Questions, questions

Today's photo is a quiz!

I do know what it's of, but only because there was some context when I took the image. Care to guess? Or perhaps you know?

Free entry writing competitions

Thanks to Sharon for the link to this poetry competition with a £100 first prize, and book tokens for four runners up.

Here's a playwriting competition. The theme is climate crisis. The prize is £15,000 and develpment support. Entrants to be UK based.

Calls for submission

Thanks to Alyson for sending the details of this call for anthology submissions. It's in aid of Hope Against Cancer, so there's no payment. You have 1,500 to 3,000 words to write a short story on the theme of 'An Act Of Kindness'.

And thanks to Linda Casper for the following – Competition at www.thefirstline.com either a story with their first line or last line.

Winter:
Lawrence was the last to arrive.
Due date: November 1, 2026
Notification: We don't make decisions about submissions until after each issue closes. We typically send notices four to five weeks after the issue's deadline to everyone who submitted. You can also check the website's home page for each issue's production status.

Payment: We pay on publication: $25.00 - $50.00 for fiction, $10.00 for poetry, and $25.00 for nonfiction (all U.S. dollars). We also send you a copy of the issue in which your piece appears. You'll receive your money and issue at the same time.

Request for help

A fortnight or so ago, someone mentioned me having a story in BOWW. I can't remember who, or exactly when it was. If anyone saw the story, can you recall the title, or what it was about?

Just a couple

Everything seems very quiet at the moment. Or maybe I've been so busy concentrating on my novel that I've not noticed what's going on?

Free to enter writing competitions

On the Premises have another mini competition. They want just three sentences - beginning, middle and end. First prize is $35.

This short story competition from Horrortree is for up to 500 words about what happens after you take the last exit. The prize is a print copy of the publication the piece appears in, and a social media feature.

An actual post!

I did get to write a post this week, even if I am finishing it off at the last minute.

These photos were taken by me, but not in my garden.  btw, the photo in last week's post was of brown hares, as I'd not captured any fluffy bunnies with the camera. I'm guessing you all thought I'd mixed them up and are too polite to correct me.

Did you witness the eclipse?

Free entry writing competitions

Here's a competition for plays. The theme is climate change. If the current weather has inspired you, then in you're in with the chance of winning £15,000.

Thanks to Eirin for telling me about the Sunday Post short story competition, as it closes on Friday September 18th. "Entrants must be amateur writers and not selling their work on any platform. "

You have 1,500 to 2,000 words. I don't think there's a big cash prize, but winning this one could be a useful boost to a newish writer hoping to go on to be published.

And thanks, Dee - you know why!

Womag news

I believe Best have a Hallowe'en competition, but haven't seen a copy of the magazine yet. I'll update this post if/when I do.

Eirin has also told me that the cut off date for registering stories with ALCS in time for March payments has moved forward a little, to 31st October. If you'd been intending to sign up with them and not yet got around to it, now would be a good time. Here's why you might want to join.

Oh crikey!

It's Saturday already and I have nothing prepared for a blog post. I'd offer a fluffy bunny by way of apology, but this is the nearest I've got. Will it do? Will you forgive me?

More importantly, what have you been up to? I've mostly been editing the next Little Mallow novel, although I did pause to dash off a short story to send to My Weekly and make a submission to Ulverscroft.

Have you had any successes, or other writing news?

Some better news

You may remember that after I'd posted about TABFF using stories, I was contacted by a journalist who quoted me, and some of you, in an article. I've since been contacted by someone at the BBC! I gave a statement, but haven't heard back so don't know if anything will come off that. I also had another email, which some of you may be interested in. I've copied it, with permission.

Hi Patsy,

I hope all's well with you! I am writing on behalf of Ulverscroft Ltd, a specialist large print publisher.

I saw the sad news regarding AI use in Fiction Feast, which led me to your blog, and it concerned me that this will leave less space for womag writers and their creativity. 

At Ulverscroft, I acquire rights for a large print list - Linford Romance (Linro), which publishes shorter romances (typically 25-60k words). I was wondering whether yourself or other womag writers would be interested in publishing with us? I realise that the Fiction Feast stories tend to be shorter than the typical Linro length, but if you have something slightly longer that wouldn’t fit the magazine submission guidelines, that could work really well.

Please feel free to share this with your peers, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Very best wishes,

Ceri

Ceri Jones

Publishing Executive - Large Print Lead

Ulverscroft Ltd

If you wish to submit something, you can send a pdf or Word document, saying you saw the info on this blog, to editorial@ulverscroft.co.uk 

As a guide to the style, they often use MW and TPF pocket novels, although Ceri told me she can consider titles with 'a bit of spice'. They pay royalties only, with no advance. Their books are often available in libraries, so plr payments are a possibility.

I know that not everyone will have something suitable to submit, but isn't it nice that something positive just might come from all of this for a few of us?

The photos are all from my garden this week. Some plants are suffering, but these have coped with very little water, including none at all for the 15c days I was in France earlier this month.

AI news

I seriously hope this isn't going to be a regular blog section, but I thought you might be interested to know that a BIG name has got involved with the Take a Break Fiction Feast issue. (alternative link)

Sorry, I hadn't realised that you can't see this without an Instagram account. Short version - TABFF are replacing ALL writers with LLM (AI) and this is pretty rotten as they're a big magazine and don't pay writers much anyway. Richard says 'It's crazy'. I think some of their info is out of date (they pay 'low hundreds' per story - I wish!) and they may have confused TAB FF with the weekly mag.

Womag news

Sharon tells me there will be a September issue of TABFF. Neither of us have heard of anyone being asked to submit work. Have you?

Free entry writing competitions

Thanks to Sharon for this competition for empathy boosting stories of up to 550 words. You can submit poetry or prose, in written, video or audio formats. 

This competition is for horror novellas of up to 40,000 words. The prize is $300 plus royalties.

Other publication opportunities

Untold Tales of the Round Table want Arthurian stories, without Merlin as the central character, for an anthology. 4,000 - 10,000 words. Payment is per word.