Spring Into Opportunities with Wells...

Today has been wonderful. Sunshine and a comfortable temperature has finally allowed the spring tidy-up in the garden to take place (too busy to stop and take photos).

Mind you not everything survived. Three frogs have had to be buried after expiring in the garden at some point. Not sure if they were victims of old age or all the snow and bad weather.

The hawthorn has suddenly opened it's leaves, though it is a month behind last year.

There's now a wheelie bin full of dead branches, and old wood from last year. The fruit bushes may actually produce their crops at the appropriate times this summer, rather than a month or two early. :-)

And just as the gardens are springing into life, lots of competitions are around.

I'm considering entering a short story for one of the Wells Festival of Literature competitions. One recognisable name from the judges is Della Galton.

There's a competition for poetry- judged by Sean Borodale. Short stories and a Crime Novel.

The Festival is the 11th to the 19th October this year; there's a great selection of speakers- have a look here.

If you're interested in entering any of the categories, have a look here.

You can enter online or by post. Deadline 31st July. You can find details of the reasonable fees here.

And yes there is prize money for those who get judged 1st, 2nd, 3rd. For the poetry and short story First Prize £500, Second Prize £200, Third Prize £100.

If you happen to have a crime novel ready then you may find the prize for the winner very attractive...

"The winning entry will be read by a major publisher and by a leading agent.  In addition there will be a cash prize of £100.  The judge may also arrange for an exceptional runner-up entry to be read by an agent or a publisher."

(The judge for this competition is Janet Laurence.)

But note for the crime novel competition: "Entrants should not have had a full-length work of fiction published before."

The prize-giving is on Sunday 13th October 2013.

I've been to Wells a couple of times over the years, but not to the literary festival.

If you enter, fingers crossed you do well.

Back To Writing...

It's always hard get back into routine after a break, and that certainly goes for writing too.

I was at a difficult point in my manuscript just before the Easter holidays and having had a break for a few weeks, I've had the necessary time to sort out what was bothering me- my heroine had been getting very introspective in the last chapter and I wasn't sure if I was letting her get away from the plot.

But with time away, I've realised I'm just at that point where she is changing from who she was at the start of the story, to whom she will become by the end.

And the next part of the story is going to be hard work as both my protagonists are in that changing process. Sarah is the one with the problems now, while Hugh's initial source of conflict has been resolved. But of course, he isn't go to have the rest of the story to relax in- he will still have issues to resolve... :-)

Now I'm feeling comfortable with my writing process, I'm going to try adding in some other writing.

Last year, I did say I was going to enter more of the competitions run by the writers' club I go to- and as Chairman, I really should be leading by example...

So, I have deadlines for handing entries in by the first few days of July- these are annual competitions.

One is a new non-fiction competition for members; we need to write a piece on what kind of future for the printed book- I already have a few ideas for that one.

I also want to try the story suitable for radio. There was a useful short column in Writing Magazine recently which will be very helpful. And I'll be checking out the BBC's Writers Room pages.

I do have a deadline for a short story competition in early June, so I better get my ideas jotted down...

And in a couple of months I'll be performing a piece of flash fiction (already written) at the second 'Fringe at The Ship' event, on the last Saturday of the Lowdham Book Festival. (The festival runs throughout June.)

So the next few months will be busy.