the forgotten fairytale

Hans Christian Andersen was one of the greats. I grew up watching tv adaptations of his stories; laughing at the Emperor and his ‘new clothes’, pitying the tin solider and wondering at the tiny Thumbelina. Much loved stories, every one of them. But we can now add one more tale to the bedtime tuck-in. A … Continue reading →

Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2013

If you’re a short story writer and you happen to live in this Commonwealth of ours, this one’s for you. Looking through the Commonwealth Writers website I can see a tonne of pluses about this prize (and hardly any minuses – why did I bring maths into this?), so here it is. The Commonwealth Short … Continue reading →

writing spaces

A lot of writers have a specific ‘space’ where they do all their writing, whether it’s their bedroom, a library or the hallway closet. I’m really fascinated by how particular we writers are, and how important these spaces are in getting our creativity going. Here’s a link to some famous author sheds. Turns out a lot … Continue reading →

Bad Sex in Fiction – there’s a prize for that.

My immediate reaction upon reading this article about the Bad Sex in Fiction Prize was to link and copy/paste sections to my boyfriend and laugh about it. The prize has been held by British magazine Literary Review since 1993, awarding the worst sex scenes in novels. I found hardly anything about this year’s nominees (which leads … Continue reading →

Positive Words: Monthly Mini-Comps

Need to write but stuck for ideas? Want to do something quick to stretch those writer-muscles? Positive Words magazine run mini writing competitions every month for short stories (and I mean short stories) and short poetry, so you best get typing and scribbling soon because this month’s comp is about to close – and the November … Continue reading →