Archive for category Competitions
Christmas Round Robin Letters plus a Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction, Writing on December 6, 2012
Christmas Round Robin Letters – do you love them or loathe them?
I don’t usually write one but this year I did and it’s currently winging its way to those I rarely see. The cost of postage drove me to include the letter with my cards. I begrudge paying 50p (second class postage) just to stick a card in an envelope so I decided that people were going to hear what my family did in 2012 – whether they wanted to or not. After all, I’m supposed to be a writer so it shouldn’t be difficult to make a round-up of the last 12 months sound interesting.
It was a lot harder than I expected!
I tried to be mindful of the fact that no-one wants to read a list of my daughters’ achievements and their plans for the future. I’ve received letters like that and they leave me feeling totally inadequate. So I skirted over that and moved onto how the recession has impacted the working lives of my husband and me. Then I decided that talk of redundancies was too depressing so I moved on to the interesting things we’ve done in our spare time – and came up with nothing!
Writing a round robin letter is like trying to have a one-sided conversation in the dark. It’s impossible to gauge whether you are boring people because there’s no facial expressions to read and no feedback in the way of comments. So I did my best and sent it out . It’s up to the recipients whether they read it or bin it and from now on I’ll be much less dismissive of the letters I receive because I know how difficult they are to write!
Competition
If you’ve had any letters printed in a newspaper or magazine during 2012 you might be interested in a competition run by the Association of Christian Writers. ACW’s UK letter writing competition is looking for the best letters published in any national, regional or local magazine or newspaper during 2012. There is a prize of £50 for the best single letter published and prizes of £100, £50 and £25 for collections of 6 letters published in 6 different publications. Closing date is 31/12/2012. Full details are here.
Celebrating Charlotte – A Writing Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Competitions, Short Story on November 12, 2012
I came across the following competition on the blog Aiming For A Publishing Deal – many thanks to Charlotte C for highlighting it!
Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The competition is being run by Hampshire County Council and is asking for short stories (up to 1000 words) on the theme of Charlotte Mary Yonge. Charlotte was a best-selling Victorian novelist and her memory is kept alive by the Charlotte Mary Yonge Fellowship.Your story could be inspired by Charlotte’s life, one of her novels or maybe, a present day character discovering one of Charlotte’s books. There are 2 prizes of £50 Waterstones’ vouchers, one for under 16 and one for 16 +. Closing date is 12th December 2012 and you don’t have to live in Hampshire to enter. The full details are here.
Obviously this is a competition that will require some research but, on the plus side, that could deter many entrants – meaning that the field is smaller than that for many other competitions. And you may discover that you like Yonge’s books!
Win a Kindle, Kobo or Book Tokens
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Computers & Technical, Markets on November 5, 2012
Following on from my last post – my Kobo e-reader prize has arrived and has turned out to be more of an android tablet rather than a simple e-reader. It is the Vox model and has lots more functionality than I expected, so what choice did I have but to keep both it and the Kindle?
I find the Kindle easier on the eye for sustained periods of reading and it has a longer battery life. But the Kobo will drag me into the world of tablets and Apps – something I’ve had no experience of until now.
The first App I downloaded was A Quick Read (as mentioned in this month’s Writers’ News), which is a collection of short stories for reading on the move. Have a look at the website for how to submit your own stories for inclusion.
I’ve rooted out some prize draws if you’d like to win your own e-reader or some good old-fashioned book tokens:
- For the chance to win a Kindle Fire, click here
- For the chance to win WH Smith vouchers that can be used to buy a Kobo, click here
- For the chance to win some Book Tokens, click here.
Good Luck!
Is Your Life Story Worth £10,000?
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction on September 13, 2012
Woman and Home magazine are running a ‘Life Story’ writing competition. They say:
“If your life has ever felt like it could be a novel, then we want to hear from you….perhaps you grew up in unusual circumstances…or maybe your job threw you into extraordinary situations…this is your chance to share your personal journey.”
First prize is an advance of £10,000 and publication by Hodder and Stoughton. There are also 3 Kindles and an introduction to a literary agent for the runners-up.
Send a full synopsis of your life story in a maximum of 1,500 words plus 2 sample chapters of 10,000 words maximum.
Your entry must be accompanied by an entry form, which is available in the October issue of the magazine (in the shops now!). I can’t find the entry form or details of the competition on-line, so you’re going to have to buy Woman and Home in order to enter. There’s also some tips in there about how to go about writing your memoirs.
Closing date is 31st October 2012.
Sonnet or Not Competition 2012
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Poetry on September 4, 2012
Cannon Poets are once again running their ‘Sonnet or Not’ competition. You are invited to enter poems of 14 lines in length. The poem can be in a traditional sonnet form or you can experiment with alternative 14 line forms such as half rhyme or blank verse.
First prize is £300, second prize £150 and third prize £100. Entry is £4.00 for the first poem and £2.50 for each additional poem – there is no limit to the number of poems you can enter.
The judge is Julie Boden, who is currently Poet in Residence at Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
Closing date is 31 October 2012. Full details, including a downloadable entry form, are here.
Or, if you prefer flash fiction to poetry, pop over to Helen Yendall’s blog and read all about the free competition that she’s running.
Related articles
- How To Write A Sonnet (mademan.com)
Two Free Competitions From Erewash Writers’ Group
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on August 22, 2012
Some of you may have entered the Erewash Open Short Story Competition mentioned on this blog earlier in the year. The results are now out.
Plus, two new free competitions are now open for entries:
- ‘Twin’ Flash Fiction Competition – write 500 words on the theme of ‘Twin’. The judge is Rosalie Warren, author of ‘Coping with Chloe’ and 2 winners will each receive a copy of Rosalie’s book plus £10.00 cash.
- Creepy Christmas Chiller Competition – write a scary Christmas story of up to 2,000 words. There are 2 age categories in this competition and each offers a first prize of £40, second £15 and a third prize of £5.
Closing date for both competitions is 8th November 2012 and full terms and conditions are here.
The Olympics (for the last time) & Win Afternoon Tea with Clare Balding at the Ritz
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-writing on August 12, 2012
How was the Olympics for you?
I thought it was terrific – that wonderful opening ceremony, the wall to wall coverage by the BBC and the buckets of gold medals for Team GB. Last weekend I was lucky enough to get down to London to experience things for real. We stood outside Buckingham Palace in the pouring rain to watch the women’s Marathon and the following day saw Synchronised Swimming Duets at the Aquatic Centre in Olympic Park.
Inside the Aquatic Centre
Both places exuded a real ‘feel good’ atmosphere. Everyone was friendly, including fellow spectators, volunteers, police, London transport staff etc. It’s a shame that we can’t bottle this ‘proud to be British’ feeling so that we can take another swig when the doom and gloom of the double-dip recession hits home again.
Thank you, LOCOG for an amazing 2 weeks (and I don’t usually follow any sort of sport).
Clare Balding has played a major part in bringing these Games into our living rooms and, as well as being a sports commentator, she is also a writer. Her book, My Animals and Other Family, will be published on September 13th 2012. The book includes anecdotes from Clare’s childhood about her pets and she has organised a competition to celebrate its launch.
She wants to see your pictures, stories and poems about the pets that have touched you. The winners receive copies of My Animals and Other Family, and one winner will join Clare for tea at The Ritz.
To enter, go to www.facebook.com/clarebaldingofficial. Alternatively, you can email entries to digital@jamesgrant.co.uk
Closing date is September 13th 2012 and entry is free. Full terms and conditions are here.
So if you’ve got a poem tucked away about your beloved dog, cat or tarantula, why not send it in?
Seeking a Short Story Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on August 1, 2012
Eddie Walsh from the sadly defunct Emerald Writing Workshops competitions has refunded entry fees for his competitions that
would have closed later in the year. So now I’ve got £3.60 to use as the entry fee in another contest. So I’ve been looking around to see what there is with a £3 to £4 entry fee and discovered the following selection of short story competitions:
- Monthly ‘Writing Magazine’ Competitions – £3 for subscribers and £4 for non-subscribers but I’m going to give these a miss because, as a subscriber, I can enter the contests in the Writers’ News section of the magazine for free (I’ve unofficially set myself the challenge of entering the WN comp. each month & have managed 3 so far, with th 4th in the pipeline).
- Monthly ‘Writers’ Forum Competitions – £3 for subscribers and £6 for non-subscribers, plus there is the option of paying an additional £5 for a critique. This is a possibility but I know I’ll be tempted by the critique and a total of £8 is a lot for one competition.
- Dickens Bicentenary Writing Competition – £3 per prose piece/£2 per poem. Entries to be inspired by a character from a Charles Dickens novel. Closes 15th August 2012. Not for me – I’ve read very little Dickens so unless I went for Scrooge, I wouldn’t know who to base my hero on.
- The Word Hut 5th Short Story Writing Competition – £4 entry fee with prizes of £50, £25, £10. 1,000 words and an open theme. Closes 16th September 2012. I’ll give this one some thought and have a look through my ‘stock’ of 1,000 word stories.
- Speakeasy Open Creative Writing Competitions – £4 per story/£3 per poem with prizes of £125, £75 and £50 in each category. 2,100 words and an open theme. Closes 31st October 2012. This is another one for me to consider but I might have to write something new to meet the word count – most of my stuff seems to be shorter.
And if you’re looking around for other competitions to enter a good resource (which I’ve used in my searching) is the Writers’ Reign website.
Good Luck!
Demise of Emerald Writing Workshops
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on June 18, 2012
Those of you who’ve been following this blog for a while will know that I have promoted the competitions organised by Eddie Walsh of Emerald Writing Workshops several times. I felt these contests had a cheap entry fee and were run by someone genuinely interested in writing (and not just out to make a quick buck!).
Recently Angela Greenwood contacted me to point out that the Emerald Writing Workshops website no longer existed and she wondered if I knew what had happened.
When I asked him, Eddie gave me the following sad news:
“In early May I tried to change servers which was a big disaster as the new server is too technical and did not help me log in so site is in limbo. As I have lost the momentum I have decided that the NOBODY comp will be the last one for which I have had about 65 entries. I will refund fees for other comps by end June after judging this comp. Updates will be on www.kerbsidebooks.co.uk (type this into Google – for some reason it doesn’t work as a direct link) as well as results in due course. I will email ALL entrants after judging Thanks for your past support.”
So unfortunately there will be no more competitions – but Eddie is doing the honourable thing and refunding everyone.
I would like to thank Eddie for his competitions and his encouragement to new writers over the last couple of years.
Hope everything goes well for you in the future, Eddie!
Competition Round-Up
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Poetry, Short Story on May 24, 2012
Some competition news for you today:
Balsall Writers’ Competition 2012
Balsall Writers’ Competition 2012 is open for submissions of short stories (up to 2200 words) and/or poems (up to 42 lines).
There is a £100 first prize, £75 second and £50 third prize. The entry fee is £4. It is an open theme with a closing date of 31/10/2012 and the results will be announced a month later.
An entry form is required and this can be found here along with full details about the competition.
Erewash Writers’ Group Competition Update
Debbie has been in touch from Erewash Writers’ Group with an update on the charitable donation part of their 2012 competition – this donation has now reached £50.00. Entrants to the competition can nominate a favourite charity to receive this money, the names will be put into a hat and drawn at the end of the competition. The closing date for the competition is 27th June 2012 and details are here.
5minutefiction First Birthday Competition
And a quick reminder that the 5minutefiction First Birthday competition closes on 1st June 2012. Entry is only £2 and the first prize is £100 plus e-anthology publication for the top entries. The e-anthology from the site’s earlier competition is now available here – for less than the price of a magazine!
Good Luck if you decide to enter any of these!
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