With a little help from my friends

The autumn colour has been great this year, hasn't it? That made our trip to Scotland extra special. The photos were taken in the last garden we visited.

We're back now and getting on with work. I'm writing short stories about cakes (I blame Marguerite and Sheelagh!) and plotting out the 4th book in my Little Mallow cosy mystery series.

Free entry competition news

The theme for The Scottish Book Trust flash competition this month is friends. There's a small prize for this little competition, plus publication on the website.

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for the link to this short story competition for W&AYB. You have up to 2,000 words and the theme is 'play'. The prize is an Arvon residential writing week. Is that something you'd like to win?

Other writing opportunities

If you write for children, you may like to consider submitting to Aquila Magazine. It's aimed at children aged from 8 to 14 and they accept both short stories and features. Pay is £105 in both cases. The submission guidelines are here.

If you liked the sound of the writing retreat Fiona discussed in the last post, but would find that too much of a commitment, how about a one week online version? Thanks to Vivienne Moles for telling me about this 'Winter Writing Sanctuary'. Vivienne says, "I've been following these courses now ever since their inception during the pandemic. There really are no catches: absolutely free. The material she uses is original and new every year and inspiring and it sort of boosts your creativity without judgement."

My news

If your library membership gives you access to Hoopla, or Overdrive, you can use it to read some of my books for free. (Not sure why it isn't all - hopefully more will be added.) Do any of you use either service? If you do, please consider borrowing one of my books - I'd really appreciate it.

Can you help?

I'm starting to gradually update my submission database. It's got a bit neglected. For example I still had Your Cat Magazine, which ceased publication well over a year ago. Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for pointing that out, and passing on quite a lot of other useful info, which I'll be sharing as I work my way through that and the database.

It would be very helpful if anyone who notices errors with what I currently have, or who sees fiction in any magazine lets me know. Obviously if you can supply all the relevant info about subbing that would be great, but even just the name of the publication where you saw a story would help.