The saga continues

The progress of our office installation has been so complicated, changeable and stressful that I daren't give you all the details in case I get a reputation for writing totally incomprehensible and unbelievable bleak nonsense. Let's just say I recommend using Sharps - but only if you want inspiration for unfathomable horror stories.

I'm hoping these flowers will stop me feeling blue about it all!

Womag news

Alyson tells me that Tracey at The People's Friend is looking for more pocket novels. The latest requirements I can find are here – I believe they're up to date.

Free entry writing competitions

On the Premises have a short story competition with the theme of 'Less' which can be interpreted in lots of ways. Maximum word count 3,000. Prizes from $250 for first place.

Thanks to Fiona for this flash fiction competition from Gooseberry Pie. There's $1,100 in prize money and they only want 400 words, so it already felt worth a try. After yet another snag with our office fitting reading the prompt was a bad day getting worse, it felt like a sign! I hope the bit about it all ending up better than expected comes true. 

A note about rights

You probably know that when a magazine buys a story, they don't generally just buy the right to print it once, even when they don't take all rights. Generally they'll require the right to reuse it, often in different formats. For example, they might decide to use it online, in an ebook, or in another magazine owned by the same company. 

It's because of this, that a story which I never submitted to Yours magazine is in the current issue. I wouldn't have known about that, without the combined efforts of Sharon Boothroyd and Sharon Haston. Thank you ladies – now that I know I can claim ALCS.

Btw, one of the flower photos in this post is a reprint from a previous post. Points to anyone who deduces which one!