Story Competition

Can you write a story about time travel in less than two weeks? Would you like an amazon gift voucher? Then you need to go to Indie Writers Monthly Blogspot for details of their competition.

The competition closes on 15th June. Good luck if you go in for it!

Flash fiction competition

There's a new flash fiction contest starting in September, run by Stephen Parrish who wrote the Tavernier Stones. Word limit is 250 words; nice and short! The competition opens on 8th September and closes on 22nd September, and the picture above is the prompt.

Is anyone else thinking about going in for it?

Alice in Wonderland rules, OK?

Following my recent competition to find a name for my new sock monkey, I am pleased to announce that his new name is:

The Professor

Runners up in no particular order were: Jazz, Sockit, Seamus O'Reilly, and Mundungus.

It was a close-run competition, so "everybody has won, and all must have prizes". If Old Kitty, jjdebenedictis, Debbie, Simon Kewin, and Kate will email me your postal addresses I will send you a tiny token of my esteem.

You can email me at the address in the right sidebar, or at theprofessormonkeycompetition.fairyhedgehog@recursor.net

Thank you, all of you!

Quick reminder

The Clarity of Night Elemental writing contest is now open. The entries are limited this time so you might want to get yours in soon. I have!

No fixed abode

Photo by Franco Fellini some rights reserved

I forget where I came across this competition for European writers. (Edited to say: thank you Old Kitty for reminding me that I found this on womagwriter's blog.)

It's a flash fiction competition with a £60 prize pot but no entry fee. The word limit is 300 and the theme is NO FIXED ABODE. The only down side is that you have to enter by snail mail - but there's plenty of time to do that as the closing date is November 30th.

I'm sorry it's only open to Europeans. I'll be interested to know if you enter!

writtenwyrdd's flash fiction competition

Enter Writtenwyrdd's competition and you could win this!

Seriously, it looks like a fun competition and you only have to write 250 words. Why not have a go? Expiry date is 22nd August.

I shall be away but I'll read your entries when I get back!

I won and I'm off!

I'm one of the lucky winners from Bernita Harris' Release Party and Contest over at Bitten by Books. I've won a $20 amazon gift card and a silver lariat necklace. Thank you Bernita!

In other news, I'm off to Ireland on Saturday so I may not be around much because I'll be packing, or trying to. CFS and packing aren't a good mix. Plus the washing machine chose to break down last Friday and it's not likely to be fixed before we go. It needs an "unusual part". I'd like to tell Hotpoint where to put their unusual part but I shan't in case I get them annoyed enough to make me wait even longer!

We won't have internet access on holiday. Oh noes! So I shall be away from you for two whole weeks. I'll try not to cry but it will be a close thing.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but Blogger is being naughty. If it carries on then I'm off to my blog at Wordpress. I'll let you know if I go so you can come too! (Edited to add: I've found how to go back to the old editor. It works after a fashion.)

Help writtenwyrdd with her competition

Writtenwyrdd is setting up a competition but she needs input and prize suggestions. Can you help? Her contest plea is here.

Thank you OxyJen!

You may remember that I asked you to help me win some books, and lots of you did! Today the books arrived, all the way from Canada.

So, many thanks to Jen for the competition and for posting them to me. I'm hoping for some sunny days so I can lounge in my new garden hammock and eat chocolate and read them. (Sunshine is optional. Chocolate isn't.)

I'm not sure all the books were claimed. There may still be scope for more of you to join in and get your share of the goodies! So if you haven't been to Oxygen, why not pop over there now?

Teh contest

Simon C. Larter has a competition for a book giveaway over at Constant Revision. I'm not going in for this one but the entry form is absolutely hilarious. You might want to go and take a look!

Writing competition

Spilling Ink Review has some competitions on offer which you have to pay to enter. The one that appeals to me is the Microfiction competition - entries have to be under 300 words. I can do that!

That one ends on 30th June, but there's a Short Story competition ending on 31st August, Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry ends 31st October and Creative Non-Fiction ends 31st January next year.

I've never entered a competition where you have to pay to enter before but I'm thinking of giving it a go. Have you ever done that?

What could be better...

...than a good book and chocolate to nibble on? I've just received a parcel from the wonderful Steph (aka maybegenius) who ran a competition a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be picked out of a hat (well, my name was, I didn't actually get into the hat myself) and she posted these goodies to me all the way from the States at great personal expense. (I'm not joking. International postage is dear!)

The Powerberries are chocolate-covered fruit juice pieces. They're super-delicious and they claim to be good for me because they're full of flavanol antioxidants and vitamin C. I choose to believe them. They are certainly moreish and I'm going to have to have trouble remembering that a sixth of a pack is a serving. You mean I can't count the whole pack as one serving? Oops!

Thank you so much, Steph!

Thank you maybe genius!

As one competition starts another ends and maybe genius has picked my name out of a hat to win in her competition.

Many, many thanks. Just what I needed to cheer me up.

The competition result is here.

Free the Princess competition

Matt Delman has a fun competition going on over at Free the Princess. You're invited to write a short (three or four sentences) diary entry from the point of view of a fictional character. Closing date is the 29th June. Why not pop over there now and have a look?

I can't write long

Nicola Morgan is running a Flash Fiction Competition over at her Wasted blog. This time the prize isn't chocolate, it's a copy of any of her books and she'll also publicise some of the best flash stories.

I thought I'd have a go at it. The challenge is to write a story in up to 50 words on the theme of Chance, Luck or Fate.

I managed twenty words and it's a complete story. Not a good one, but a whole one. What is it with me that I can't write long stories? What's worse is that usually when I edit I end up with something shorter, as I said the other day. Maybe I need to start again with a longer story and edit it down.

Will you be going in for the flash competition? You only need to write 50 words.

Win a story critique

I saw Lady Glam's Short Story Contest advertised on Natalie Whipple's blog and thought you might be interested. The closing date is 1st June.

Book blog launches today

It's the official launch today of Nicola Morgan's blog about her Young Adult book Wasted, which comes out on 3rd May. You may already know Nicola as the Crabbit Old Bat who gives advice to hopeful authors on her blog Help! I Need A Publisher!

Nicola says about the Wasted blog that

During the next few weeks there will be many opportunities to win books - some of them requiring skill (writing competitions) and some pure luck. See, the book is all about luck, chance, randomness, fate, risk, causal determinism, and the odd spot of quantum physics.

If it's got quantum phyisics in it, it must be good. Why not pop over to the Wasted blog and have a look?

Happy Birthday Ello!

Ello is running a competition for her birthday over at Hello Ello 2. It's an unusual contest because the prize is Asian food and even if you don't want to enter you might be interested to see and read about the dried squid and other goodies that are on offer.

Oh, and you might want to wish Ello a happy birthday, seeing that she's stuck in the house with the builders tearing it apart then has to go off and do a full day's work. On her birthday. Oh dear.

Another book competition

A vampire who is sent to assassinate Jesus? You must admit it's an unusual premise.

If you want a chance to win a signed copy of 33 AD then all you need to do is to comment over at Obfuscation of Reality. Good Luck!

The victory of the Scottish Marsupial

McKoala has won Reader's Choice in the Clarity of Night contest: first out of 237. Congratulations McK! A lot of writers are hoping this has put you in a mellow mood.

Chris Eldin got an honourable mention.

Visitors to this blog who scored 40 or more out of 45, showing they were proficient in pacing, entertainment value, technical use of language, storytelling, and voice were:

Whirlochre
JaneyV
Kateinthecloset
Chris Eldin
Peter Dudley
Bernita
Aerin Rose
McKoala

Well done all of you!

The standard was very high and those who didn't make it to the magic forties club should still be congratulating themselves on their entries.