Over To You

I think / hope that I've now made it possible for you to subscribe to this blog and get new posts sent to you by email. There's a purple box thingy on the top right of the page. Give it a try if you like! (You can also do the same thing with the blog on my website, if you happen to fancy that.)

UPATDE This does seem to work, although the email notifications don't arrive until several hours after the post goes live. 

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 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!)

Womag news

If you claim ALCS (money you're entitled to if you're a UK citizen who has work published in magazines) then make sure you update your claims before the end of the month, so you don't miss out on any payments.

Free entry competition

This is from Best. I don't think I can make the t&c's big enough to read, so the highlights are - only one entry per person. First prize £500, two runners up of £200. All rights are taken from prizewinning stories, but not on all entries.

Small and weird

No, I've not* eaten so many fruit slices, tattie scones, haggis breakfasts, Abernathy biscuits etc etc that I've grown - the Kelpies really have shrunk!

*Well... maybe I have eaten a lot, but I've walked loads too. 

 Free entry writing competitions

Thank you to Sharon Boothroyd for sending me the link to the Welkin Prize for micro fiction. There's a first prize of £75 for up to 100 words of narrative prose, fiction or non-fiction.

This Valentine's poetry competition was also found by Sharon. The first prize is a £100 gift voucher. Previous winners can be read on the site, to give you an idea of the sort of thing they're looking for.

And thanks to Fiona for this short story competition from the Hudson Review. It's open to anyone not previously published in that magazine (which I'm guessing is most of us?) The first prize is $1,000 plus publication.

Call for submission

Thanks to Marguerite for the link to this from Weird Christmas. This year, instead of a competition, there's to be an anthology of flash fiction. Around a dozen stories will be published. Each will earn $35.

More from Scotland

Apologies for half a post last week! Hopefully that was better than nothing. I'm still in Scotland. As you can see, there are plenty of distractions.

Free to enter writing competitions.

Thanks to Fiona for this poetry and spoken word competition. We're asked to write pieces using some of the items from 'the extraordinary collections of renowned British architect Sir John Soane' as prompts. As Fiona says 'it's a bit different, but might be of interest to some'. There's a total prize pot of £2,000 and shortlisted entrants get a digital certificate.

And here's the link to the Scottish castle retreat she mentioned in a comment to last week's post. It's currently closed to submissions. I'll do my best to post a link when it re-opens.

Calls for submissions

Thanks to Marguerite for sharing the link to Flame Tree Publishing. They regularly open to fantasy type submissions. Do check the website for details, as they're very specific and decidedly niche in their requirements.

The People's Friend are looking for more pocket novels. The requirements are – 

         37,000 - 38,000 words.

      Single or dual VPs.

Present or past tense.

Any genre, but PNs still to contain PF tone.

Payment is £300.

Email synopsis and first chapter to Tracey Steel: tsteel@dcthomson.co.uk

My news

All of my Slightly Spooky Stories short story ebook collections are currently on sale for 99p.