Surprise!

You weren't expecting to see a photo of me in a cart pulled by a wooden horse, were you?

What would you name him? 

Free entry writing competitions.

My friend Sheila (known as Spanish Sheila, as opposed to Irish Sheelagh, as all my attempts to pronounce the names differently have failed) told me about this competition. They want a story with a surprise in 2,500 words or fewer, and offer £100 prize. To enter, you must sign up for the writing club, but that's also free - and sounds potentially useful.

Thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for these two competitions – 

The W&AYB short story competition offers a prize package including publication and a place on an Arvon Residential Writing Week, valued at over £800.

Comma Press also have a short story competition. They want you to use what they describe as 'found text' for the whole thing. That means using something like letters, text messages, emails etc etc rather than ordinary narration. Janice Hallet writes like that, and I enjoy her books, so I know it can be done. First prize is £500. UK residents only.

Womag news

Thanks to Liz for this news - Woman's World have cut their fiction fees in half. A solve-it-yourself mystery is now $200 and romance $250. Their word counts are different too - 400 for mystery plus 40 for the solution, and between 550-680 for romance.