February is for friendships

It's time for another Insecure Writers Support Group post! This month I'm one of the co-hosts, along with Louise - Fundy Blue, Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, and Nancy Gideon.

If you're a writer who is ever insecure in any way, you might like to join the IWSG. There's the monthly blog hop, Facebook group, help, support, resources, website... All kinds of stuff. You can get involved with it all, or just the elements which most appeal.

This month's optional blog hop question is – Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere? 

My answer is – YES! 

I've been fortunate enough to meet some of them in person (cake has usually been involved!). I hope to meet more once travelling and meeting people becomes safe again, but there are those I consider friends despite the fact we may never meet face to face.

It's not just through blogging I've made friends, but through other writing related activities such as forums, workshops, conferences, groups and social media. On the whole writers are interesting, friendly and very generous. We tend to help and support each other. We take time out from our writing to encourage others with theirs. 

Do you have blogging friends, or writing friends you've met in other ways?

One writing friend I first met virtually is Rosemary J. Kind. We get on so well that we've written a book together. From Story Idea to Reader is an accessible guide to writing fiction, available in ebook, paperback and audio versions. The ebook is currently reduced to  £1.99 / $1.99

Free entry writing competition news

Here's a romance writing competition with a small cash prize.

This competition is for 'book-length essays of at least 25,000 words by writers resident in the UK and Ireland who have not yet secured a publishing deal'. The prize is publication and a £3,000 advance.

For this competition there's a £10,000 prize for 'the best piece of writing on the theme of the Alpine Fellowship 2021 - Untamed: On Wilderness and Civilization'.

Womag news

The People's Friend will be doing a Facebook live event about their pocket novels at 11am this Friday. This is for readers and writers. 

Thanks to Jackie Sayle for letting me know that Woman's Weekly have introduced a new monthly fiction magazine. Don't get too excited as it seems to be entirely made up of reprints!

If one of your stories is used in the magazine you can still claim for ALCS payments for stories sold under the old 'first rights with extensions' contracts. If you've given up all rights, you may still be able to do that, but will need the permission of the rights holder.

Other news

I've set up a new  Womagwriter Twitter account. You can follow it here. I'll be using it to share writing related news and help to promote other writers, so will follow back and retweet those who engage with me. (My personal account is here.)

F.S.I.T.R.

From Story Idea to Reader will be out on 30th November! There's a whole chapter about womags (I'll give you three guesses as to who wrote that!) but there's a lot more to the book than that.

From Story Idea to Reader is an easily accessible guide to writing fiction. Whether you are brushing up on your writing skills or starting out, this book will take you through the whole process from inspiration to conclusion. No matter if you are looking to submit your work for publication, enter a competition, or want to self-publish, this practical guide will help you every step of the way.

Between them, Patsy Collins and Rosemary Kind have sold hundreds of short stories, written sixteen published books and produced numerous articles for Writing Magazine and similar publications. They've both judged writing competitions and run workshops, and Rosemary has read and edited thousands of short stories and published dozens of books for other writers.

With the information, help and encouragement in this book, you too could see your work in print.

The paperback will be £9.99 and electronic formats £3.99. The kindle version can be pre ordered now.

From Story Idea to Reader

This rather marvellous book will be available soon. It includes an entire chapter on writing for womags – by a writer I'm sure many of you will have heard of ;-) There's also lots about finding ideas and the time to write, grammar, formatting work, creating characters, competitions, self publishing ...

It will be out in time for Christmas (in paperback as well as in ebook formats) so start dropping those subtle hints now ...