Our Sarah wins Colm Tóibín award

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Colm Toibin International Short Story Competition 2019

One of our nine voices is frustratingly modest, but the other eight are BURSTING WITH PRIDE.

Our much-loved and madly talented Sarah has just won…..the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award!

She won with her warm-hearted and poignant story, ‘Dinosaurs Rule’.  The Wexford Literary Festival judges clearly saw what we see – the lucidity, insightfulness and generosity of her writing.

Oh, we are so proud and so happy for her!  It will be extra crisps and chocolate cake at our next get-together…

Here she is: Sarah Dawson

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How’s THIS for a competition prize?

 

A Canadian woman has launched a writing contest for her luxury home

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46913322

 

I’m really quite tempted.  I like Canada.

Punctuation certainly used to matter…

Noticed this today as I drove past.  The Old Post Office is, of course, no longer a Post Office, but lots of luxury flats.  What are chances that its modern equivalent would take such care to put the proper apostrophe in “Postmen’s”?

Of course, nowadays it would have to be “Postal Workers’ Entrance”.  Or more probably: “Staff Only”.

Writer rushes into burning building to save two finished novels

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37395526/writer-rushes-into-burning-building-to-save-two-finished-novels

I think we all know how he felt.

Note to self: email finished novels to own address.  Twice.

Designing our book cover

I was interested to be sent this link, presumably for self-publishing in a digital medium: https://blog.dreamstime.com/2016/08/19/book-cover-design-how-to-choose-and-use-images_art44964

I quite like the idea of subverting a genre by having space ships alongside a regency heroine.  I guess I’ll never get employed as art director for a publishing house…

We can manage this…

I came across the following quote from the poet, novelist and critic Randall Jarrell:

…a novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it…

(From The Unread Book, which I can’t find a link to anywhere.)

I found this strangely encouraging.   I suppose the trick is to make sure it has exactly the right thing wrong with it…

West Kent Mind competition

Don’t think we’ve mentioned this one. 50 words on ‘The Elephant in the Room’ – mental health.  Deadline is 14th February 2016.

 

We would like to invite you to think about mental wellbeing and our local mental health charity whilst also helping your own mental wellbeing. You can do this by entering our 50~word saga competition, “The Elephant in the Room”.

This artwork is called The Elephant in the Room and has been created collaboratively by our art groups. The artists involved have or are recovering from mental health problems. Art is known to be therapeutic, and the team work that goes into each unique canvas enables social contact and friendship and is also good for mental wellbeing.

At West Kent Mind we also run a creative writing group. As with our art groups, this group enables expression on paper and again as a regular friendly group session is good for mental wellbeing.

We called the piece “The Elephant in the Room” to reflect how mental health has become the elephant in the room in our society. What do you see when you look at it? It doesn’t have to be elephants. What story do you see? Write it in exactly 50 words (excluding your title which can be different to ours) and submit it online or by post together with the entry fee of £10 for adults and £5 for children.

Details at westkentmind.org

Next year, we will not be millionaires…

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BBC

According to this BBC article, authors’ income at ‘breaking point’:

Almost half of the money made by professional authors is earned by just 5% of writers, according to a study of authors’ earnings in the UK.
The top 5% of authors earned 42% of all income received by professional writers in 2013, according to The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society.
Meanwhile, the bottom half of professional writers accounted for just 7% of all authors’ earnings overall.
The society said last year that writers earned 29% less in 2013 than 2005.
“The creative industries are thriving, generating £76bn per annum, yet professional writers have seen a near 30% reduction in earnings in recent years,” the society’s head of rights Richard Combes said.
“Consequently many are no longer able to sustain a career. The one truly irreplaceable link in the value chain is being stretched to breaking point.”

I wonder if the writers who create the actual words for celebrity ‘authors’, can live off those earnings?

Rejection…rejection…rejection…

Maggie reminded me today of this excerpt from Black Blooks, where Bernard Black (played by Dylan Moran) replies to a publisher’s rejection.

I’m sure we’ve all wished for the lack of inhibition to write a reply like this, instead of sitting in a Ninevoice’s living room reading out our rejection letter in a brave voice, and describing the changes we’re about to make as a result. But with less smoking and red wine and more crisps…

Margaret Atwood discusses The Blind Assassin

From the Guardian book club:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/09/blind-assassin-atwood-book-club?CMP=twt_fd