Now it’s time to pass on the Versatile Blogger Award to some of my favourite blogs. Here they are:

• Patsy Collins’ blog is full of writing and reading related competitions. They range from prize draws to win a book through to more challenging writing projects. Patsy’s entry into the Readers’ Digest 100 word story competition was selected to appear on the Readers’ Digest website and can be found here (6 May 2011 story).

• Tracy Fells’ blog ‘The Literary Pig’ offers ‘a safe haven for all those afflicted with the unbearable urge to write’. Tracy has just completed the first draft of a children’s novel and has had various successes with short stories and flash fiction. In case you’re wondering, ‘The Literary Pig’ is a red cuddly toy with a starring role in Tracy’s blog.

• Julie Phillips’ blog Article Antics is devoted to those of us who write magazine articles. Julie is currently doing a Journalism course and her blog charts the ups and downs of her own writing career as well as giving useful advice and inspiration to anyone else interested in writing short non-fiction.

• Marilyn Rodwell’s blog God of the Cocoa is about her writing journey towards completing a trilogy of books. The books are set in Trinidad where Marilyn was born and brought up. Marilyn is also the organiser of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Birmingham Chapter – which is how I met her.

• Helen Yendall’s blog is full of information on market opportunities, writing events and other snippets. Helen was the Warwick Poet Laureate for 2006 – 2007 and she also writes fiction for women’s magazines and articles. Helen is a creative writing tutor and also my writing buddy.

I hope that, like me, you’ll find some interesting and useful things on the above blogs. Since I started this blog 6 months ago, I’ve discovered a whole new community of writers on the web. Most of us are unlikely to ever meet face to face but there is a supportive camaraderie amongst the writers I’ve come across which can be most comforting when things aren’t going well and the rejections are coming thick and fast!

I did promise you (under the terms of the Versatile Blogger Award) 7 favourite blogs and I’ve only listed 5. This is because 2 of my selected bloggers haven’t yet replied to my invite to accept the award. If they accept the award in the near future then I’ll give them a mention in a later post.

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