Posts Tagged Corazon Books
National Short Story Week 2015
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Events, Short Story on November 16, 2015
It’s a mystery to me why National Short Story Week takes place in November when writers are hammering away at keyboards trying to complete 50,000 words of a novel. But it’s worth taking a break from your magnum opus and celebrating the art of the short story. A change is as good as a rest.
This year National Short Story Week is the 16th to 22nd November 2015.
National short story week was launched in 2010 by Ian Skillicorn of Corazon Books. It aims to:
- Get more people reading and listening to short stories
- Get more people writing short stories
- Develop creative and commercial opportunities for individuals and organisations involved in the short story form.
I was hoping to point you to lots of resources and activities related to National Short Story Week but there seems to be very little happening online. So here’s a couple of free to enter competitions to get the creative juices flowing:
Morgen Bailey runs a monthly 100-word story competition. There is a different theme each month and the prizes are access to up to three of her online courses.
Words Magazine has an open-themed short story competition closing on December 31st 2015. First prize is £50 and second prize is £25. Word limit is 2,000.
Finally, in celebration of National Short Story Week, my latest story collection, House Guests And Other Stories, is only 99p/99c until 22nd November 2015. 
It’s a cornucopia of contemporary short stories about modern life. Enjoy a plethora of twist endings, some humour plus a tiny bit of romance.
Happy Short Story Week!
Two Free Writing Competitions
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on March 27, 2014
Ian Skillicorn from Corazon Books has been in touch to tell me about two free to enter competitions that he’s involved with:
Historic House Short Story Competition
This competition is being run by Corazon Books and the Historic Houses Association to celebrate the publication of The Property of a Gentleman by Catherine Gaskin. This modern classic by the bestselling “Queen of Storytellers” has recently been reissued by Corazon Books in ebook format, in time to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The Property of a Gentleman is a tale of intrigue, mystery and romance, set in a fictional earl’s ancestral home, in the dramatic landscape of England’s Lake District.
Entrants to the competition must submit a short story of between 1,500 to 2,500 words. The story must take place in, or be inspired by, a historic house (real or fictional). The submissions deadline is Friday 26th September 2014 and the winner will be announced on Monday 17th November 2014.
The winning writer and a guest will be treated to a private tour and afternoon tea with the owners of Levens Hall in Cumbria. The winner will also receive a cash prize of £150, and a double Friends membership for the Historic Houses Association. Two runners up will each receive a double Friends membership to the Historic Houses Association. Corazon Books also plans to publish an e-book anthology of the best entries, with each writer receiving royalties for their published story.
Full details of the competition can be found here.
The Write Time competition
Corazon Books is running a writing competition for the over 50s, in partnership with Mature Times.
“The Write Time” competition offers the winner a two-year digital publishing contract, with full editorial and marketing support, and a generous royalty on all sales.
The organisers are looking for compelling fiction for adults from a previously unpublished author. For the purposes of the competition, “previously unpublished” is defined as a writer who has never had a publishing contract for a short story collection, novella or full-length novel, which offered royalties and did not require any payment from the writer. So, even if you have self-published your writing, you are still eligible to enter.
Work can be submitted in the genres of family saga, historical, medical, mystery and suspense, and romance (contemporary or historical).
For the first round of the competition, entrants should send a 200-500 word synopsis and the first three chapters of their novel/novella before 16th June 2014. Entrants who pass this first round of submissions will be asked to send the complete novel in September this year. The winner will be announced in November.
Entry to the competition is free, but writers must include an entry code which they can find (along with all the other details about the competition) on the Mature Times website.
Sally Jenkins 