Six Things Guaranteed to Turn this Writer into a Muttering Old Grump

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The frustrations of writing fiction

 

1. My other half creeping up behind me (oh, for that creaking stair in our old house) and reading the computer screen over my should before I’m even aware he’s in the room. Despite me having told him repeatedly that I hate him doing it…

2. Having to write a 400-word synopsis that makes some kind of sense of my book.

3. The accusing smell of burning wafting upstairs from the unattended kitchen.

4. The printer going on strike at a crucial moment, because it’s out of MAGENTA, when I’ve used nothing but black for the past month.

5. Discovering, at tea-time, that the entry details for an important writing competition stipulate a deadline of mid-day, not midnight.

6. The torture of having to reduce that 400-word synopsis – that I slaved over for weeks – to a 300-word synopsis.

There are scores more things that make this writer gnash her teeth. Perhaps you’d like to add some of your own?

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Writing Competitions to Enter in May

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Bluepencilagency First Novel Prize., Bristol Short Story, Curtis Brown First Novel Competition, Frome Festival Short Story Competition, Nick Darke Award, Poetry London Clore Prize, The Big Issue UK's Next Great Crime Writer Competition, The Bridport Prize, The First Novel Prize, The London Independent Story Prize, The Yeovil Literary Prize

 

Entering competitions is probably the best way to keep those hopes of publication going. Having a deadline does wonders for your productivity. Being longlisted is incredibly encouraging. And being shortlisted tells you that you’re not only talented, but very nearly there.

No excuses allowed, then. And in case you think we don’t practise what we preach, we hope you’ll be encouraged to learn that our very own Sarah attended the Exeter Novel Prize award ceremony last Saturday as one of the five talented runners-up. (Third from the right, in the spotted dress.) And this was the second time she has made off with an Exeter Novel trophy…

The London Independent Story Prize is inviting entries for its next quarterly competition for 300-word flash fiction. The competition has a first prize of £200 and there is an entry fee of £7, payable via PayPal. Closing date is 6 May. Details: http://www.londonindependentstoryprize.co.uk

The Bridport Prize. Flash:250 words max. Poem: 42 lines max. Short Story: 5,000 words. Novel: 5,000-8,000 words. Fees: £9; £10; £12; £20; Prizes: flash £1,000; £500; £250; 3 x £100. Poem and short story: £5,000; £1,000; £500; £250; 3 x £100. Novel £1,000 plus mentoring, written report and potential agency representation. Deadline 31 May. Details: http://www.bridportprize.org.uk

One of the most exciting competitions to open this month is a newcomer – the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Competition for manuscripts, both finished and unfinished, across all genres of adult fiction. To enter, all you need is the opening (up to 10,000 words, including any prologue) and a one-page synopsis of up to 400 words. You must be 18 or over and not represented by a literary agent. The winner will be offered representation by Curtis Brown plus a prize of £3,000, while the first runner-up will receive a place on a three-month novel-writing course. Find out more: https://curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/first-novel-prize. The closing date for this competition is not until 1 August – but this long notice will provide extra time to hone that entry.

The Frome Festival Short Story Competition is looking for 1,000-2,000 words on any theme. Entry fee: £8 plus optional critique. Prizes: £400; £200; £100; plus various local prizes. Deadline 31 May. Details: http://www.fromeshort-storycompetition.co.uk

Poetry London Clore Prize for a poem of 80 kines max. Entry fee: £3 to subscribers; £7 to non-subscribers. Prizes: £5,000; £2,000; £1,000; 4 x £500; publication in Poetry London magazine. Details: poetrylondon.co.uk/competition

The First Novel Prize. 50,000 minimum length, but you must submit the completed novel. Entry fee: £25. Prizes: £1,000; £500; £100. Judges: literary agent Emma Paterson and Little, Brown’s editorial director Ed Wood. Details: http://www.firstnovel.co.uk

The Big Issue magazine has a competition to find the UK’s next great crime writer, with the winner receiving a two-book publishing deal with the HarperCollins imprint Avon. Entry – which is FREE – requires the full manuscript, plus a synopsis of no more than 100 words. Closing date is 31 May. Details: http://www.bigissue.com/tag/crime-writing-competition/

The Bristol Short Story Prize for stories on any theme up to 4,000 words. Prizes: £1,000; £500; £250; 17 x £100 shortlisted. All published in prize anthology. Entry fee is £9. Closing date is 1 May. Details: http://www.bristolprize.co.uk

Colm Toibin International Short Story Award for stories between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Prizes: 700 Euros; 500 Euros; 300 Euros. Entry fee: 10 Euros. Closing date 4 May. Details: http://www.wexfordliteraryfestival.com

Nick Darke Award for full-length stage plays. Prizes: £6,000. FREE ENTRY. Closing date: 21 May. Details: http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/nickdarkeaward

Bluepencilagency First Novel Prize. The first chapter of an unfinished novel up to 5,000 words. Prizes: £1,250 in prizes, manuscript review, introduction to judge literary agent Nelle Andrew. Entry fee: £20. Closing date: 31 May. Details: http://www.bluepencilagency.com

Yeovil Literary Prize for novels (opening chapters and synopsis up to 15,000 words), short stories (max. 2,000 words), poems (up to 40 lines), writing without restrictions. Prizes: Novel: £1,000; £250; £100; Short Story: £500; £200; £100; Poetry: £500; £200; £100. Writing without restrictions: £200; £100; £50. Entry fee: Novel: £12; Short Story: £7; Poetry: £7 for one, £10 for two, £12 for three; Writing without restrictions: £5. Deadline 31 May. Details: http://www.yeovilprize.co.uk

Do please, as usual, check all details on the respective websites before entering, just in case. There are lots of opportunities above for longlisting and for shortlisting, as well as making off with the first prize. There are two glass trophies in the vicinity of Royal Tunbridge Wells to prove it.

A Chance to Get Your Debut Novel onto the Bookshelves?

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The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

 

To celebrate the 120 years since Albert Curtis Brown founded his literary agency, and their authors past and present, Curtis Brown have just announced their inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize. Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Single Thread, will chair a judging panel formed of Curtis Brown Agents and the Curtis Brown Creative Team.

The prize is open to manuscripts, both finished and unfinished, across all genres of adult fiction. Entry is FREE, but must be online. Authors must be 18 or over and not represented by an agent.

Applications are open until midday on August 1st of this year, but the summer will slip past, so you might want to concentrate your mind now. There is even sufficient time to pen the 10,000-words required for entry from scratch.

A shortlist of six will be chosen for consideration by the judging panel.

The author of the winning novel will be offered representation by Curtis Brown, plus a prize of £3,000. The first runner-up will receive a place on a three-month novel-writing course and a mentoring session with one of their literary agent team. A further four shortlisted entrants will be offered a place on a six-week online course with Curtis Brown Creative and a mentoring session with one of their agent team.

To enter, send the opening of your novel, (up to 10,000-words, including any prologue), together with a single page synopsis (up to 400 words).

If you are not already aware of it, Curtis Brown produce an excellent newsletter, packed with advice and information. Currently it concentrates on how to perfect your submission, from format to the opening; from the synopsis to the title. Worth subscribing to, even if you don’t intend to enter this particular competition.

I suspect more than one member of ninevoices will consider this too good an offer to refuse.

Details and rules are available on http://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/first-novel-prize and should be checked before entry. For example, they will not accept a manuscript which has already won a prize.

Since Curtis Brown are anxious to publicise this great opportunity, I don’t imagine they’ll mind me lifting the quote from their announcement:

‘Every book starts with a first line, every career with a first moment of inspiration.’

 

 

Writing Competitions to Enter in April

It’s spring, hatch out a new story!

Entries are invited for the seventh Bath Short Story Award. Prizes are £1,000 for the winner, £300 for the runner-up and £100 for the third. There is a £100 prize for the best story by an unpublished writer and a £50 local prize. Stories should be up to 2,200 words and the entry fee is £8 per story. Closing date is 15 April. Details: http://www.bathshortstoryaward.org

Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words. Prizes: Aus $5,000, $3,000,$2,000, with $$2,500 divided between 3 commended. Entry fee is Aus $25 and the closing date 15 April. Details: http://www.australianbookreview.com.au

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Deliberately bad opening lines to novels, comic writing inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s notorious Paul Clifford opening, ‘It was a dark and stormy night…’  Prizes are modest, but receive considerable publicity. Free entry. Closing date 15 April. Details: http://www.bulwer-lytton.com

Billy Roche One Act Play Award for plays up to 15 minutes. Prizes: Euros 300, 200 and 100. Entry fee: Euros 10, Closing date: 19 April.

Grey Hen Poetry Competition for poems up to 40 lines by women who are 60+. Prizes: £100, £50, £25, website production. Entry fee: £3, £10 for four. Closing date: 30 April. Details http://www.greyhenpress.com

Dark Tales Short Story ongoing monthly competition for horror and sci-fi stories up to 5,000 words. Prizes: £100 each months, plus publication. Entry fee: £4. Closing date 30 April (last day of each month). Details: http://www.darktales.co.uk

Swanwick Writers’ School Competition for stories poems and writing for children on the theme of ‘close call’. Prizes: inclusive week at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School for each category winner. Writing Magazine manuscript appraisal for second winners; Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook for third. Entry fee: £6. Closing date 30 April. Details: http://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk

Scottish Arts Club/Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award – 250 words maximum. Prizes £500, trophy, membership. Entry fee: £5. Deadline: 30 April. Details: http://www.storyawards.org/about-flashfiction

Please remember to double-check entry details before committing your time and money, in case I’ve got something wrong.

Meanwhile, good luck. There isn’t as long a list as usual, but why not try something different from your normal writing style – like the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest? I didn’t think I could remember how to knit, but managed to cobble together those Easter chicks for a local Hospice fund-raising effort. They’re wonky, but managed to successfully hold a handful of chocolate cream eggs.

 

 

 

 

Crime Writer Margaret Kirk – Our First Guest Contributor

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Shadow Man, What Lies Beneath

Easily the most popular of our historic posts is the one about Margaret Kirk’s winning entry to the Good Housekeeping 2016 Novel Competition: Shadow Man, a gritty Scottish crime novel.

 

 

 

 

So we were delighted when Margaret offered to give our followers advice from her own experience – especially as she is busy with the run-up to publication this summer of her second crime novel, What Lies Buried.

Here is what she said:

Do it Your Way – rewriting the rules to get yourself published

I enjoy reading the ‘Ninevoices’ blog, so when I was asked to contribute a guest post I was delighted to agree. Something cheering, I thought, in the midst of our midwinter blues – new year, new start kind of post, maybe? Ten ways to get yourself motivated, ten tips to taking your writing to where you want to be in 2019.

Then good sense intervened. Writing advice, from me? Really? I’ve only just finished my second novel, and I still count myself as a total newbie. I’m well aware that my route has not been the traditional one – I’d had some successes with short stories before I sent in my entry to the Good Housekeeping First Novel competition, but I had no expectations of actually winning it. And the publishing world is so unlike any environment I’ve encountered before, sometimes it feels as though I’ve landed in a country I’ve never heard of, where I don’t speak the language. With a road-map I can’t read.

So I’m going to turn this on its head. I’m going to look at the three pieces of writing advice I hear most frequently, and explain why I think they need to be approached with caution.

Write Every Day

Well, ideally, yes. Because there’s undeniably a certain consistency of thought, of image, that writing for a sustained period of time, day after day, can bring. But we all have lives, we all (and this is particularly true for women) have so many demands on our time. There is absolutely no reason to feel guilty/feel you haven’t got what it takes/feel anything negative at all if sometimes you can’t find the time, the mental space or the energy to write. This really is okay. When you do have the time and energy, the writing will be there, waiting for you. As someone who only started seriously in her late forties, I’m living proof of this!

Don’t Give Up

Tricky. No, don’t give up the writing, unless there are other things going on in your life (see above) and you need to take a break. But if you have a finished piece of writing you’ve submitted to agents/publishers/competitions, and it keeps getting rejected, then maybe you need to take another look at it. Have you received feedback on it, and if so, what did the feedback say? I’m not suggesting it’s automatically time to bin your work, but particularly if the same kind of feedback keeps cropping up, there may be something you need to take another look at. Sometimes just the smallest tweaks can make a huge difference!

Show, Don’t Tell

Meh. Yes, of course, Chekov’s ‘show me the glint of light on broken glass’. But this has become such a piece of dogma, sometimes we forget that most times, we’re trying to tell a story. And unless we’re writing the most esoteric of esoteric literary fiction, that means balancing the need to build atmosphere/set the scene with the need to move the story forward. Sometimes – and it took me some time to realise this – instead of agonising over every description, it is perfectly fine to say, ‘He opened the door, and went outside.’

Make sense? I hope so. But if you disagree violently with anything I’ve said, that’s absolutely fine too. Honest. Because there is no magic formula, no single way to achieve your goal (whatever it may be) that works for every writer. In the end, I think all that really matters is that you enjoy where the journey takes you.

Thank you, Margaret!

 

 

 

Writing Competitions to Enter in March

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BBC National Short Story Award 2019, Evesham Festival of Words, Fish Publishing, Flash 500 Flash Fiction Competition, Henshaw Press Quarterly Short Story Competition, Neil Gunn Writing Competitions, The White Review Short Story Prize, Writer's Forum, Writing Magazine

 

What better time than spring to begin a new short story, enter a competition, or perhaps create a children’s book about the creature whose magical home is under this tree…?

The White Review Short Story Prize is for ambitious short fiction between 2,000 and 7,000 words by UK writers who have yet to secure a publishing deal. There is a first prize of £2,500, with the winning story being published in the print edition of the quarterly White Review. Shortlisted entries will be published online and their authors will receive feedback from The White Review editors. The entry fee is £15 and the closing date 4 March. For full rules and entry details: http://www.thewhitereview.org/prize

Neil Gunn Writing Competitions. Short story: 2,500 words max. Poetry: 40 lines max. Prizes: £500; £300; £200 in each category. Entry fee: £8. Deadline 8 March. Details: http://www.highlifehigh-land.com/neilgunn

Evesham Festival of Words Short Story Competition for writers aged 16-plus. 2,500 words maximum. Prizes: £150 plus trophy. Entry fee: £5. Deadline 22 March. Details: eveshamfestivalof-words.org/competition

Evesham Festival of Words Junior Competition for a story of 500 words max (age 8-11); 1,000 words (age 12-15). Prizes: £30 gift voucher plus trophy in each category. Details: eveshamfestivalof-words.org/competition

Fish Publishing Poetry Contest for a poem of 300 words. Prizes: 1,000 Euros; week at Anam Cara retreat; 200 Euros; top 10 published in anthology. Entry fee: 14 Euros, then 8 Euros thereafter. Deadline 31 March. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com/writing-contests

The BBC National Short Story Award 2019, with Cambridge University, is open for entries until March 11. This prestigious award has a first prize of £15,000, and four shortlisted authors will each win £600. All winning stories will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in an anthology. Stories should be aimed at adult readers and up to 8,000 words. However, to enter writers must have a previous record of publication in creative writing (prose fiction, drama or poetry) with an established book publisher, newspaper, magazine, journal or periodical in the UK, or broadcast by a UK national broadcaster or content provider. Self-published work is not eligible. Entry is free, and each author may submit just one story. Full details from https://writ.rs/bbcnssa2019

Flash 500 Flash Fiction Competition for 500 words maximum. Entry fee: £5 or £8 for two. Prizes: £300, plus publication in Words with Jam; £200 and £100. Details: http://www.flash500.com

Henshaw Press Quarterly Short Story Competition for short stories of 2,000 words. Prizes: £100; £50. Deadline end March. Details: henshawpress.co.uk

Not a vast field, but there are always other, themed, competitions run by Writing Magazine and by Writers’ Forum which you can enter – some of which are open to non-subscribers.

As always, please remember to double-check the latest entry details before pressing that ‘send‘ button.

[My picture, incidentally, was taken last Tuesday, at Scotney Castle, in Kent. Bravo for our wonderful National Trust, and the wit they show in the notices displayed for visitors…]

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

 

 

Courtesy of the wonderful British Library, we give you ‘A map or chart of the road of love, and harbour of marriage’, published in 1748.

Marriage, apparently, was a popular subject for spoof cartography in the eighteenth century, with this example containing ‘some sly double meanings’, if your eyes are sharp enough. You have been warned…

The British Library website is a treasure trove. Do take a look some time.

Competitions to Enter in February

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CWA Debut Dagger, CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition, Fish Flash Fiction Prize, Flash 500 Short Story Competition, Kelpies Prize, Papatango New Writing Prize, The Chiplitfest Short Story Competition, The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Contest, WOW! Women On Writing Winter 2019 Flash Fiction Contest

Meet the new beta reader for ninevoices! Nine-month old Kiko’s recommendations for this freezing cold morning are a bracing walk (yay!) before curling up before a roaring fire with the laptop and entering a competition or two… Dropped biscuit crumbs would be a bonus.

Papatango and Southwark Playhouse welcome submissions of new stage plays for their Papatango New Writing Prize. The winner will develop their play with Papatango in preparation for a four-week production in the autumn. Their script will be published by Nick Hern books and the writer will receive ten percent royalties. In addition, following the stage production, the winner will be awarded a £6,000 commission to create a new play, with Papatango providing developmental support. The competition is for an original, unperformed and unproduced full-length stage play – minimum sixty minutes/forty pages/9,000 words. ENTRY IS FREE, and the deadline 17 February. Full details on their website: https://papatango.co.uk/#new-writing-prize

The Chiplitfest Short Story Competition is open for entries up to 5,000 words. There is a first prize of £500, a second prize of £100 and a third prize of £50. The authors of the top ten stories will have the opportunity to be featured on http://www.pennyshorts.com, which publishes short stories. The entry fee for stories up to 2,500 words is £5, and £8 for stories up to 5,000 words. Closing date is 7 February. Details: http://www.chiplitfest.com

The CWA are inviting entries for two writing competitions. The CWA Debut Dagger is given for the opening of a crime writer who had never published a full-length novel and who has not got a contract with a publisher or agent. The winner receives £500 and shortlisted writers receive feedback, plus having their entries sent to interested UK agents. To enter, send up to 3,000 words, plus a synopsis of no longer than 1,500 words. The entry fee is £36 and the closing date 28 February. The CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition 2019 is for the best unpublished short story that most closely fits vintage crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition: ‘The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuse. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, and Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.’ The prize is £500, plus two passes to Crimefest 2020.To enter, send unpublished stories up to 3,500 words. The entry fee is £12 and the closing date 28 February. Full details: https://thecwa.co.uk/

The CWA Debut Dagger people are generous with hints and tips on how to impress their judges – in particular. posting a five-point analysis of why a reader might fail to be impressed by a synopsis. This is valuable for ANY novel, not just one involving a crime. So do take a look at their website.

Fish Flash Fiction Prize, maximum 300 words. Open subject. Prizes 1,000 Euros; 300 Euros; online writing course; publication in anthology. Entry fees: online 14 Euros for one, then 8 Euros; postal 16 Euros for one, then 10 Euros. Deadline 28 February. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com/flash-fiction-contest

Flash 500 Short Story Competition for between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Prizes: £500, plus a two-year Duotrope gift certificate; £200; £100. Entry fees: £7 for one story, £12 for two; £16 for three; £20 for four. Deadline 28 February. Details: http://www.flash500.com/index_files/ss.htm

Kelpies Prize for a novel. Send the first five chapters, plus a 1,000-3,000 word synopsis starting ‘There were three things everyone knew about [character name]… Rules: Scottish writers only, aged over 18. ENTRY IS FREE. Prizes: £500, plus £500 advance on signing contract, mentoring, writing retreat and £100 expenses. Full details: discoverkelpies.co.uk/kelpies-prize 

The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Contest for a novel for children. Full manuscript 30,000 to 80,000 words, synopsis and covering letter. Rules: novel suitable for children aged 7-18. Entry fee: £18. Prize: publishing contract/royalty advance of £10,000; critique for all longlisted. Details: http://www.chickenhouse-books.com/submissions

If you fancy attracting the attention of an American agent, WOW! Women On Writing Winter 2019 Flash Fiction Contest is open until February 28. The guest judge is literary agent Kari Sutherland with Bradford Literary Agency. Submit short fiction of any genre between 250-750 words. Prizes: $400; $300, $200. The prize also includes publication and an interview. Can’t find if there is an entry fee, but details should be on: https://creativewritingink.co.uk/competitions/wow-women-on-writing-winter-2019-flash-fiction-contest/

That should be enough to be going on with, but do, please, double-check all and any details before entering.

Having noted the requirements for the Kelpies Prize, above, with its suggested opening phrase, I’m going to suggest this as one of the homework tasks that whoever hosts the fortnightly ninevoices’ sessions sets for those not immersed in novel editing. It should trigger useful flash and short stories – so why not make use of it? Kiko would give you an approving tail-wag..

 

 

 

Was Your New Year Resolution to Write More?

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Comedy Women in Print Prize, Drip Action Theatre Company Arundel Festival Theatre Trail Competition, Fish Memoir Contest, Lancashire Authors' Association Flash Fiction Competition, Retreat West, Sarah Manning of The Bent Agency, Teignmouth Festival Poetry Competition, The Cambridge Short Story Competition, The Fiction Factory, The Fiction Factory Short Story Competition, The Mogford Prize Story, University of Southampton Netflix Scrip Competition

If so, here are a selection of writing competitions to enter in January. We don’t mind if you use a quill pen, an ancient Remington, a clapped-out biro, or a top-of-the-range laptop, just get those words down…

University of Southampton Netflix Script Competition – six episodes of 25-30 minutes each, or 45-50 minutes each. Prizes: £500 and submission to Red Production Company; £200; £100, plus £100 for the best student (18-25) and £100 for the best under-18. Deadline 6 January. Details: http://www.greenstories.org.uk/about-the-competition.

The Mogford Prize Story. 2,500 words on the theme of ‘Food and drink’. Prizes: £10,000, plus 3 x £250. Entry fee: £10. Deadline 7 January. Details: http://www.oxford-hotels-restaurants.co.uk/mogford-prize/competition-rules-2019

Comedy Women in Print Prize. Comedy novels by women in two categories: published writers, and unpublished writers. Prizes: £2,000 for published writers; £1,000 and (a wonderful opportunity here) a free place on the University of Hertfordshire MA in Creative Writing for unpublished writers. Entry fee: free for published writers; £10 for unpublished writers. Closing date: 31 January. Details: hello@comedywomeninprint.co.uk

Lancashire Authors’ Association Flash Fiction Competition for a story in exactly 100 words. Prize: £100. Entry fee: £2; £5 for three. Closing date: 31 January. Details: http://www.lancashireauthorsassociation.co.uk

Fish Short Memoir Contest for personal, non-fiction up to 4,000 words. Prizes: 1,000 Euros, publication in an annual Fish Anthology; a week at Casa Ana Writers retreat in Andalucia and 300 Euros travel expenses; seven honourable mentions plus 100 Euros. Entry fee: 17 Euros. Deadline: 31 January. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com

The Fiction Factory have prizes of £150, £50 and £25 in their Short Story Competition. Entries must be up to 3,000 words and the entry fee is £6. Closing date: January 31. Details: http://fiction-factory.biz/

Retreat West First Chapter Competition offers a prize of submission package feedback and review from literary agent Sarah Manning at The Bent Agency, and a second prize of submission package feedback from Amanda Saint of Retreat West. To enter, submit an opening chapter of up to 3,500 words from an original, unpublished novel in any genre for adult readers. The entry fee is £10 and the closing date 27th January. Details about how to enter through their online submission system are available at http://www.retreatwest.co.uk/competitions/

Drip Action Theatre Company is co-ordinating the Arundel Festival Theatre Trail 2019 and want 30-40-minute plays for performance as part of the Trail. Previous audiences have totalled over 2,000 people, and each play selected will earn its writer £150. The writer of the best script will receive the Joy Goun Award of £250. Eight plays will be selected for performance at eight different venues around Arundel in August 2019. Check details of requirements at http://www.dripaction.com/writers-competition. Entry appears to be free, but please double-check. Only one play is permitted per playwright and they should be posted before the closing date of January 31st.

The Teignmouth Festival Poetry Competition invites entries for their 2019 prize. In the open category (please check website if you’re local), there is a first prize of £500, a second prize of £250, and a third of £100. Enter original unpublished poems up to 35 lines. The fee for online entries if £4.50 for the first poem and £3.50 for additional entries. Closing date is 31 January. Details: http://www.poetryteignmouth.com

The Cambridge Short Story Competition is for stories between 2,000-3,000 words. There is a £1,750 prize fund and all shortlisted entries will be published in an anthology. Entry is £8 per story, payable via Paypal only, and the deadline is January 15th. Check details at https://www.theshortstory.co.uk/competitions/short-story-competition/

Books make the most amazing Christmas gifts – my own haul promises much pleasure to come – so why not make it your Resolution to add your own novel to the ones that will be available next December?

Best of luck – and remember to check those details before entering anything.

Which Children’s Fictional Characters Still Walk Beside Us? Part II

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Black Beuaty by Anna Sewell

Reading Tanya’s post reminded me that we picked up a copy of Black Beauty in a charity shop this summer – a book my husband and I both loved as children. Perhaps it was where our love of horses began.

In an idle moment – not many of those with a book to edit – I started reading it again. And cried again, as I did as a girl of eleven or twelve.

Books like Black Beauty teach young people about compassion, and the need for kindness in an often cruel world. Qualities as relevant now as they were in Anna Sewell’s day.

Choose your Christmas books well, as Aunt Laura did. They help form the next generation.