Many thanks to my friend Nick for bringing this competition to my attention.
Earlier this year the Cremona Hotel in Bournemouth held a crime writing short story competition (I entered but never heard a thing, so I guess I didn’t win …). It must have been a success because now they are holding a romance writing short story competition.
Entry is FREE and you must write a romantic story of up to 1,200 words with a seaside background.
First prize is a weekend for two at the Cremona and there are runners up prizes of £25 and £15.
Closing date is 14th Feb 2014. Full details can be found here.
Talking of competitions – has anyone discovered where, on the Best magazine website, the weekly ‘stories’ are, one of which contains the name of a famous writer? Entrants to the Best short story competition need to include this writer’s name as part of their entry. All I’ve found are three interviews with writers – any of which could be classed as ‘famous’.
Finally, as you read this, I am up in Leeds on a ‘How to Write the Mystery Novel’ weekend, run by ‘Relax and Write’. I’ll let you know how I got on next week, along with announcing the winner of the Book Review Competition (you’ve got until midnight Sat 26th to enter).
Sally Jenkins 
#1 by Nanny Cool on October 26, 2013 - 7:39 am
I think I may enter this, I could do with a break! Good luck everyone x
#2 by Nanny Cool on October 26, 2013 - 7:40 am
Reblogged this on Nanny-Cool and commented:
Lets all have a go at this x
#3 by Sally Jenkins on October 27, 2013 - 4:44 pm
Good Luck to you, Nanny Cool – and thanks for the re-blog!
#4 by Lesley Dawson on October 26, 2013 - 9:06 am
Thanks for the link for the Cremona competition, Sally. Our budget is so tight (in other words, we’re always skint!) that, if I won, they’d need to pay our train fares too!
Sorry I can’t help you with the Best competition – I haven’t been looking at it. I hope you’re enjoying your time at Leeds … looking forward to hearing about it.
#5 by Sally Jenkins on October 27, 2013 - 4:46 pm
I suppose travel to Bournemouth would be expensive, Lesley. Shame it’s not included. Met some lovely people in Leeds – will post about it later.
#6 by Tracy Fells on October 26, 2013 - 9:43 am
Look forward to hearing about the mystery writing weekend, Sally. Sounds intriguing.
#7 by Wendy Clarke on October 26, 2013 - 11:44 am
I think this sounds a great competition, Sally. Have written a lot of stories for with a seaside theme but they’ve all been published so would have to go back to the drawing board. Don’t usually do competitions but am tempted by this one.
#8 by Sally Jenkins on October 27, 2013 - 4:47 pm
Good Luck if you decide to enter, Wendy.
#9 by Nick Daws (@nickdaws) on October 27, 2013 - 12:08 pm
Wow, the rules for that Best short story competition take the biscuit! I’ve never seen anything so complicated and confusing. I can only assume they are trying to reduce the number of entries they have to judge. Good luck to anyone who manages to enter!
#10 by Sally Jenkins on October 27, 2013 - 4:48 pm
I think writing the story might be the easy bit, Nick!
#11 by Gray Dawster on October 27, 2013 - 2:17 pm
The closing date is just in time for Valentine’s Day, but the competition sounds rather exciting, of course it will take a very good story to win but that’s what makes it interesting. Good luck everyone 🙂
Andro
#12 by Sally Jenkins on October 27, 2013 - 4:49 pm
Thanks, Andro.
#13 by Gray Dawster on October 27, 2013 - 9:52 pm
You are welcome my friend 🙂
Andro
#14 by Linda on October 28, 2013 - 4:52 pm
Thanks for the link to the Cremona comp, I was going to try their crime writing comp but couldn’t come up with a good enough story before the deadline:( .
Talking of deadlines, I also missed the one for your review competition but I’ve posted a review on Amazon today for Maxine’s Story. I really enjoyed it and will be starting on Karen’s Story soon. (That means it’s on my to-do list but so are a lot of other things!)
#15 by Sally Jenkins on October 28, 2013 - 5:03 pm
Linda – thank you so much for a lovely review. I do appreciate it. A shame you missed the competition deadline, but I might run another in a few months time. Best wishes with the Cremona comp.
#16 by Keith Havers on October 29, 2013 - 10:49 am
I think the answer to the Best comp is Alice Monroe.
#17 by Sally Jenkins on October 29, 2013 - 2:13 pm
Keith, I think you’re right. I’ve just bought this week’s issue of Best & on the entry form it specifically asks the question, “Who won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature” – so there was no need at all to read the 4 ‘stories’ on the website. Also there was no need to collect tokens – all 4 are re-printed in this week’s mag. But the worrying thing is the Ts & Cs that I hadn’t seen before, it says ‘All copyright is owned by Hearst Magazines UK’.
Now do I enter or don’t I?