2014′s Moth Short Story Prize
Prizes of €3,000, €1,000 and a week-long writing retreat at Circle of Misse in France (including €250 travel expenses). The prize is open to anyone, as long as the work is their own and previously unpublished. Word limit 6,000. The closing date is 30 June 2014.
 http://shortstops.info/2014/01/24/the-moth-international-short-story-prize-2014/

The Bristol Short Story Prize
an annual international writing competition open to all published and unpublished, UK and non-UK based
writers. Publishes an annual anthology of the winning stories as well as presenting cash prizes.
Stories can be entered online or by post. The closing date for entries is midnight (BST) on April 30th 2014. First prize is £1,000 plus a £150 Waterstones gift card,
2nd prize is £700 plus a £100 Waterstones gift card
3rd prize is £400 plus a £100 Waterstones gift card.
The 2014 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony will be held in Bristol in October 2014.
 http://www.bristolprize.co.uk/

Other Publishing Company
is open to submissions of short stories, full length fiction, informational / business / How To, historical fiction and non-fiction and erotica.  This is what they say on their website:
We welcome submissions from all fiction and non-fiction writers who have a unique  voice and offer fresh and exciting ideas that are well written and engaging. If this sounds like you, we want to hear from you!’
 http://www.otherpublishingcompany.com/ (click on 'submissions' tab)
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Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2014 Short Story Competition
For published and aspiring writers alike - enter the Writers'  & Artists' Yearbook 2014 short story competition and you could win: a cash prize of £500, a place on an Arvon residential writing course of
your choice, publication of your story on www.writersandartists.co.uk  
All you have to do is enter a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words, on the theme of 'the visit' and email it to competition@bloomsbury.com with
"WAYB14 competition" as the subject line. The closing date is midnight on Saturday 15th February 2014. The winners of the competition will be announced on this site in March 2014.
 https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/competitions


 

Danger. Work in Progress
Happy new year and welcome to my new site.  The new working year dawns bright and clear. Quiet after recent raucous weather . The tide is high and Poppy and I have the beach to ourselves. She is an excitable companion and notices the things I miss, stopping, pointing, sniffing the air, rooting and just taking off across the sand for the sheer joy of running.

Long shadows from a low sun make me look tall and thin like a supermodel but I know that it is an illusion, especially after Christmas and bundled in my dog walking coat. Walking past the cafe on the corner, I see people tuck into their breakfast and think how liberating to be free of clichéd resolutions. The gym along the street is closed this morning but the bin men are back at work. Back to a ‘normal’ working year.

My ‘normal’ working year is changing. This year I will simply write daily and encourage others to do the same, through Write Your Life and Action Learning Programmes.

I have always thought that New Year is like crossing between carriages on a moving train: reflecting on what has gone: resolving to move forward. Like being  Between Times, which has just become the title of my next story.

I am inspired by Julia Cameron The Right to Write (and the Artists Way) and the Facebook Challenge 100k
100 days.  1,000 words per day is not really the challenge for me, that is about one hour’s work (many people commute for an hour a day. Try writing...) The challenge is 1,000 words EVERY day.

Some of my work will be published here, but not all, you will be relieved to hear. A lot of it will be rubbish but it will all be Work In Progress. I have my hard hat ready if you want to comment.

Happy New Year to you all.


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This Blog is focussed on Writing. I hope that it will add interest and value
to your personal and professional life; to make you smile sometimes, and to help you to think a little differently about your work on occasions. My aim is to create relevant and insightful content that you will want to share with your friends and networks.  I hope you will respond, and that we can have a dialogue, discuss ideas, and share techniques.

Check out the tabs for
The Creative Writing programme, including Write your life

Action Learning where I will let you know when there is a new
programme happening

1. Creative Kick Starts are a series of writing warm ups to do solo or in a group. They are your scales and arpeggios or your plies at the ballet barre.  Except they won't hurt so much

Fiction will highlight my short stories and novel extracts


The landscape of writing has shifted and I am looking at new ways to continue to support writers; exploring online publishing, blogs and websites which provide access, information and opportunity to all writers to explore their own potential