Sometimes I feel that it’s all doom and gloom surrounding the writing of short stories. We’re told that the market is getting ever smaller and it’s harder than ever to find paying markets – as opposed to websites that will publish your work, but don’t offer a fee. Read the rest of this entry »
First this week, I’d like to say congratulations to the winners of our Annual Short Story Competition! The stories were all very accomplished pieces and if you’d like to read them they are now available on our competition website. I’d also like to say thank you to everyone who joined us last Friday for the event on Facebook to celebrate the winners – I hope you all had a good time because we certainly did.
The weather is now firmly back to normal – but I took advantage of the sunshine last weekend to go to Wales and try out white water rafting. It was a great experience, even if I did feel a bit like a trussed turkey by the time I’d fought my way into a wetsuit and then had my life jacket tightened until it had the same effect as a surgical corset. We also took the opportunity of walking across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct near Llangollen (not for those with a fear of heights) and climbing to Castell Dinas Bran. I couldn’t help but think of Simon Whaley’s post a few weeks ago – those views certainly do inspire!
This week (3rd-9th October) is Children’s Book Week – a celebration of reading for pleasure for primary school children. It’s been going for 80 years now – in libraries and schools around the country – and I hope it will still be going in another 80 years. There’s little that can beat the enjoyment of a good book and it’s so important that we convince children of this. It shouldn’t be about telling them that reading is good for them, it should be about guiding them to read the kind of books that will really grab their imagination and make them reach for the next, and the next, and the next… So, if you’ve ever wanted to write a book for children and feel you’ve got the flair that will grab the next generation’s imagination, why don’t you give it a try?
Finally, if you fancy winning one of our Fiction Writing courses why not enter our Halloween ‘twitter’ competition. All you have to do is write a spooky story in no more than 140 characters and, as you might expect, the closing date is 31st October.
My guest next week is Nick Dawes – someone who really can turn his hand to any writing assignment and handle it in a professional manner.
First, thanks to Sue for her good advice last week on finding topics to write about and then the best ways to go about researching them. Read the rest of this entry »
As usual, thanks first to Bev for last week’s blog. This is certainly a controversial topic amongst writers – and she puts over her view in a logical and convincing manner. Read the rest of this entry »
Competition adjudicator and frequent comps winner, Iain Pattison explains why he’s saddened by a dearth of mirth… Read the rest of this entry »
