. I think it's more than enough that she gives generously of her time to keep us up to date with things via this blog.
Liz
Ah well. It was just an idea!
Someone else who self publishes might like to run a similar competition. It's just a subtle way of trying to attract new readers.
It's also us, the readers of the blog, that post updates as well, such as the one from TPF.
They require a log line with any submitted stories from now on.
Excuse my ignorance but what is a log line, Sharon?
I've not long twigged what a 'by line' is! Probably because I'd never seen it written down! Don't know log but am guessing 'what the story is about' in a sentence?
By the way, when I won the author comp, it was a call out for a theme. The author was collating several into a published book. I had the opportunity... but mine wasn't up to scratch for that part. There were existing authors asked to contribute in a sort of series she ran.
I assume that a log line is a brief synopsis of the story.
Ah yes it's something I always do without ever knowing it was called a log line.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Log line is a weird phrase, isn't it? I tend to say 'strap line' for what I think is the same thing.
A short story competition is a nice idea, but I definitely don't have the time to read the entries at the moment, or for the foreseeable future. When I'm back home I could probably manage the admin part though. Maybe someone who offers editing services or something on those lines would like to be a judge? If that's you, please get in touch.
Thanks for all the info, Patsy. Love your garden. How do you manage it? I've a big natural garden and I'mm currently spending about thirty hours a week keeping it in a sort of shape. Enjoy your Orkney adventure. All good wishes.Kate Hogan.
Just bought Criminal Intent so this sister volume will be a worthy future companion 😊
@ Kate – Mine isn't a big garden and I have lots of plants which pretty much take care of themselves - and I have a big blitz when I come back from trips.
@ Jay - thanks very much! I hope you enjoy the stories (and if you do, a review would be hugely appreciated.)
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