First World War Centenary 1914 to 2014
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets, Non-fiction, Poetry, Short Story on September 22, 2013
A ration party of the Royal Irish Rifles in a communication trench during the Battle of the Somme. The date is believed to be 1 July 1916, the first day on the Somme, and the unit is possibly the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles (25th Brigade, 8th Division). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As you’re probably all aware, next year is the centenary of the start of the First World War.
I’m sure that as the date gets closer there will be a lot of publicity about the multitude of events arranged to mark the occasion.
There’s going to be plenty of opportunity for us, as writers, to get involved with this anniversary – as long as we don’t leave it too late to get started!
I’ve just done a quick trawl of the internet and found the four writing competitions listed below with a ‘war’ theme.
- Mardibooks First World War Centenary Short Story Competition – winners will be published in an anthology and up to 12 entrants will receive feedback on their stories. Word count 1,200 to 5,000. Closing date 29th November, 2013. Entry is FREE.
- Bard and Muse War Poetry Competition – prize money is currently under review and the closing date is March 24, 2014. Line count: 40
- Tower Theatre First World War Play Writing Competition – closing date is September 27th, 2013 – so you need to get your skates on! The winning play will be performed in London in November 2014.
- Curry Mallet First World War Short Story Competition – this competition is not yet open for entries but watch the website or use the contact form on there, to get more details. But this gives you plenty of time to do some research!
Also, don’t forget all the opportunities for magazine articles with a nostalgia or unusual factual slant.
Why not pick up your pen and have a go?
Remember all those men who gave their lives in muddy, wet, stinking trenches so that we might live in peace.
Related articles
- Harrogate’s Lessons from the First World War (weayorkshireandhumbertutorblog.wordpress.com)
- News story: One year to go to First World War centenary (gov.uk)
- The poppy: still a potent symbol after all these years (telegraph.co.uk)
Karen’s Story – The Museum of Fractured Lives (plus 2 free e-books)
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Self-publishing on September 15, 2013
I’m pleased to tell you that the second instalment in The Museum of Fractured Lives series has been published this week.
As you may remember from Maxine’s Story, The Museum of Fractured Lives displays objects donated by people who have suffered a trauma in their lives. The objects are a symbol of that trauma.
When accepting a donation, the museum employees try to obtain the full story behind the object.
Each book in The Museum of Fractured Lives series tells the story of one donated object and the person who has given it. These books are ‘flash’ novellas of around 8,500 words.
Karen’s Story tells the tale of a single woman’s quest to find a man to father her baby. Her choice of mate has devastating consequences. Karen’s story is pure selfishness and destroys several lives.
Karen’s Story is only 77p in the UK . It is also available across all other Amazon sites by searching by the title or for ASIN: B00F3FMHSK.
To celebrate this launch, the first Museum of Fractured Lives book, Maxine’s Story, is free for today only (15th September).
Also free (until 18th September) is my collection of writing articles, A Writer on Writing – Advice to Make You a Success.
Amazon Tax Form, a Good Review, Win a Toothbrush plus a Success
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Self-publishing, Successes on September 8, 2013
I’ve a few ‘writerly’ things to impart this week:
Amazon shipment (Photo credit: enno)
Amazon Tax Form
Those of you with e-books for sale on Amazon will have received a request to complete an on-line tax ‘interview’ or risk having your books removed from the website. I was a bit concerned when I saw this, in case I had to go through the palaver of getting a US tax exemption certificate. But the ‘interview’ was very easy and quick to complete and no certificates were needed. The benefit of the tax exemption certificate is that it stops Amazon withholding 30% of the royalties on US sales but the downside is it necessitates a trip to London to get ID validated – not worth it financially for me because the vast majority of my sales are in the UK.
If you want more information on this, have a look at Nick Daws’ blog.
By the way, I wonder if the UK government withholds money from US citizens? I doubt it somehow.
A Good Review
Talking of e-books. Brian David, from the CheerReader website, has sung the praises of ‘A Writer on Writing – Advice to Make You a Success!’ on his site’s homepage (scroll down this page to see the review). He describes it as:
‘a superb little tome that gives you all the hints and advice you need to make your writing as good as you want it to be’.
Win a Toothbrush
Last Monday I picked up the Metro newspaper (free on some public transport) on a train to Milton Keynes and spotted the Rush-hour Crush competition. Just write a few words about that dishy man/woman you’ve spotted on the bus/train/tube and you could win a Sonicare HealthyWhite electric toothbrush. There’s a prize each day but you’ll have to be quick, the competition ends on 13th September 2013. Entry is by an electronic form here.
A Success!
Finally, I had a phone call this week to tell me that I’ve won the Friends of Morley Literature Festival Short Story competition, judged by Gervase Phinn. The story was originally written for last year’s Jeremy Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing competition and it came nowhere. But now it’s won me £50 so I’m chuffed to bits! (By the way, I also won this competition in 2011 so maybe I shouldn’t enter next year …)
CheerReader Competition Autumn 2013
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on August 26, 2013
I’ve had a note from Brian David asking me to give a shout-out for the latest CheerReader competition. So here it is:
Win yourself €100…
… just by writing the most amusing short story for the next CheerReader competition.
The closing date is midnight on September 30th .
Maximum story length is 1,500 words.
Theme – anything you like, so long as it makes us laugh.
Fee: €5 per story.
For the full list of rules and regulations, visit http://www.cheerreader.co.uk, where you can also read the winning entries and runners-up from the previous competitions to get some idea of the flavour.
So, join in, get writing and have fun.
CheerReader – “wagging the funny, making you smile”
And if you fancy a quick giggle I suggest you nip straight over to the CheerReader site – there are some very funny pictures of our favourite politicians with rather clever captions!
Amazon Reviews – Is This Ethical?
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Self-publishing on August 18, 2013
I’ve gone on before about how important Amazon reviews are to authors. They help to ‘sell’ the book to potential readers and they may also help to push a book up the Amazon rankings and make it more visible to the buying public.
But getting reviews is a battle. It just doesn’t occur to many of us to bother writing one – even if we’ve really enjoyed the book. And to be honest, until I got into Kindle publishing it wouldn’t have occurred to me either.
Bearing all this in mind you’ll understand why an email I received this week got my immediate interest. The sender was suggesting that we do a ‘review swap’ and they included a link to their book on Amazon. I assumed that we would each read and then independently review the other’s book. That seemed acceptable – like ‘proper’ publishers sending out review copies in the hope of getting a positive response.
But further correspondence with the other author made it clear that I’d got it wrong. The idea was that we each write the other’s review ‘to speed the process up’ – meaning that I write a review of my own book for my contact to post under their name and vice versa.
I had a look at this person’s book on Amazon – they had many more reviews than me and their book appeared to be doing much better than mine. It seemed this author knew the secret of garnering reviews and thus growing sales!
I was sorely tempted to go ahead with the swap – perhaps lots of people are operating and making money like this? Why should I miss out?
But then I thought how would I feel if anyone discovered that I had written some of my own reviews?
I would be ashamed and unable to look them in the eye.
So I didn’t go ahead with the swap.
What would you have done?
Related articles
- First do no harm? (in book reviews…) (kevinbrennanbooks.wordpress.com)
- Can And Should You Ask For Reviews? (selfpubauthors.com)
Sally Quilford’s Birthday Giveaways Plus a Catch-up
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Competitions, Self-publishing, Successes, Travel on August 11, 2013
I’m just back from walking the Cleveland Way (109 miles in 10 gloriously sunny days) and am now chasing my tail trying to catch up on everything! 
Just before I left I had an acceptance from My Weekly. It was for a story I subbed in October 2011 – so never think your story has fallen into a black hole if you get no response!
Also, those lovely people at Readers’ Favourite have reviewed my non-fiction book A Writer on Writing – Advice to Make You A Success. They’ve given it a whopping 5 stars (and I promise, no money changed hands!). Read the review here.
Finally, today is Sally Quilford’s 50th birthday and there are lots of exciting things happening on her blog, including e-book giveaways and a massive prize draw. I’ve joined in the fun and one of Sally’s giveaways is my e-book, Maxine’s Story – The Museum of Fractured Lives. It’s free for today only (11th August) and you can get it directly via Amazon or why not pop over to Sally’s blog and check out all the other goodies too? Her prize draw closes on Friday 16th August but many of the e-book freebies are only valid today.
By the way, if you’re looking for an escapist easy read, take a look at Carole Matthews’ new book, Calling Mrs Christmas. I received a review copy via Carole’s newsletter and it was perfect holiday reading. It took me from the misery of a suicide attempt in a young offenders’ institution to the splendour of Lapland’s famous Ice Hotel. And it was all tied together with a little bit of love …
Are Maternity Rights in the UK Fair?
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Lifestyle, Non-writing on July 28, 2013
How many of us dream of giving up the day job and staying at home to write full-time? Most of us, I bet.
But is our passion for the written word the only reason that we want to wave goodbye to regimented hours and the slippery ladder of promotion?
After reading a survey by Quality Solicitors I think there’s more to it than that – especially for women.
The survey focussed on maternity rights. Apparently 42% of women are nervous about telling their boss they’re pregnant and 39% believe that pregnancy is viewed negatively by employers.
I thought discrimination against women of child-bearing age ended years ago!
Back in the 1980s I experienced it as a graduate on the university milk-round when I was asked by one potential employer, “Do you think it’s worth educating women to degree level if they intend leaving work to have children?”
I argued that an educated mother would make sure her children were well-educated too and thus be a benefit to society.
It happened again a few years later when I tried to change jobs as a newly-wed, one company asked, “When do you intend having children?”
“Not for a long time,” I said but I didn’t get the job.
At an interview most of us are happy to ask about the benefits that come with a position, such as the holidays, pension etc. but, according to the Quality Solicitors’ survey, only 15.4% of women ask about maternity benefits at interview – presumably because they are worried about not getting the job if they indicate an interest in having children.
But, it’s not right to heap all the blame for any unfair treatment of pregnant women on employers.
The survey revealed that 10% of the women questioned had accepted a job knowing they were pregnant. Of these women, just under half had the job offer withdrawn or their employment terminated when the employer found out.
Do you think it’s fair to accept a job without indicating that you will require maternity leave just a few months down the line? A large company could probably manage such a prolonged absence but it would place a heavy burden on a small business.
I think a pregnant woman should be open about her condition or start job-hunting after the birth.
There have been huge improvements in maternity rights over the last twenty years plus the introduction of paternity benefits as well. For example, from 2015 parents will be jointly entitled to one year’s parental leave following the birth of a baby and this leave can be split between the mother and father.
Anyone thinking of starting a family can find out exactly what they’re entitled to by clicking here. The full Quality Solicitors’ survey results are here.
So, am I right, are easier domestic and childcare arrangements part of the attraction of being a full-time writer? And have you ever suffered in the workplace for being a woman of child-bearing age?
Fiction Addiction – Two Years On
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Resources, Short Story on July 23, 2013
I told you about the online writing group, Fiction Addiction, sometime ago.
Sharon Boothroyd
Over the last couple of years it’s turned into a useful support group for Womag writers. The founder, Sharon Boothroyd, has brought me up-to-date on its progress and I wanted to share with you what she had to say:
I set up Fiction Addiction in Feb 2011 because it was proving difficult for me to find honest opinions from other writers, and I couldn’t afford to pay for professional critiques all the time. My local writing group didn’t focus on short stories and on a recent creative writing course, the tutor didn’t know anything about the Womag market.
The idea behind my online writer’s circle is to ‘test’ your work on other Fiction Addiction members before subbing your work out to the magazines. We offer each other support, feedback, encouragement and motivation.
When I began Fiction Addiction in Feb 2011, I decided the first thing I needed to do was recruit members. Membership would be free.
I wrote an appeal and asked Kath if she would upload it on to her popular womagwriter’s blog. She did do, and Sally Jenkins very kindly featured me in her blog here in March 2011.
I was expecting one or two requests – but I was immensely pleased to be overwhelmed with people wanting to join! Some members were writers with lots of Womag sales, some were beginners and some were in-between. It’s still the same balance now, with 11 members.
My husband designed a website, and we put all the info there, including guidelines and a FAQ page. I wrote the website myself. To keep costs down, we decided to pick a free website.
As time passed, we’ve had a members leave and new members joining. Two years on, it is still lovely to read work and receive emails.
I do expect members to contribute, even if it’s once a month. Members can also drop out and join again.
We also look at competition entries and first chapters of novels.
Feedback has also been a problem for some. My advice is to be kind but honest, which I admit can be tricky! Of course, it’s entirely up to the writer what they do with feedback – they don’t have to use it.
We’ve had lots of successes when the writer has tweaked a story after receiving FA feedback, including me.
One of the first stories I sent round was an office girls story called The Game. After re-drafting, I sent it to PRIMA magazine earlier this year. It won their short story competition and was published in the May 2013 edition.
And very recently, (July 2013) a FA member has had a story accepted by Woman’s Weekly! She read our comments on her work and then adjusted her story before subbing.
We all feel very proud!
The Fiction Addiction website can be found at Http://fictionaddiction.biz.ly and Sharon has recently started a blog, click here to take a look.
So if you fancy a little bit of support with your writing, contact Sharon via the Fiction Addiction website and become part of the group’s success story!
Maxine’s Story – The Museum of Fractured Lives
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Self-publishing, Successes on July 16, 2013
Maxine’s Story is the first in The Museum of Fractured Lives series.
The café in the Museum of Fractured Lives is a place for sharing secrets and exploring painful memories.
Several years ago, Maxine and Kaspar experienced the turbo-charged emotions of teenage romance. But the consequences of their relationship cast a long shadow into Maxine’s adulthood and now she is about to reveal something that she has never told a soul …
The Museum of Fractured Lives displays objects donated by people who have suffered a trauma in their lives. The objects are a symbol of that trauma. When accepting a donation, the museum employees try to obtain the full story behind the object. This is difficult because many of the donors are very emotional.
Each book in The Museum of Fractured Lives series tells the story of one donated object and the person who has given it.
This is a ‘flash’ novella of approximately 8,500 words and it is FREE today and tomorrow (16th and 17th July).
Click HERE for Amazon UK or HERE for Amazon.com. Or search for ASIN: B00DO0USNM
The first 3,000 words of Maxine’s Story were professionally critiqued as part of my annual subscription to Freelance Market News. Here are is an extract:
“A thoroughly compelling read, which flows effectively from start to finish. I don’t see how you could improve it.”
Please take advantage of the free offer and, if you enjoy it, as always, I’d be extremely grateful for an Amazon review – these reviews are like gold dust to authors.
Also, if there’s anyone out there who hasn’t read One Day For Me yet – that’s free at the moment too.
One Day For Me – Eight Award Winning Stories by Sally Jenkins
A selection of 8 short stories that have all won or been shortlisted in UK writing competitions.
Click HERE to obtain through Amazon.UK and HERE to obtain through Amazon.COM. Or search for ASIN: B00B4XCYJC on other Amazon sites.
Happy Reading (and reviewing)!
Sally Jenkins 
