Rowan Coleman's short story Comp

There's a great short story competition being run by Rowan Coleman
Rowan worked in bookselling and publishing for seven years before entering and winning Company Magazine Young Writer of the Year Competition in 2001. Since then Rowan has written eight novels for adults and six for teens.

All you have to do is write a 1000 word (approx)story on the theme of starting over.

There're some fabulous prizes to be won.

FIRST PRIZE: 3 months creative writing online mentoring from Rowan Coleman, Tea and Cakes at Random House Publishing with Arrow Publishing Director Kate Elton and Rowan Coleman, a letter of introduction and agent feedback from David Higham Associates, £100 to spend on Random House books, your story to be published on Rowan Coleman's blog/website and a signed copy of THE HAPPY HOME FOR BROKEN HEARTS.

SECOND PRIZE: 1 months creative writing online mentoring from Rowan Coleman, £50 book vouchers to spend on Random House books and the story to be posted on my blog and a signed copy of THE HAPPY HOME FOR BROKEN HEARTS. THIRD PRIZE: £25 Worth of vouchers to spend on Random House books and the story to be posted on my website and a signed copy of THE HAPPY HOME FOR BROKEN HEARTS.

All the details and guidelines for submission are on her blog.

I'm in the My Weekly Spring Special

Woop, woop! It's a super issue, too. 15 stories in all, some from my writing friends and a couple I don't know but am sure to come across at some time. Congratulations to all. Teresa, if you're reading this, I loved your story!
I always like My Weekly and Woman's Weekly's illustrations. The one accompanying mine has the Colosseum in the background (of course, because it's set in Italy)and a woman pointing at a Roman gladiator - though to me he looks oddly like a Viking with his flowing locks and beardy thing going on.

Not sure about my little author box comment. I always find them so difficult for some reason. And other writers' sound so much more interesting. This time, I had to supply a few words on my favourite flower and I don't really have one to be honest so I wrote that I like sweet William because when I smell them I know summer's not long in coming. Wish I could smell them now, because though the suns out here in Notts, it's blummin' chilly still. Hopefully, it's going to get up to 18 degrees at the weekend so I might save reading the rest of the stories until then when I'll sit out in the garden, swaying in my hammock, sipping a glass of pinot...I can dream can't I?

I'm currently putting a pitch together for a 3 part serial aimed at My Weekly. I've yet to be successful with a serial. They usually come back with 'We've carried a similar subject before'. Well, this one has a fairground as the backdrop. It's a mystery with a touch of romance and a splash of humour. Still only got a working title and I've only written the first episode and first episode synopsis which I might send off today. Then if I get a rejection, I haven't wasted my time. Not that one word will be wasted, I'll probably finish it at some point, but where can you place a 9000 word womag type story these days?

Jacqui Bennett Writers Bureau comps

Thought you might like the details of the new JBWB SUMMER 2010 COMPETITIONS

including the poetry comp.


There's also the NEW 'chuckle bonus' for poetry entries. As Jenny says:

We all need a lift in these depressing times, and this quarter, JBWB will add a £20 bonus to your prize, whether you come first, second or third, if your poem also provides us with the broadest smile, longest chuckle or deepest belly laugh. So consider this when you write, and see if you can add some humour to brighten up our days...


The latest competition prize-winning stories and poems can be found here and here

I know I haven't been blogging of late but there's been so much domestic stuff going on I've neglected to update. I'll be back soon....as soon as I've got my latest attempt at a serial off to My Weekly!

The Lady

Just a reminder to watch Cutting Edge tomorrow at 9.00 pm, The Lady and the Revamp,a documentary about changes to the mag. Might pick up a few tips.

First Page Promises

I wonder how much of a short story submission an editor actually reads. My guess is she (I only know of 2 male eds at the womags so I'll call her 'she') will speed read the first paragraph and decide immediately whether it's worth another five minutes of her precious time. I could be wrong, of course, but judging by the amount of rejections I've had this month I'd say I've been failing in what Sarah Duncan calls The First Page Promises - the need to grab a reader's attention as soon as possible with the promise they're in for a treat if they carry on.

In a short story I'd call it First Paragraph Promise or maybe even First Sentence Promise incorporating the who, what, why, where elements.

Here's an example taken from one of my shorts (Killing Doc Latimer) published in Woman's Weekly 2005:

Louise twirled spaghetti around her fork, unaware she was firing specks of sauce over her T shirt.
"Want to hear a confession?" I said.
She stopped twirling and gave me a hapless look. "Don't tell me anything that has to stay a secret, Donna. I won't mean to let the cat out of the bag but you know me and my loose lips."
"Relax. It'll be general knowledge by the weekend, anyway." I took a deep breath. "Thing is...I've killed Doctor Latimer."

Now I'm not saying the above is perfect but those few lines plunge you straight into the action. You get a sense of place, time and an insight into the characters and their relationship. Hopefully, you'll be intrigued to know why Donna's killed her GP and why she seems not to care too much if it becomes general knowledge.

Unless you're completely new to writing you'll be bored by now so I'll impart some more family news: My eldest son, Russ, has announced his engagement to Maria. The'll marry next year....in Las Vegas! I need to sell an awful lot of stories to get me to Vegas, so I'd better stop blogging and do some serious scribbling.

x

New Writers Forum Judge

Just a quick post to let you know that the lovely Sue Moorcroft has taken over judging the Writers’ Forum fiction competitions, which means that along with Jan Jones she'll be providing the optional critiques.

Serial writing

I've tried a couple of times to crack this market but the nearest I got was a reply saying they'd have been interested if they hadn't published something similar. Typical of me to have missed the boat!

You can find a few wise words and guidelines on serial writing for the women's mags on Sue Moorcroft's blog.

Sue is a creative writing tutor for the London School of Journalism, Writers’ News Home Study and University of Leicester and as well as serials, has sold hundreds of stories to the womags.

The most important bit of advice is DON'T write the whole thing first. Just send in a proposal or a brief synopsis and maybe the first few thousand words. That way if they've run something similar, you wont have wasted weeks of work.

If the editor wants to proceed, they'll usually ask for the first installment. Be prepared for a long haul, especially where People's Friend is concerned. A full serial can take up to a year or more to get every installment accepted (they do like to give some input into the plot)and then may not be published for a couple of years after that. The good news is you can sell the thing again as a novella (or as a novel if you can expand it to around 80,000 plus words). There's also the large print market to consider.

Take a Break

I popped into my newsagents this morning to get my copy of TAB and as I usually do whilst standing in the checkout queue, I turned straight to the back pages looking for the author of this week's fiction.
Imagine my shock to see (or rather NOT see) any fiction anywhere. Now, granted, I've sold very few to the weekly over the years but this is one of the best paying markets at £400 for around 800 words. Is it a one-off? Has anyone heard gossip? Is it a cost saving thing? Will there be an empty promise to bring it back if their readers object? Let's face it, their fiction writers are the only ones likely to put pen to paper so I'm not optimistic. Sigh! Another one bites the dust.

My Weekly annual

Got an email today from Margaret Street of My Weekly to say she's buying the two stories I sent to her last month. One will go in the weekly magazine and the other will go into the 2012 hardback annual. I'm so thrilled because though I've sold a few to them I've never made it into the annual. Yes, I know 2 years is a long time to wait but at least they pay (if not a great deal) on acceptance.


And I was tickled pink to read this on their website:

The My Weekly Annual has been given a modern makeover with a brand new, bright and colourful look. New and enthralling stories from much–loved My Weekly writers, such as Marian Keyes, will touch and inspire, and provide an absorbing read for fiction fans everywhere.

Oops, no, I don't mean I now consider myself a 'much-loved writer', it's the thought I could be in the same book as my favourite author, Marian Keyes. Oh, joy!

Thaw!

At last it appears we have a thaw. Snow is pretty to look at but the novelty soon wears off doesn't it?

A normal working morning sees me driving to a nearby bakery to collect morning goods (that's bread and lovely fresh-baked om-noms to you) to sell in our shop. Getting stuck in heavy rush hour traffic on the Mansfield/Chesterfield roads is bad at the best of times but add black ice and snow storms to the mix and you're talking F-E-A-R!

'Don't hit the brakes if the car goes into a skid', is the advice. I'm sorry but when the car did that Bambi thing on the by-pass and I was hurtling towards a Wilkinson's juggernaut, I can tell you, I stomped on those brakes for all I was worth! Luckily, I gained control, but that was me done! No more trips until a thaw set in. If I want a white knuckle ride I'll hop over to Alton Towers, thank you very gladly!

This morning was the first time I'd ventured out for over a week. The roads were as busy as ever but at least free-flowing with no ice or drifts.

Compared to what's going on in Haiti, I shouldn't complain.

P.S In case you were wondering 'om-noms' - made famous by Sesame St Cookie Monster are an onomatopoeical adjective based on the sound emitted when something is "oh so tasty" (either through hunger or flavorological value) that one gnaws through it without regard to cleanliness or etiquette. This sort of ravenous eating will often result in an "om nom nom nom" noise being emitted from the eater.

The Lady

Anyone catch the new editor, Rachel Johnson (author of The Mummy Diaries...and Boris Johnson's sister), being interviewed this morning? She's the 9th in their 124 year history.

They're vamping up the mag but seems fiction has been dropped. She didn't say as much but I managed to get hold of a few recent issues and fiction was absent. I only ever sold them one story and that was a while ago. I admit I didn't especially target them as the pay wasn't that great, but still we can't afford to lose another outlet.

I got a rejection today from Norah at Take A Break. Funnily enough I'd chased a couple of submissions sent before this one (August)last week and hadn't heard anything back. No doubt my letterbox will be flapping again tomorrow with more rejects.

I'm Back

Not that I've been anywhere. My Broadband connection threw a wobbly shortly before Christmas. Sky said it was an internal fault with our wiring, then the router took the blame, then BT said it was an error at the exchange. You know how it goes. Anyway, think I can safely say it's sorted and still we don't really know what the problem was. I do know it cost us - new wires, even new telephones. They did need changing I must admit.

So, what have I been up to? Well, we had a great Christmas get-together with the family. Played the Cranium Wow board game. Brilliant game! Even my 80 year old dad joined in. Here he is acting out his clue - 'auctioneer'!



Even funnier was Mum acting out a cat walk model using Dad as the model!





Below is some of the family ever so slightly intoxicated at this stage ;0)












New Year's Eve was rather dull in comparison. The kids all had their own parties to go to so Himself and I sat on the sofa and munched our way through a tin of Roses. Is it me or have they changed the assortment? Where was the coffee creme? And the toffee penny. Or are those from Quality Street? Dur!

Can't believe it's all over for another year. Back to getting some fiction written. I started something yesterday but my heart wasn't in it. Got a few more ideas but nothing that's begging to be written.

I've sent an email chasing a submission I sent to Take A Break back at the beginning of August. Norah can take up to 16 weeks sometimes but I've spoken to a couple of other writers who also sent July/Aug and they haven't heard either so maybe a batch simply disappeared behind the office gin cupboard...erm I mean photocopier. Or maybe they're lost in the post. Or an office junior neglected to let us know they were declined - so much nicer word than 'rejected' don't you agree! Either way, I need to know so I can send them elsewhere. Possibly with a tweak they can go to Woman's Weekly. There's also the possibility she's saving it for a future issue but I doubt it.

I'll leave you with a pic of my patio taken yesterday. It's stopped snowing now and the sun's shining. Hopefully we'll get a melt so I can get the car off the drive tomorrow and go shopping. Oh, and nearly forgot - Happy New Year! x



PS - I spent my Christmas cash on a Nintendo DS and have completed Prof Layton & Pandora's Box!! My kids think it's hysterical their old mum is hooked on gaming.

The Six Perils of Writing Workshops

I was going to write a few lines about choosing a writing workshop but as I'm feeling rather lazy this morning I'll point you in this direction instead - with apologies to James Burt for stealing his title.

Festive Fiction

Got my copy of Take a Break's Christmas Fiction Feast yesterday. My story, spread over 4 pages, begins on page 8 and has some lovely illustrations to accompany it so not too worried Norah's changed my title from 'Ice Angels' to 'An Angel in Bovver Boots'!

I'm in good company this month with my writing chums Teresa Ashby, Della Galton, Pam Weaver, Sandra Beswetherick, Sally Quilford and Geraldine Ryan. Just thinking off the top of my head here so if I've missed anyone out, apologies ;0)

And still in festive mood, I put up the Christmas tree this morning. Not a bauble in sight this year. I've gone for the rustic look with pine cones, gingerbread men, candy canes and ribbon. I like it. Not sure what Himself will think. He's more the glitter and tinsel type. Who said 'chav'?




Might dry out some orange slices tomorrow to string with ribbon and hang on the tree. I do them fresh every year because they don't seem to save very well. I found two mouldy ones at the bottom of the deco box. Think the trick is to dry them out more slowly. Or buy them ready made as I've done with the cinnamon sticks. Tescos are selling them in packs of 2 for £2 so much cheaper than doing them myself. Though on closer inspection, I think they're twigs and not cinnamon.

We Are Not A Camera

I'm a bit of a fiddler when faced with anything technical. Let me begin by saying 'I know nothing'. Like I said, I just like to fiddle! Where's this going? Well, I managed to put together a new website as you probably know, but then wondered about doing one for Himself.
I haven't a clue how he's run a successful business for almost 30 years with such a distinct lack of advertising, save for a few runs in the local newspaper.

( "I have a good reputation, stoopid" - Himself)

Sorry about that, he's looking over my shoulder! So, two days of arguing over what should go on it I ended up with Jeff Houghton's Website

I'm sure it could be better. This is only my third bash at web building but I think it does the job for now. The problem comes with getting Google and all the other search engines to recognise it. The biggest and most annoying problem is every time anyone Googles 'Houghton's Butchers' they're directed to various websites (including eBay) glorifying the HOUGHTON BUTCHERS REFLEX CARBINE CAMERA - a rather ugly box camera thing circa 1925.



Can you tell the difference?

Woman's Weekly

Have you heard the very good news that Woman's Weekly will be putting out 10 fiction specials per year from January 2010? Here are the expected publication dates:

4th Jan
5th Feb
12th Mar
16th Apr
21st May
2nd July
13th Aug
24th Sept
29th Oct
30th Nov

I'm waiting to hear what the newest guidelines are. Meanwhile I'll be dusting off some stories in my 'Started but not finished' file...and there're an awful lot languishing in there!

Never say Die

Wish it was my own book launch I was plugging but for now I have to ride on another's coattails..sighs!

My writing chum, Lynne Barrett-Lee has her book out today. Think Amazon has it on offer for under a fiver at the moment so it'd make a great Christmas present. Here's a taster:

Never Say Die

by Melanie Davies and Lynne Barrett-Lee

'I don’t know how long it was before I fully woke up, but when I did, everything felt different. My eyes opened and for a moment it seemed that I must have been hit on the head. There was no pain at all, but a new face above me. A manly face. Rugged. Unfamiliar. Concerned. I wanted him to save me, but straight away I noticed that there was worry in his expression and sadness in his eyes. He asked me a question, but I didn’t really hear it. I felt terrified. Why was he looking at me that way? Then he asked me again, and this time I did hear. “Can you,” he asked, “move your feet for me, sweetheart?” I had no choice but to answer with a question of my own, because I didn’t understand what was happening. Where were they? Where were my feet and my legs? Where was the rest of my body?’

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it, but what makes it all the more extraordinary is Never Say Die isn't fiction. There'll be lots of publicity surrounding the launch, including an interview with Melanie in the Daily Mail on the 27th Nov. and further interviews on TV.

I know Lynne, along with Melanie, has worked hard on this book so hoping they get lots of sales.

Lynne is also the author of romantic comedies: Virtual Strangers, Straight On Till Morning, Out on a Limb, Barefoot in the Dark and Julie Gets A Life.

Chickle!

I know folk get tired of being sent jokes via the Interweb, especially ones that have been doing the rounds for yonks, but this one made me splutter coffee over the keyboard. So thank you Ginny, for this little gem:

Yesterday I was at my local Co-op buying a large bag of Purina dog food for my loyal pet and was in the checkout queue when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think I had, an elephant?

So, since I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in hospital last time, but that I'd lost 2 stones before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in queue was now enthralled with my story.) Horrified, she asked me if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's arse and a car hit us both.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.

I'm now banned from the Co-op.

Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of daft things to say.

Website makeover

Been fiddling about with the website, yet again. Not this one, the other one.

I'd been using Trellix site builder for some years but then tried to migrate to their new web builder with disastrous results. I lost half the content - my fault, I'm sure. But anyway, then one of my writer friends, Jill Steeples, told me about Moonfruit and how easy it was. I agree. Much easier! And I don't have to pay to get adverts removed either!

So, if you click here or on the link at the top of this page it should take you to my nice new site. Similar content to the old one, just a bit smarter..but that's only my opinion ;0)

I think I've done everything necessary to divert traffic from my old site to the new one but apparently it can take a while for it all to kick in...or whatever the techie term is. And then there's the wait for Google and other search engines to crawl all over it and gather up keywords and other important techie stuff.

Have you created a Mary-Sue or a Gary-Stu?

If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, don't worry, I'd never heard of it either, but apparently, in literary criticism, a'Mary-Sue'is a fictional character the writer has created who...you know what, I really can't be bothered to explain so here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

A Mary Sue (or Gary Stu), is a character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as 'Mary Sues' is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the 'Mary Sue' character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an 'author's pet'.


Someone has even devised what is known as The Mary-Sue Litmus Test. Be warned, it's awfully long.

Did I learn anything from it? Well, not really. It's a basic principle when creating characters. Make them likeable, well-drawn and not cliched...end of. Simples!