Novel and Flash Fiction Writing Competitions!

I’ve received an email from the lovely people at Farnham Literary Festival about their Farnham’s First Five Thousand competition for the first 5,000 words of a novel plus a 300-word synopsis. The novel does not have to be finished but it must be unpublished. Any theme or genre is allowed. There will be 5 shortlisted submissions, and a further 15 long-listed submissions.
First Prize is £100 + a Literary Critique,  the runner up receives £75 and three shortlisted entries will receive £50. Closing date is Thursday 1st of February 2024 and there is a £5 entry fee.
Don’t forget to read all the terms and conditions!

The Welkin Mini Flash Fiction Prize is also currently running and entry is FREE! Closing date is 2nd January 2024. There is no set theme but entries must be no more than 100 words. Titles are not included in the word count. Prizes are in the form of vouchers redeemable against Matt Kendrick Editorial Services: 1st place £50 voucher, 2nd place £20 voucher, Highly commended £10 voucher.
Again, do check the terms and conditions.

In other news, I’m always very grateful for positive reviews on Amazon but I’m at a loss to know what I did to earn the 4* one for Little Museum of Hope, which reads, “Not read yet building my library.” However, I do feel honoured to be part of that library and I hope the reviewer feels the book is worth 4* when she/he eventually reads it!

Finally, if you’re still searching for stocking fillers or want a treat for yourself, Waiting for a Bright New Future is now available in paperback as well as being only 99p on Kindle.

A Commercial Break

Drum roll and trumpet fanfare!

A massive thank you to everyone who has preordered Waiting for a Bright New Future – it will have landed on your kindle in the early hours of today. Hooray!

If you missed the preorder, you can buy now with instant delivery. Plus the paperback should be available very soon too.

The NetGalley advance reviewers have been busy reading Waiting for a Bright New Future and the response has been favourable (phew!)

“I loved the characters in the book and the humour thrown in amongst the sadness and how the main character was a man in his 50s discovering his life again after the death of his father and starting over again.” Helen A.
“I love that it wasn’t a simple ending but it fit perfectly with how each of the characters were set up.
Definitely a book I recommend.” Reviewer 1028737.
“This book makes you feel everything, the joy, the sadness, the anger, all the emotions you can think of, bundled up together and woven into such a perfect story.” Reviewer 810933.

According to my publisher, ChocLit (part of Joffe Books), this book will appeal to lovers of books by Jenny Colgan, Mike Gayle, Jill Mansell, Sue McDonagh, Laura Pearson or Beth Moran. I can’t believe that they’ve slotted me into such good company!

Still wondering whether it’s worth squandering the grand sum of 99p on Waiting for a Bright New Future? Here’s the blurb:

Is it ever too late to start living for the first time?

Florence is buoyant and colourful, an ageing tribute band singer who’s full of life. And the complete opposite of staid Stuart, her new landlord.
Stuart’s not sure about having a lodger. And he’s not used to the singing and dancing that now fills the house. Nor the pairs of voluminous knickers left to dry on every spare surface in the bathroom.
Florence is everything Stuart has never allowed himself to be: bold, fearless, unabashedly herself. He’s spent his life putting everyone’s needs ahead of his own, avoiding risks and hiding from chances.
Soon Florence is persuading Stuart to dance with her in the kitchen. And when his childhood sweetheart shows up again, it’s Florence who encourages him to make his move.
Florence can see how much he’s changed, even if he won’t admit it. But Stuart has changed. He’s no longer the timid man he was when they first met.
Life is about to give Stuart a second chance, if only he has enough courage to grasp it . . .

Waiting for a Bright New Future falls into the UpLit (Uplifting Literature) genre and will leave you feeling hopeful and positive for the coming of 2024.

The Seven Sisters Series (continued)

At the beginning of 2023 I posted about how much I was enjoying the books in Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters Series. That post has become one of my most popular ever (alongside Icebreakers for Creative Writing Classes) and therefore I’m following it up with a ‘part two’.

Since January I’ve read books four and five in the series: The Pearl Sister and The Moon Sister. Again, I completely lost myself in the stories and learned something along the way.

In The Pearl Sister, Ce Ce, the fourth daughter of Pa Salt, travels to Australia and follows clues to the discovery of her ancestors amongst the pearl industry of a century ago. There’s love and relationships as well as mystery and intrigue.

It’s Tiggy’s turn to discover her roots in The Moon Sister. Tiggy is a nature lover and wildlife conservationist. Her story spans the wilds of the Scottish Highlands in the present day to the gypsies of Granada in Spain several generations ago. This is the only book in the series that made me do a ‘second take’ on one of the sentences. Towards the end of the book, Tiggy is in conversation with someone she particularly admires and decides that this lady is who she aspires to be one day, describing her as a ‘… wife, mother, homemaker, full-time vet and lovely, lovely human being.’ It made me wonder how healthy it would be for a person to strive to be all of those things. That goal sounds like a recipe for stress overload – I’m sure many of you will agree that for a woman to ‘have it all’ is very difficult. However, it didn’t spoil the book, it just made me think – and surely that’s a good reaction to a book?

I’m going through the stories gradually because I find they are better enjoyed with a gap in between, during which I read lots of other genres including crime and also novels for the book group which I run. I save The Seven Sisters for high days and holidays when I have the time to read big, indulgent chunks in one session. I’m looking forward to picking the next one up in a few months’ time!

And if you enjoy books about people, their pasts and their relationships, you might also enjoy Little Museum of Hope, described in one review as, “one big blanket of optimism to wrap around the reader. I loved it”.

Bits and Pieces plus a Bookish Competition

I’m writing this in a coffee shop (hence the picture!) and there are a few things to share with you this time (not counting my excitement about this, which happens in exactly a fortnight).

Firstly, I recently heard from a writing acquaintance of mine in South Africa, Arnie Witkin, who has featured on this blog before. Arnie self-published It’s not a Big Thing in Life a couple of years ago. It’s full of interesting life lessons and was written originally for his teenage grandchildren, but the project mushroomed. Initially sales were slow but Arnie contacted me to let me know that The Western Cape Education Department is now distributing his book to each of its 6,000 Life Orientation teachers in the province. Life Orientation is a compulsory subject in schools in South Africa. Which just goes to show that, in this writing life, you never know what is just around the corner. And the only way to find out is to put yourself out there and give things a try!

Secondly, I have a couple of books to recommend. In my book group we’ve just read A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. It’s the first Waugh that I’ve read and I was pleasantly surprised. It was written in the 1930s and is very easy to read. It contains both humour and darker moments. But the most interesting thing about it is the ending, which comes across as completely out of synch with the rest of the book. Further research indicates that Waugh took an earlier short story and simply appended it to form the ending of the novel (incidentally the short story is reputed to have given Stephen King the idea for his novel, Misery) but the serialisation of the novel has a completely different, tamer ending. I find writing endings extremely difficult – maybe I’m in good company and Waugh did too!
The second book is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. It’s one of those books where you get lost in the story but learn something new too – such as the origin of ‘bumf’ – a handful of paper used as ‘bum fodder’ in WWI in the absence of toilet paper. Set in the early twentieth century it’s a fictionalised account of the publication of the first Oxford English Dictionary. Well worth a read.

Thirdly, the 2023 Marlborough Literature Festival Love Books Competition has just opened for entries. You have until Friday June 30th 2023 to submit up to 750 words about a book that you love and would recommend to others. The winner in each age group (includes adults) receives £300 and the runner-up in each age group will receive £100.

Finally, I have reached the heady heights of being interviewed by the lovely people at The Bookshelf Cafe!

And that’s it for now. Happy reading and writing!

The Write Mango Awards

Short story competition judges often bemoan the fact that they receive a lot of entries with depressing or dark storylines and therefore anything a little bit quirky stands out from the rest.

17762546 © Rookie72 | Dreamstime.com

The Scottish Arts Trust has gone as far as introducing a new subsidiary award in its short story competition: The Write Mango Award. This award is ‘for short stories that are fun, amusing, bizarre and as delicious as a mango …’

The Write Mango Award can be found within the Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition. First Prize is £3,000, Second Prize is £500, Third Prize £250 and the additional Write Mango Award is £300 (you do need to indicate when entering that you wish your story to be considered for this award as well as the main one). Entry fee is £10, there is a 2,000 word limit and the stories can be on any theme or subject. The judge is Ian Rankin and the competition closes 28th February 2023.

I’ve just finished a novel which could definitely be describes as ‘bizarre and delicious’. The Beresford by Will Carver is set in an apartment building where new tenants arrive but don’t leave in the way they would expect. At The Beresford there is routine in murder. We know who the killers are but what we don’t know is how it’s all going to end. It’s a dark story but told in such a way that there’s a lot of humour there too. If you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary, it’s worth a read.

The Seven Sisters Series by Lucinda Riley

The Seven Sisters – Book Three

A few months ago I mentioned on my Facebook page that I’m currently working my way through The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. These are wonderful doorstep size tomes which drag you in and make you look forward to any spare minutes for absorbing more of the story. I’m around halfway through the third book, The Shadow Sister. The series was recommended to me by my sister-in-law and it’s a recommendation that was well deserved.
In a nutshell: the elusive billionaire, Pa Salt, dies leaving each of his six adopted daughters a clue about their true heritage. Each book is a timeslip novel which follows one of the girls in the search for their roots. The historical part of each story is based around a real-life happening and I’ve found these educational as well as enjoyable fiction. The contemporary part of the story contains an element of romance. Both parts are equally compelling!

The Seven Sisters – Book 1

Book one follows eldest daughter, Maia, to Brazil in the hunt for her heritage and the historical part deals with the construction of the giant Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio. In book two, sister Ally investigates her connection to Grieg’s iconic music for Ibsen’s play ‘Peer Gynt’. Book three is set in the UK and features Edward VII and his mistress, Alice Keppel – I have yet to uncover the full significance of this to the search of the third sister, Star, for her roots. It’s intriguing!
An ongoing mystery runs throughout all the books – why did Pa Salt never adopt and bring home his planned seventh daughter? Apparently, all is revealed in the last book of the series, aptly named, The Missing Sister.
Lucinda’s books are popular across the globe and, uniquely for a fiction author from the British Isles, over 90% of her sales have been in foreign languages. According to the Lucinda Riley website, there are plans to create a seven-season TV series based on The Seven Sisters.
Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died in 2021, aged only 56. ‘The Missing Sister’ was published only three weeks before she died.
If you get the chance to read these books – DO!

Book Reviewing Opportunities

If you like reading new books by indie authors this could be the opportunity for you:
Reedsy Discovery is recruiting reviewers. The main Reedsy website is full of resources and freelance services aimed at helping writers at all stages of their journey to publication. Reedsy Discovery is an offshoot of this and is designed to spotlight the gems of the indie publishing world. The reviewers on Reedsy Discovery help to identify these gems. Reviewers are unpaid but they do have the opportunity to monetise their reading by accepting tips from people who find their reviews useful.
Interested? Visit the Reedsy website to find out more and to apply.

If you fancy finding out what it’s like to be a competition judge, The Highland Book Prize, uses keen

The Scottish Highlands

readers from the general public as initial readers. Readers provide a report and scores for each of the books they read and these are then used to compile the longlist for the Prize. Reading for the longlist takes place between July and September each year and has just finished for 2022. However, you can apply now to be on the panel next year. I have now been involved in this for three years and previously blogged about the experience.

Finally, if you enjoy blogging, tweeting and generally shouting about the books you’ve read, NetGalley might be the site for you.  Publishers and authors distribute digital review copies and audiobooks to the NetGalley community, and in exchange, members provide reviews, star ratings, social media posts etc. Some publishers on NetGalley will vet reviewers before releasing ARCs (Advance Review Copies) but others are happy for their books to be read more widely. Register online to be a NetGalley reviewer.

Note: In all three cases above, the books are supplied in digital format, i.e. not paper books.

Talking About Authors and Reviews

Last week I watched a Facebook Live broadcast by the Empowered Author Group. It was facilitated by Sam Missingham and Katie Sadler. The chat covered a range of topics from how to deal with reviews, how to encourage readers to leave reviews and what to do with those reviews when you get them. I jotted down the points that resonated with me.

• Reviews are subjective and what one reader hates, another will love. Anyone who’s ever been in a book group will know that a single book can generate a whole range of love/hate discussion.
• Authors need to develop a thick skin. This is not just for reviews but for an author’s life in general. The knock backs are many and we have to develop the skills for dealing with them.
• Many authors never read their reviews. If this is you, it can be useful to get a trusted friend or partner to read them to extract any constructive comments that be used in the writing of the next book. For example: A popular character could make an appearance in a sequel.
• If you are ever tagged in a positive social media comment, always respond with a thank you.
• The question was asked about how useful it is to get reviews from friends and family. In theory, Amazon does not allow reviews from friends and family, some will get through and can create a useful starting point. However, be aware that if these reviewers usually favour a different genre, their reviews on your book may mess up Amazon’s algorithms. For example, if your brother usually reads Westerns but reviews your Romance novel, Amazon may start showing your book to Western readers and this may limit your potential for sales. It can cause similar confusion on your ‘Also Bought’ lists. It might be better to get friends and family to recommend your book on their own social media and in real life. Or perhaps they could request it in the library or order it through a bookshop.
• Actively encourage readers to review or rate your book using your social media presence. 
• At the end of each book put a polite request for a review.
• Build up a group of early readers or a ‘Street Team’ who will be happy to receive and review an early copy of the book and to shout about it for you. (Early readers can also be found by making your book available on NetGalley but this can be an expensive option unless you have a publisher willing to pay.)
• Blog tours are a good way of generating reviews. Build your own tour (Reedsy has a list of bloggers) or pay one of the excellent tour organisers to do it for you.
• When you get good reviews, use them for marketing purposes. Put them out on social media and in press releases.

It’s not easy to encourage reviews – most of us probably never thought about leaving a review until we became writers ourselves. So prize those coveted words of praise. And remember that even bestsellers get some bad reviews.

If you fancy writing a greater length about a book you’ve enjoyed, the Marlborough LitFest 2022 Love Books Competition gives you that opportunity (closes 1st July 2022).

Happy reviewing!

Reading: Solitary or Social?

Reading is a solitary pastime. We sit alone, in silence, our mind in another world and ‘do not disturb’ exuding from our concentrated expression. Reading is a hobby not easily shared with others.

Wrong!

Reading is becoming an increasingly sociable activity. Books connect people, both online, in the virtual world and in real, face-to-face society. Don’t miss out by reading in a bubble, try some of the following:

• Join a traditional book group. Most groups read one book a month and meet to discuss their opinions (depending on the group there may be coffee, wine or cake …) I’ve mentioned before that I run a book group at my local library and the library or bookshop is a good place to start if you’re looking for a group. Alternatively, start your own. A friend of mine formed a group with her neighbours and they take it in turns to host the meeting.
• Join a Shared Reading group. I’ve written before about these groups connected to The Reader charity. There is no ‘homework’ reading. It is all aloud during the (usually weekly) meeting.
  

  Bookfest Sutton Coldfield Library

• A couple of weeks ago I was a volunteer at Bookfest in my local library. It was a festival of children’s books with lots of author events and activities. I was one of three people on the front desk answering questions and directing people to events. It was fun to be with like-minded book lovers making an event happen that would be too expensive to stage without volunteers.
• Search out a Facebook group that discusses books. A few to get you going:
  Imogen Clark’s Book Café – Imogen is a best-selling author
  The Book Club – a large and busy group with occasional ‘real-life’ meet ups
  Romantic Fiction Book Club – run by the Romantic Novelists’ Association
  If you can recommend any others, please add them in the comments at the bottom of this post.
• Review your favourite books online. This could be on Amazon, Good Reads or NetGalley (where you can request advance e-book copies of new novels to review). Or start your own book blog and get social in the virtual world, interacting with readers and writers.
• Start a book exchange at work, church or wherever groups of people meet. See if you can encourage non-readers to try a novel. What greater gift can you give someone than the love of books?

Reading and the love of books can be as solitary or as social as you choose. Whichever way you do it – happy reading!

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

The brilliant thing about book clubs is the encouragement and opportunity to read books outside your comfort zone – that’s how I found myself reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. 

It’s a thick book written over 100 years ago and viewed by some as a classic. It has much to say in favour of socialism and the edition I read had an introduction by Tony Benn. However it is possible to push the politics to one side and read it as a piece of social history.

The story centres around a group of painters and decorators living in poverty. They are in and out of work depending on the season and very badly treated by their rich, fat cat employers. Health and safety is non-existent and this is long before the safety net of the welfare state and the NHS. The book follows these wretched men and their families over a twelve month period, contrasting their circumstances with those of their bosses.
I found the first chapter hard going – there were far too many characters introduced all at once. But I persevered and the subsequent chapters focused in on individuals which made the going easier. I became fond of Owen, the deep thinker of the group, and young Bert, who worked for nothing in an exchange for an ‘apprenticeship’ which taught him only the skills of being a dogsbody. I also felt for their wives, who often went without food so that their children and husband could eat.

Verdict: It took me three weeks to read the book and only 30% of the book club members stuck with it all the way through. It made me incredibly glad that I wasn’t born 100 years earlier into a society that had to live hand to mouth. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is not a ‘good’ read but I’m very glad I’ve read it – in the same way that I’m often very glad I’ve been to the gym even though pounding the treadmill or doing sit-ups was not a good experience.