Entering Competitions...

Well I finished my entry for the Spring prose competition at the writers' club in time. It was written and edited in two days. May not have been as good as it could have been, but considering I wasn't 100% well, it's amazing it was completed at all. And the three things that the story had to contain: the tin of treacle, a bird and the weather, actually didn't turn out to be as difficult as I thought...

I've been considering entering a larger short story competition for a couple of years now, but haven't taken that final step yet.

I know I'm not ready for Bridport prize- and quite honestly I don't think I ever will be - so I decided to just step up a level.

There are lots of writers' groups who run open prose and/or poetry competitions, and others that run with literary festivals.

I've decided to put an entry into the Wells Literary Festival short story competition - I posted the details about it last month.

Yesterday I printed out the entry form and details.

It does have the option to pay and submit online, but for this one I'm going to post it - I think it's a psychological thing - if I put it in an envelope and take it to the post office (and put it in the box)  I'm taking another step, and next time I probably will submit online because it won't have the same significance.

So today I'll be looking over my short story in case there's anything I want to revise, and then making a fresh copy that conforms to the rules - title and page numbering stuff.

Then if I'm happy with it all, it will be fill in the form and the entry fee cheque (£5) and off to the Post Office tomorrow.

But if you're not ready for this stage yet, then I can recommend the competitions run by Erewash Writers Group, you can see the current competitions, here.

I still have a few entries to do for some of the annual competitions that Nottingham Writers' Club runs for members each year. The deadline for these is the end of the month, so I better get on with those too.

Then I will be ready to get back to the final two chapters of the novella- draft 1. :-)

Medicines in History...

Sadly I'm indoors with an oil burner infusing the air around me with Eucalyptus pure essential oil- a couple of the family have had a cold and now it's got me- always happens during half terms when everyone is home and exposure is at the maximum- while they recover I get poor breathing...

As much as I'd have liked to spend time in the 18th/19th century, I really wouldn't want to have lived there forever- I would never have survived the various bugs and germs that were lurking...

There's some info about medicine through the ages, here.

Having blood tests done for valid reasons nowadays is bad enough, but bleeding someone as a general treatment for curing many ills as was done in the past, I can only say thank goodness we've moved on!

And you'll find some of the medical equipment used at the time displayed on Pinterest, here.

The local chemist, near where I grew up, still had the big glass jars in the window, (like the big one filled with blue liquid here) and at the back behind the counter area, the chemist's domain, still had the original polished and labelled wooden draws and counters- must have been a high class pharmacy in it's heyday. Sadly the shop is long gone...

Those old shops really had character...