6th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest

It's kind of ironic that a short short story competition should have such a long name. I've been meaning to post about the 6th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest for some time but abandoned the idea because the Nov 1st deadline was approaching faster than my procrastinating arse was moving. But today I found out that they EXTENDED the deadline to January 15th and so I've finally got around to posting about this great little contest.

The 6th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest is accepting entries of up to 500 words written on a postcard to which it somehow relates. For full details about prizes, how to submit and to read past winners, go to their competition page.

Now I'm embarassed that it took me, like two months to post this. Sigh.

Rumble Magazine

I stumbled across Rumble (might be a poet yet)recently while cruising around the Internet procrastinating from my list of 50,000 other things to do. I can assure you that reading this online magazine is far preferable to the housework, work or sweeping up on fall leaves and if you haven't been there you should go to http://rumble.sy2.com/ and check them out.

Established in 2004, Rumble is an online publisher of micro-fiction, featuring short stories and poetry of 500 words or less. They started publishing monthly and now publish 'occasionally' which means that they put out a new publication when they have the content- which might be every few weeks or it might be two months.

When Rumble started they were one of the very few micro-fiction magazines out there and despite the growth in that area, they are still considered to be one of the best.
For full submission guidelines, to read past editions or just to use their funky tool which allows you to change the page colour, visit them!

Where do ideas come from?

My brain is soggy from all the ideas that flood into it daily and get stuck there because I haven't got the time to write. It's an unfortunate situation and it makes me realize how much time I used to have- back then when I had no kids, no house, no professional job and of course, no ideas when I actually did sit down. But I guess that maturity is maturity in many ways (more than just losing the ability to drink ten pints and counting wrinkles on my face)and over the years I've learned how to come up with ideas. They were there all the time, staring me in the face: a coffee stain on the table, that weird panel on the wall that you've always dreaded looking behind or that wimpy sandal-wearing middle-aged guy who lives behind you and drives a SMART car but never recycles.

Anyway, my point is that I personally don't have any trouble coming up with ideas, but if I did, I'd try Creative Writing Prompts, which I just stumbled across. It made me smile.

The CBC Literary Awards

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation- otherwise known as the CBC have an annual literary award competition in both official languages- English and French, that has been running since 1979. Each language has three categories- unpublished poetry, short story and creative non-fiction.

To be eligible to enter this respected context, you have to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and can be living in Canada or abroad. There is a total of $60,000 prize money up fro grabs which works out at $6,000 for first place in each category and $4,000 for second place. There is a $20 entry fee and the closing date is Nov 1st, 2009. For more details and how to enter you can see their comprehensive website here.

They also have a facebook group which you can find here.

Good luck!

I'm back! I'm back!

I'm back....err.....I guess you got that bit by now huh? Well it's been a long summer filled with unexpected things and nowhere near enough sleep. That might conjure up images of me attending swanky parties, watching world cinema in all night smoky bars or sitting up in front of my latest novel all night, glass on wine in hand. Alas, it's nothing so glamorous.....more like milky boobs and baby sick and I know, I know, that was a bit too much information but obviously, I don't get out much. Anyway, if you're reading this- thanks for sticking around and in case you didn't get it, I'm back!

Having to take a break while I juggle two kids at home. Hope to be back soon!

Macmillan New Writing

Macmillan is one of the UKs largest book publishers though they operate in over 70 countries. Most of their companies do not accept unsolicited submissions, but they have set up a department called Macmillan New Writing that accepts and considers any new fiction. They promise to read all submissions and to respond within 12 weeks, but due to the volume they will only respond to successful submissions.

They trade-off for this 'easy' route into being published is that they do not pay any advances and the rate they pay to authors that they publish is 20%. This may not be as good a deal as an agent could negotiate for you but than again, for a first-time author who hasn't got an agent, it's a pretty good set-up.

Check out their site here