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?

I'm back!

I'm back home from my travels for a while – although obviously I reserve the right to dash off somewhere at a moment's notice. Unless that happens, and probably even if it does, the blog will return to regular weekly posts with various free opportunities for writers, and womag news when there is any.

Free entry writing competitions

Protopian Prize is for optimistic stories set in the future. They should be 500 to 6,000 words. There's a $5,000 prize in each category, plus publication.

Thanks to Dee for sending these details. As she says, both the competition on the New Writers website look interesting. Competition open to UK residents only.

Green Dragon Guild of London Poetry Prize 2026

Deadline: 23.59 (UK time) on Wednesday 29 July 2026

• Entry Fee: FREE
• Prizes: The winning entrant will receive: 1. Cash prize of £100; 2. Your work set to music by composer David Yardley and performed by professional musicians at the “Of Carols & Chimeras” concert on Friday 20 November 2026; 3. Complimentary tickets to the concert; 4. Standard 50% royalties from any future performances or recordings of the musical work that uses your lyrics
• Word Limit: 50 lines
• Theme: Chimeras
• Category: Poetry Competitions

Other (ie NOT womag) publication opportunities 

Story Unlikely are accepting submissions until 14th October. They pay 8 cents a word with a maximum payout of $350 (or 1 cent a word for reprints). They consider any genre, but don't want anything excessive.

My news

I have a new book out! (Yes, I'm back at that again too.)

It's summer!

Gosh, it's warm, isn't it? I'm so lucky to have the sea so close. We've walked down and chucked ourselves in several times this week.

I'll sprinkle this posts with refreshing glimpses of cool water for anyone who might benefit. (Not all taken on my daily walks!)

A quick reminder - this is how this blog works.

Free entry writing competition

Thanks to Alyson for sending the link to this haiku competition. The theme is sight, and the prize is $25 sent via Paypal.

Call for Submissions

Thanks to whoever told me about Poplar and Prose. Was it Fiona? Sorry, my memory isn't great even when it isn't melting! I got in touch, and was sent this –  I’m looking for 100-word stories that celebrate summer — inspired by nature and rich in imagery. This could include stories about family, relationships, vacations, and summer memories to give you a few examples of what I’m especially interested in. 

This is for Poplar & Prose, a literary lifestyle brand, featuring pieces that make the ordinary moments feel a little richer, inspired by good books and the outdoors. I’d love to highlight one or two amazing writers in August through a featured Journal post.

Authors always retain the rights to their work. I simply ask for non-exclusive permission to publish the piece on Poplar & Prose. Contributors are also free to publish elsewhere.

While I’m only able to provide a token .03/word payment, contributors will be credited alongside a short author blurb and linked work/socials if desired.

To get a feel for the brand, you can visit PoplarandProse.com.

By July 15 8pm EST, submissions, along with a 2–3 sentence bio, can be sent to: contact@poplarandprose.com

Thanks so much for your interest, and I look forward to reading about your summers!

Womag news

There will be July and August issues of TABFF. I don't know about after that.

Feeling floral

We've visited quite a few big gardens on our recent travels, as well as walking through woods and countryside full of wild flowers. Here are just a few examples of flowers we've seen.

Womag news

People are still getting rejections from TAB. It seems rather a waste of time, as we're told to assume a rejection after three months, and the rejected stories are, as far as I'm aware, all much older than that. In my case, they're nearly all for stories sent and given up on years ago. I've also had rejections for stories TAB have published!

Free to enter writing competitions

Thanks to Alyson for this flash fiction competition from Curtis Brown. Max word count 300, theme landmarks. The first prize is £300. 

The rules state AI must not be used – something I totally agree with, but wouldn't be able to prove I'd complied with. Apparently in some cases, the use of dashes is considered 'evidence' of having cheated in this way, as is the knowledge AI exists. 

Here's a poetry competition with £100 first prize (you'll need to scroll down a bit to find it). Thanks to Aly Rhodes for sending me the details.

Other publication opportunities

Thanks to Alyson for the info that Haiku Shack are looking for micro fiction and short poems. They don't pay, but you can submit previously published work – as long as you did't give up all rights, of course.

btw, if you're involved in any publication, physical or digital, which welcome submissions, doesn't charge a submission / reading fee, and would like a mention on my blog, please get in touch.

From Liz Filleul – Earlier this year, I signed a contract with Clan Destine Press, an Australian small-press publisher, for a short story collection called Sentenced Beyond the Seas: The Convict Constable’s Casebook. The book features a convict constable, Will Grafton, solving crimes in 1830s Van Diemen’s Land. The seven short mysteries include three that have been previously published in The People’s Friend Special. ‘The Convict Constable’, ‘Death Knock’ and ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’ appeared as 9500-word ‘long crime reads’ in May 2020, May 2021 and May 2022 respectively. 

Patsy has kindly invited me to blog about the work involved in taking those three stories and making them part of a collection that can be read like a novel. So next week I’ll be blogging about the process involved with this. Having just been through the editing stage, I can safely say that it’s been trickier than I initially envisaged!

 

Getting away from it all

We're still on our adventures, still having a great time. The pictures are recent views from the mobile writing retreat. I post these daily on Facebook and Bluesky

Magazine news

Thanks to Fiona for the news that Freya at Aquila is looking for short stories (1,000 to 3,000 words) suitable for children 8-13. They're also looking for puzzle writers and historians. 'Basic rate is £150 for 700 words. For non-fiction, send a short paragraph about you with your ideas and a couple of examples of published work. For fiction, send completed short stories. In both instances, email Freya: editor@aquila.co.uk.'

Free to enter writing competitions

Have you written at least one book (fiction, non fiction or poetry) and feel that having time away in an Airbnb property (or more than one) might help you write the next? If so, explain that in Hay Festival's room to write competition and win £1,500 worth of vouchers.

Thanks to Fiona for this competition from The Scottish Wildlife Trust. They want up to 1,000 words in any form, on the theme of changing seasons and Scotland's wildlife and wild places. There's an interesting array of prizes on offer for the winner - plus a couple of small runner up prizes.

Thanks to Alyson for this 6 word competition, with a $100 prize. Hmmm, maybe I do have time to write a whole story after all.

No prize!

We've been doing a lot of travelling over the last week, both in the van on foot. The weather has been (mostly) fabulous and we've taken a great many photos – quite a few work ones for Gary, lots of flowers, and some random scenery. I've even managed some writing!

Free to enter writing competitions

Croydon writers have a monthly 'writer of the month' competition for short stories and poetry. "There is no prize except the satisfaction of having put out some good writing!"

Here's a poetry competition, which will be judged by Aly Rhodes (actually there is a prize for this one - a book token.) Aly says, Obviously it helps if the entrant has visited or knows Saltaire but also though it's not compulsory. If the entrant does win or is a runner up there is a presentation/open mic evening to attend - so travel distance will be a factor.

My news

I've finished the first draft of book 4 in my Little Mallow cosy mystery series! It doesn't have a confirmed title yet, but the first word is likely to be distracting or distracted. That's appropriate in lots of ways, not all of them related to the plot.

If you'd like to know where those steps lead, and join me in a virtual climb, take a look at my website post here. 

And we're off!

We delayed the start of our trip as long as we could, in the hopes of getting the office sorted before we left home. Unfortunately that wasn't possible, so it will have to wait until we get back. That's not ideal, but it is good to be off on our adventures.

Our first couple of stops were to gardens. I took a great many photos, which I've hardly even looked at yet, so the pictures will be trailing behind us. (If you'd like to see even more pictures from our trip, have a look at the blog on my website.)

Free entry writing competitions

Here's a monthly short story competition. The prize is $100 plus 50% of the subscription revenue from your story. Reprints are accepted – provided of course that you've not given up the rights.

A reminder about the Creative Futures competition. The theme is 'material', the competition is for under represented authors, entries of fiction, poetry and creative non fiction accepted. The prize is publication and '£25,000 worth of cash and professional development prizes'.

Womag news

Thanks to Suzan Lindsay for the details of the People's Friend poetry competition. They want - "a poem on the theme of 'reconciliation'. The poem has to have three verses of four lines. The competition closes at noon on 9th May. Email your poem with your name and address to pfeditor@dcthomson.co.uk with 'Poetry Competition' in the subject line. First prize is £150 with three runner-up prizes of £50 plus publication in the magazine."

If you've had a big batch of rejections from TAB, don't panic! Lots of people have (mine are in double figures and some go back to stories I submitted EIGHT years ago!). 

From Vivienne Moles

How do you find what publications you might have been in when they have the rights to place them elsewhere? (Something it's useful to know for various reasons, including claiming ALCS.)

I trawled through a few month's worth of Woman's Weeklys, just to see if any of my BOWW had appeared, as happened with Alyson this month. (I did it the long way 😩 and went through individual ones looking at the 'text preview). Then I had an idea: Haha! If you type your name in Pressreader (My library no longer subscribes, so this is as a non-user), preferably in inverted commas because it narrows the field, snippets of your work pop up and you can see where they've come from, and dates. 🙂

I suspect that might be useful for the Woman's Weekly family? Like Australia, NZ, Woman etc...,? You'd have to have someone with more of a repertoire than me to check that out. I work pretty much exclusively on a laptop and think this might not be so easy with an app (Hate apps! 😠 ) on a tablet. It will NOT find publications that are not in Pressreader. I found a variety of bits, including shortlisted from WM, a letter in the TV times from 2019, Best win and letters to WM.

Vivienne adds that at one time Yours didn't attribute stories, so although some show up, they don't all.

Thanks for this, Vivienne. My library also stopped subscribing to Pressreader and I hadn't realised it was still possible to still search for works, so this is potentially very useful.

Looking again

We're making plans for our next trip away in the van (which is why you've got pictures of a previous one). Most of the places we intend to go will be return visits. Things will look different though, as we've always gone in the second half of the year. The biggest changes will be in the gardens and landscape, but even a castle can appear very different depending on factors such as the light, weather and number of visitors.

Writing can be like that too. What we spot when editing just after we've drafted it will be different from what we notice much later - especially if it's been submitted and rejected in that time. Thinking about our intended audience or market, or expected time of publication can also make us read and edit our work differently.

What are you looking for when you read your own work?

Free entry competition news 

Thanks to Dee for telling us about this sonnet competition from New Writers. To enter, you need to sign up to their newsletter, which you can do here. 

Their site is interesting and includes details of lots of other writing competitions and opportunities. Most have fees, but there are some excellent prizes, so you might feel it's worth a try.

And thanks to Sharon Boothroyd for info on the Meetcute competition for romance novel writers from the Kate Nash agency. They want the first chapter and offer a prize of £500 plus representation. UPDATE - We've since discovered that although there's no mention of it until you get to the submissions page, there's a £12 entry fee. Sorry I didn't spot that!

Other publication opportunities

Here's a wrtiing challenge from Chris Fielden. He wants 100 words, with as many as possible being adverbs. Entries,  plus a short bio, will be published in an anthologu which will be sold for charity.

Eleventh Hour are looking for prose which has been previously rejected and since revised. We've all got some of those, haven't we? I'm not entirely sure what you get out of submitting your work there (sorry, I did look but I'm very short of time at the moment.) 

I'm mostly mentioning it because it makes the point that a rejection, or several, doesn't have to mean the end for that particular piece of writing. That was always the case, but with there now being more competition for every fiction slot, there must be loads of great womag submissions which don't get accepted.

My news

I'm taking part in a couple more promotions. This time they're both for books available through kindle unlimited (although they're also on sale). This one is for sweet romances and this one is has a mixture of genres.

What's Best?

This probably makes me sound old, but... It's March tomorrow. How can that be happening so soon? On the plus side, that makes it semi-officially spring now.

Free Entry competition news

Creative Futures have a competition for 'underrepresented writers' with classes for poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. There will be fifteen winners who will share £2,500 and have their work published. The list of people considered underrepresented, including some I wouldn't have expected, so it's worth looking to see if you qualify.

Here's a short story competition for those who want a better world. The main prize is a year of 'writing guidance by a experienced writer / publisher'.

Womag / competition news

If you're thinking of entering Best's crime story competition, and as there's a £500 prize I expect most of have at least considered it, then you might want to take a look at this post by Simon Whaley. Thanks to Alyson for bringing it to my attention. 

btw, Simon is a useful source of information on many aspects of the business side of writing. It's worth signing up for his emails - unless you're one of those weir people who keep going of for months at a time in a campervan with limited data and internet access.

My news

As a very tiny part of Portsmouth Bookfest, I'll be at the Community Kettle in Cosham on Monday, selling books. If you happen to be in the area please pop in and say hello. No hard sell from me, I promise – and there will be cake available.

Blue sky thinking

Free entry writing competitions.

The Jim Baen memorial short story competition is for 'a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration.'

The prize package includes paid publication.

The Creative Futures competition is for 'underrepresented writers' (there's a long list of people who qualify). There are classes for fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction and offers £25,000 worth of 'cash and professional development prizes'. 

Other publication opportunities

Thanks to Alyson Hilbourne for the link to Fiction On The Web. The publish two stories a week, which can be from 1,000 to 10,000 words. The pay is £15 (or $15 or €15). They'll consider reprints as long as they're not currently available anywhere online, including ebooks.

I thought I'd test them out for you, by sending a story I'd previously had published in a magazine. Submission is by Submittable, so you'll need to set up a (free) account if you don't have one. 

The story I sent had been previously published in a womag. It was rejected within days. The feedback suggested they'd have preferred something less light. Feedback is optional. There's a thing to click when submitting if you'd rather not have it.

Bluesky

Alyson saw the above market mentioned on Bluesky. That's a platform I feel could be very useful, but which I'm not currently making the best of. If you're on there, please share your profile and/or that of others you find useful or interesting with regards writing, and I'll add them to the list.

For those unfamiliar with Bluesky, it's just like Twitter used to be, before it got swamped with adverts and bots. If you feel you already have enough social media platforms you're happy with, I wouldn't advise you to add more, as they all take up time, but if you want to add one, or make a switch, it might be worth you taking a look.

Alyson Hilbourne             J Lenni Dorner

Kathy Steinemann

Patsy Collins

Womagwriter

Elizabeth McGinty

Looking forward

Womag news

HB spotted this from The People's Friend on X recently "We're thinking of summer! Especially summer fiction! Kick off your flip flops and get writing! All our genres and our word counts, please!"

Thinking about summer is very tempting at the moment. I'm sharing some sunny pictures to get you in the mood.

Free entry competitions

Here's a verse and/or spoken word competition. They want pieces prompted by the objects in the photos. Winners will share £2,000. 

I stumbled across this site, which offers free competitions and other potential benefits to members. I can't actually recommend them as I'd never heard of them before, but they make the claim that entering will 'Get your work in front of industry professionals and a wider audience. Stand out with podcast interviews and biographies on a platform where people are looking for new talent.' 

My news

I'm going to make more effort at marketing my books this year. So far I've signed up for some online promotions (if you use KU you might like to take a look at this one) and am booked to take part in a small literary crime festival in Lee-on-the-Solent on 28th March.

Anyone got any brilliant book marketing tips?