Or maybe this one!

http://www.mslexia.co.uk/whatson/msbusiness/ncomp_active.php

I'm going to give this a go!

http://richardandjudy.whsmith.co.uk/search-for-a-bestseller/

I've added another story to the "short story" tab.  This is a recent one and is 1,000 words long.  I'm currently undecided on the ending!

I've added another story to the short story section and also inserted a tab on life writing where I have included two stories.  I find "life writing" particularly difficult.  Happy reading!

The Gift

I have inserted a new tab called The Gift, which is my first novel in progress.  Here you can read a summary of the story.   The Gift started life as a 4,000 word short story for my final OU assignment, but I always wanted to make it into a longer story.  Although finished, I am editing, editing and editing, which I am not enjoying!  At the moment it stands at 58,000 words, which I feel may be a little on the light side.  Two friends (thank you Fran and Tanya) have kindly read it through and I am incorporating their comments. On the 31st July I took the plunge and sent the first 6,000 words off to a debut novel competition so we will see what happens.  In the meantime I will explore other publishing options.       

Fame at last!

Hey my six word story competition entries at  Inscribemedia got a mention (see below).  Now I've just got to translate the success to a story that's longer than six words!

The team at Inscribe have now judged our free six-word competition. The set-up was ‘It’s the year 2013, add 2, 1 and 3 and you get six, six is the number of words in supposedly the finest flash fiction story ever written For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn (attributed to Hemingway but probably not by him). The challenge is a short story in six words.”
The standard was high but in the end the £50 prize goes to Mark Shadwell for
‘Facebook - daughter found. Friend request rejected’ (because it made us cry)
We also particularly liked
‘Sale. Coffin . Due to time waster’ by Amanda Huggins (because it made us smile)
‘She waits patiently at his grave’ by Erin Gaven (because it made us wonder)
and two from Anita Goodfellow. ‘Congratulations, Mrs Kray. Healthy twin boys’ (because it made us laugh even though we should not have) and ‘Doesn’t Hannah look like her uncle’ (because it‘s naughty!).

Summer is here!

I find it difficult to get down to writing when the sun is shining!  There always seems to be so many other things I would rather be doing and it seems a shame to be cooped up indoors.  While flicking through the July edition of Writing magazine I spotted a useful article on preparing a story for publication.  They suggest that, if you write fiction, you need a literary agent.   The article goes on to list various methods of finding a suitable agent.  One of which is to think of an author you feel is a good match for your work, and find out who their agent is by doing a basic search on the internet.  From here you should find out if they accept unsolicited submissions, who to approach, etc.  So this is what I have started to do.  If I can’t get down to the writing at least I feel I’m doing something constructive!