Retreat West newsletter

With discounted courses, retreats and critiques, here is the latest Retreat West newsletter:

Hello How's your writing going? I hope your fingers have been flying on the keyboard and 2018 has got off to a good writing start for you. Mine has started with an interview in Zero Flash mag and later this month a flash piece will appear in Spelk. I'm determined to write and submit more often this year as I am not very good at that usually. Have you made any writing resolutions? I wanted to remind you that today's the final day of the January sale to get a 20% discount on writing stuff at Retreat West. Just email me to book a retreat, course or critique quoting the code NEWS18 and I'll apply the discount then. There is just 1 place left on the 8 Month Novel Course now and only 2 rooms at the March retreat where we'll be getting to grips with creating complex characters. This will be the final novel writing retreat that I run as after 6 years of hosting and teaching at them, 2018 is the final year of retreats. I do hope you can join us at one of them. There's just a couple of weeks now until the 2018 First Chapter Competition closes, with the entire shortlist getting short feedback on their novel openings from literary agent, Diana Beaumont, and the winner getting detailed feedback on their first 3 chapters, synopsis and covering letter. You can read the interview with her here about what impresses her when submissions land on her desk. The shortlists for the annual Short Story and Flash Fiction Prizes will be announced next week and everyone on the list will be published in the anthology later this year. There has been a change to the Quarterly Themed Flash competition for 2018 and the cash prizes have gone up. Winners now get £200 and the runners-up get £75 each. You can see all the themes for this year here and the results of the final 2017 comp will be coming in Feb. The cash prizes for the annual short story and flash fiction competitions will also be going up and the entry fees coming down - more on that when the 2018 details go live in March. I've had to close submissions at Retreat West Books until March. I've received lots so need time to catch up with reading them. Very excited that the first author signed will be announced shortly too. If you've got a book coming out, an idea for a guest blog or any other fiction project on the go and would like to write a guest blog then do get in touch as I'm always happy to host them. Happy writing, Amanda x   The 8 Month Novel Course Get help all the way You get online course content, 1-1 mentoring, help, advice and motivation all the way through to get you from idea to short first draft in just 8 months. You also get a full novel review at the end to go away and start the second draft with. ONLY 1 PLACE LEFT FOR 2018.   More Info The Creating Complex Characters Retreat 12-16 March 2018, Devon Join us to create the kinds of characters that readers never forget. Includes an hour's 1-1 looking at a piece of work submitted in advance.  4 ROOMS SOLD 2 ROOMS AVAILABLE   More Info The Screenwriting Retreat 18-22 June 2018, Devon Come along and learn how to write for the movies and TV. Novelist and screenwriter, CM Taylor, will be showing us how to create brand new work and how to adapt novels and short stories for the screen. 3 ROOMS SOLD 3 ROOMS AVAILABLE   More Info Copyright © 2018 Retreat West, All rights reserved.             Our mailing address is: Retreat West Apt 3735 Chynoweth House Trevissome Park Truro, Devon TR4 8UN United Kingdom