Tempted by travel writing?

If you're tempted to dip your writing toe into travel writing then why not test the water with Have A Lovely Time's Beautiful Britain family travel writing competition.  Invitingly your first entry is FREE and any subsequent entries cost £5 (an additional fee of £12.50 can be paid for a critique of your piece, which could be of interest if this is a new genre for you) - the site will also make a donation to charity from entry and critique fees.

Prizes:
1st prize
• £200
• English Heritage family day pass to visit a property of your choice
• Copy of Travelling with Children by Catherine Cooper

2nd prize
• Weekend break at the Park Inn, York
• English Heritage family day pass to visit a property of your choice
• Copy of Travelling with Children by Catherine Cooper

3rd – 10th prizes – Highly commended
• English Heritage family day pass to visit a property of your choice
• Copy of Travelling with Children by Catherine Cooper

Click here for full details of the competition.

On looking at the whole website I would envisage successful entries are likely to involve and focus on children i.e. informative tips for fun family days out, funny stories of family holidays etc.  But that is purely my opinion!

Good luck it you plan to have a go.
Keep writing ...

Sense and insensibility

What are they thinking?  Last week it was announced that Joanna Trollope is to 're-write' Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and now today we hear P.D. James will be working on the re-write of Pride and Prejudice.

Both of the above women are excellent writers: accomplished, successful and set a high standard for authors everywhere.  So why do they want to re-write another novelist's works?  Jane Austen is beloved by many (I'm her number one piggy fan) and so to re-invent/re-write/re-work (however it will be described) is blatantly asking for a multitude of Austen fans to jam up twitter for eternity ... though all good publicity for when the books actually come out.

And why re-write any author's works?  The film world is suffocating from a plethora of remakes and "new" versions (Jane Eyre just released and Wuthering Heights coming soon...) so heaven help us if this trend escalates within the book world.

I love the classics and enjoy re-reading cherished novels (Pride and Prejudice is definitely one of these), but I also adore reading new fiction, exploring new genres, new authors and sprinting out to buy the latest copy of a favourite series (Lindsey Davies, Peter James etc).  My plea to all writers is look forwards and challenge us with new stories, new characters - please don't keep us in our comfort zones.

This has been my rant of the day.  Now need a good wallow in some choice mud.

September is the new January and Monday is blogday!

At the West Sussex Writers' Club (WSWC) AGM the presiding Chair, Nina Tucknott, stated that "September was the new January", a time to re-set our goals.  With autumnal mornings now nipping at our toes (or trotters) the year feels like it's cruising down to Xmas and there are just four months left to realise those writing objectives enthusiastically dreamed up back in January.  Creativity is an essential part of a writer's tool box but discipline is the oil that keeps the output flowing.  I'm a little embarrassed that this blog is not regularly fed, something else on the writing to-do-list always climbs to the top, so one September resolution is to ensure I publish at least one weekly new entry.  From now on Monday will be blogday and a new post will always come out.  Doesn't stop me putting up other pieces, as the mood takes me, during the rest of the week, but this will ensure a weekly output.

Remember: the more you write means you write more ...

Tears of Eve - Entry for Writers' Week

Tears of Eve

There’s only one cure for stupidity, thought Kyle, the careful extraction of dollars from an overstuffed wallet.  Kyle was a professional, an extractor of surgical precision.

As predicted the man returned to the bar.  Kyle sipped at his pale beer.  The white-haired gentleman beside him held the vial in trembling fingers.  Mesmerized he rocked the transparent liquid, commanding his own miniature sea.

       “Collected that the last day it rained, before the drought began,” said Kyle.  “Do you remember that day?  The rain fell like angels’ kisses.  Of course I didn’t know, none of us did, it would be the last time we’d ever taste real rain.  Yet something told me it was special.”  He wiped the back of his hand across his top lip.

       “Goodness,” was all the older man could muster.

            “Reckon that day Eve was up in heaven weeping for the children of our future and for what they’d lost.  Our poor deprived children who will never experience the sweet caress of mother earth, never hear the melody of her gentle refrain.”  Kyle offered up a handkerchief, crisply folded into a neat triangle, from inside his jacket.

            “My granddaughter was born too late, born after the drought,” said the man, dabbing at his eyes.  “She’s only known synthetic water.  I have cash.  I’ll give you whatever you want, just name your price.”

            After the man had left Kyle swallowed down the dregs of his beer and flicked open the mobile.  “He’s bringing the money round later.  Yeah, he bought it.  How about I pick up a nice big bottle of champagne on the way home.”  His smile was feline.  “And Evie, babe, how about onions for dinner?  Lots and lots of onions.”

The above piece is an entry into Writers’ Week competition click here for more details.

In brief:

Pick a first line from 50 prompts. Start your entry with the words in the prompt, and then just keep going. There is no word minimum or maximum. Works can be fiction or non-fiction, haikus, essays, technical manuals—whatever!

Deadline for entries is Friday, September 16, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

Writers’ Week has been put together by Emily Suess (@EmilySuess) on her blog – it’s packed full of writing tips and articles.

FREE competition: The Short Story

Only a few days left to enter The Short Story competition - it's FREE to enter with prize money of:
1st - £300
2nd - £150
3rd - £50
all winners are published on the website.
Deadline for entries (email only) is 15 September 2011.

Click here for submission guidelines which are clear and to the point.
If you have a short story between 1-5,000 words (no sci-fi, novel chapters or children's stories) which is unpublished and not entered in any other competitions then why not submit.  Free competitions are rare to find!
After all if you don't submit ...

Keep writing!