Writing Competitions to enter in September

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Crowvus Christmas Ghost Story, Galley Beggar Press Short Story Award, Hammond House International Literary Prize, Moth Nature Writing Prize, Mslexia Women's Fiction Awards, New Voices Competition, The Manchester Prize, The Short Story Competition, The Val Wood Prize, Winning a Competition

Thought for the day: you are NEVER going to thrill anybody with that novel unless you first put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, and either begin the book itself or exercise your writing muscles with a short story.

New Voices Competition for the first page of a novel plus a one-page synopsis by a new writer. Prize: mentoring package worth £750. Entry fee: £10. Closing date: 14 September. Details: http://www.adventuresinfiction.co.uk

Moth Nature Writing Prize for poetry, fiction or non-fiction exploring the writer’s relationship with the natural world. Prizes: 1,000 Euros and a week at the Moth Retreat. Entry fee: £15. Closing date: 15 September. Details: http://www.themothmagazine.com

The Manchester Prize for a portfolio of poetry (3-5, maximum 120 lines); short stories up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £10,000. Deadline 18 September. Details: http://www.2.mmu.ac.uk/writingcompetition/ (PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THESE DETAILS CAME FROM THE WRITING MAGAZINE COMPETITIONS GUIDE 2021, WE COULD NOT FIND CURRENT CONFIRMATION ON-LINE – SO PLEASE MAKE YOUR OWN CHECKS BEFORE ENTERING)

Val Wood Prize for short stories (up to 1,500 words) on the theme of ‘Now and Then’, featuring changes that have made the world a better place for individuals and communities. Prizes: £100, £50, 2 x £25, web publication. FREE ENTRY. Closing date 21 September. Details http://www.valeriewood.co.uk

Hammond House International Literary Prize for songwriting (lyrics and performed song), short stories (1,000-5,000 words), poems up to 40 lines and scripts, up to 10 pages for the theatre, radio or television, all on the theme of Stardust. Songwriting entry fee £10. Prize £100. Poetry entry fee £10, prizes £500, £50, £20, Short story entry fee £10. Prizes £1,000, £100, £50. Scriptwriting entry fee £10. Prize £250.

Mslexia Women’s Fiction Awards for Short Story, Flash Fiction, Novel, Monologue. Prizes: £10,000 prize pot. Novel winners and finalists go on to be published at the highest level. Winners and three finalists of both the Short Story and Flash Fiction categories will be published in Mslexia magazine. Novel entry is for unpublished novel by writer who has not previously published a novel. Entry fee: £12 for the Short Story, £6 for the Flash Fiction, £25 for the Novel. Closing date 20 September. Check full details: http://www.mslexia.co.uk

Ovacome Short Story Award, for stories up to 2,000 words on the theme ‘Connected’. Prizes: £500, £250, £50 Waterstones voucher. Entry fee: £5. Details: http://www.ovacome.org.uk

Galley Beggar Press Short Story Award for stories up to 6,000 words. Prizes: £2,00, £200 for shortlist. Entry fee: £10. Closing date: 30 September. Details: http://galleybeggar.co.uk

The Short Story Competition for stories between 1,000-5,000 words. Prizes: £500, £100. Entry fee: £8. Closing date: 30 September. Details: http://www.theshortstory.net

Crowvus Christmas Ghost Story for ‘spooky’ stories up to 4,000 words. Prizes: £100, £75, £50. Entry fee: £3, £5 for two. Closing date: 30 September. Details: http://www.crowvus.com/competition

Please, please double-check any entries before pressing that final button, just in case I’ve got something wrong or there have been last-minute changes to things like entry dates.

Postscript: winning a writing competition CAN get you published or be given an award and/or a cheque for your efforts. More than one member of ninevoices have succeeded in doing these things, so why not you?

Ninevoices Beta-reader, Skipper, insists that you have a go…

CECILY – by Annie Garthwaite

Did you spot the obvious typos in this? My apologies to Annie Garthwaite for getting her name wrong… Must have been the emotion of remembering her terrific story.

ninevoices

Before reading this book I was already aware that Cecily Neville – granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, the mistress who subsequently became his wife – was feisty enough to face down her enemies at the gates of Ludlow Castle, with her small children at her side. But I knew little else, except that she was wife to Richard, Duke of York, and mother to three famous (or infamous) sons: Edward IV, George Duke of Clarence, and Richard III.

Annie Garthwaite’s stunning new historical novel,CECILY, admirably fills the gaps, providing a vividly female perspective on the Wars of the Roses and showing how a determined woman could operate in a man’s world. Medieval women, we learn from Annie, especially those of the aristocracy, could be responsible for huge households and vast estates – “enterprises similar in complexity and size to mid-sized FTSE companies”. As if that weren’t…

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CECILY – by Annie Garthwaite

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Annie Garthwaite

Before reading this book I was already aware that Cecily Neville – granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, the mistress who subsequently became his wife – was feisty enough to face down her enemies at the gates of Ludlow Castle, with her small children at her side. But I knew little else, except that she was wife to Richard, Duke of York, and mother to three famous (or infamous) sons: Edward IV, George Duke of Clarence, and Richard III.

Annie Garthwaite’s stunning new historical novel, CECILY, admirably fills the gaps, providing a vividly female perspective on the Wars of the Roses and showing how a determined woman could operate in a man’s world. Medieval women, we learn from Annie, especially those of the aristocracy, could be responsible for huge households and vast estates – “enterprises similar in complexity and size to mid-sized FTSE companies”. As if that weren’t enough, at the same time as supporting their husband’s political career, they were expected to breed. Failure at which negated all else. Like some twenty-first century women, Annie Garthwaite argues, they “were expected to do it all”.

I devoured this book, influenced by the fact that I have been a ricardian in sympathy since reading Josephine Tey’s book The Daughter of Time in my teens. Not only do my bookshelves heave with tomes about the Plantaganets, but my current historical novel has an 18th century historian who tries (unsuccessfuly) to write about them.

Annie Garthwaite admits that the Wars of the Roses have also been a fixation of hers since being inspired by her secondary school history master. Her debut novel has been long in gestation, and shows it, causing Cecily Neville to leap from the page as a real woman: flawed yet ambitious. Duplicitous, yet vulnerable. Strong, yet capable of tenderness. If you care about the past and appreciate a brilliant eye for historical detail, this book will not disappoint. In fact, I am convinced that Annie Garthwaite is going to give Hilary Mantel a run for her money.

I think Annie herself deserves the last word:

“What can I say? I love 15th century history. No apologies, no excuses. The 100 Years War, the Wars of the Roses. All of that.

“It’s not that I’m a big fan of blood and battles. Personally I can do without that sort of thing. No – it’s the women who interest me. How they negotiated their way in the world. How they managed – some of them at least, probably more than you’d think – to wield power and influence at a time when men seemed to hold most of the cards. And how others, simply, did not.

“For me, the stand out character of the 15th century has always been Cecily Neville. She experienced power in both directions: wielding it and having it wielded against her. She survived eighty years of tumultuous history, mothered kings, created a dynasty and brought her family through civil war. She met victory and defeat in equal measure and, in face of all, lived on. Last women standing, you might say.”

How my novel was published

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Jacqui Rogers

Ninevoices are delighted to welcome one of our periodic guest contributors, writing here about how she succeeded in having her debut novel published. The Governor’s Man is currently available on Amazon for a modest £6.67 for the paperback edition or £2.99 for the Kindle. As ever, Kindle Unlimited reads are free.

by Jacquie Rogers, author of The Governor’s Man.

Exactly a year ago to the day, I sat writing in my little garden cabin while a scant shower cooled the air outside. My journal records I wrote 1400 words that afternoon of what was then titled The Bronze Owl, getting my main characters moving along a trail of stolen silver to Cheddar (or Iscalis, as it was known in AD224). The world of my story, 3^rd century rural Britain, was almost completely imaginary, as were virtually all of my characters. The only real thing was the shining hoard of denarii, beautifully curated and exhibited in the Museum of Somerset, which had started the story up in my mind some years earlier. Suddenly in February 2020, that story started stretching out wings I didn’t know it had.

I’d already been published as a short story writer, but aspiring to write a novel felt ridiculously over the top. Like a passenger in a glider suddenly deciding to fly to Mars. Hadn’t I read that the chances of getting a novel published were 1-2%? And those were the books that got finished and submitted. In an average year. What were the chances of getting a book researched, written, and accepted for publication, in a lockdown year when everyone and his/her dog was writing the Great Lockdown Novel?

About much reality in that ambition as there was in my imagined Roman world of AD 224.

On the plus side, as a clinically-vulnerable shielder I had precious little else to do. And I had a short story already written, screaming to be extended. Actually The Bath Curse was pleading to be turned from a YA 2200-word snapshot, into a full-blown crime novel. With two much older, world-weary adults — a military investigator and a British healer — replacing the original teenagers.  And a stroppy Londoner sidekick who insisted on muscling his way into the plot.  And then there was the antagonist. Take your pick from a lengthy line-up of ne’er-do-wells crawling out of the woodwork.

So okay — new form, new MCs, new villains, additional subplots. And a lot of unnatural deaths. Eight in total. Not including the major battle scene, which wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye last year. But with the aforementioned time on my hands, it was surprising how many words got written. By November the first full draft went off to beta readers, and simultaneously to my independent editor. One thing short-story publishing had taught me — yes, you always need an editor.Expensive, but vital.

Back came the MS, with a lot of re-writing to do. Fortunately my readers and my editor were largely in agreement. After several more drafts, I started sending my baby out into the world in February 2021, to publishers who were accepting direct submissions in the genre of historical mystery, and to agents who liked that genre too and were actively seeking new clients. No-one else, no matter how enticing they sounded. Waste of time, that, I already knew. Many, many hours spent painstakingly fulfilling the requirements of carefully-researched agents and publishers, thirty-something of them. Then I waited, while beginning the sequel to The Governor’s Man.

One agent like the MS, but was retiring the next day. Would I send it to his colleagues? Who never responded. Two other agents rejected, politely. Three publishers said it wasn’t their thing. Then a month of silence.

Then I remembered I had been given a name at an Arvon course. Endeavour Books, who specialised in historical and crime. My book was both. Jackpot! Only Endeavour Books no longer existed, it seemed. I returned to seeking more agents/publishers. Heart sinking a little, but buoyed by reading that the best way to sell books is to write them. I also began seriously researching self-publishing at this point.

Then I saw a tweet from Sharpe Books, saying they were open to submissions. Checked them out. Oh, here is Endeavour Books, resurrected! Still liking exactly my genre. And the publisher writes Roman adventure books himself. I sat up straight, gave the opening chapters and my synopsis a last polish, and pressed Send. Within 24 hours they wrote to ask for the full MS, to distribute to their reading panel. Within another two days I got the phone call I’d been dreaming about. Would I like a contract for three books?

Well, what would you say?

In a whirlwind came the contract, then editorial feedback — not much to change, but must lose 10k words. By Friday. It felt quite a draconian diet. The slimmed-down final went back, and I was published on 19 May, 2021. Paperback two weeks later.

And then my real full-time job began. No, not writing the second book of the trilogy. That’s still waiting. For three months I have been a full-time publicist. Emails to everyone I know (Do you still read books? Guess what? I have a book – would you like to read it?); guest blog posts; begging letters asking book bloggers to review; re-designed and renamed blogsite; even a change of book title, pen-name and email address; interview with BBC Radio Somerset; my own YouTube channel, and recording a road trip round the West Country to please readers begging to know more about Roman Britain. See, I didn’t make it all up — that lumpy field has a large villa under it; and over there is a redundant Roman mine. And that river has changed its course, used to have a Roman port, no you can’t see it now. It was more fun than it sounds.

And endless, eternal social media. I now tweet in my sleep, and my best friend after Instagram is Tweetdeck. Still, there’s the local village arts festival coming up. I’m the resident writer. I might buy a painting from a fellow stallholder, if I ever get any royalties.

You’re going to love it all.

To follow or contact Jacquie Rogers, go to https://linktr.ee/jacquierogers