Here are the latest newsletters for my followers to peruse:

Exclusive author insights

Welcome to the latest newsletter exclusive.

This month's author insight comes from FJ Morris, whose debut flash fiction collection, This Is (Not About) David Bowie received a special mention at the 2019 Saboteur Awards.

“This book is as inimitable and immersive as Bowie himself. Read this collection, then everything you can find by this exciting author.”– Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018

Writing Competitions - should you enter them? FJ Morris thinks so!

Why should you enter competitions?

Apart from the fame and glory, and the potential wad of cash if you so happen to please the writing gods – I mean judges – and bag a win, what’s the point? If you’re anything like me, then every pound is needed to feed the (diet) coke habit, so competitions can add up and feel helpless. In fact, the highs and lows of waiting for competition results can be worryingly similar to addiction. So can writing competitions be good for us or are we addicted to the thrill and the gamble?

Stop all the clocks

One great thing about competitions is they give you a deadline. They get you writing, editing, focusing towards a single goal. Most stories from my collection were crafted with a deadline in mind. In fact, if it wasn’t for deadlines, and someone asking me to write a collection, I’m not sure This is (Not About) David Bowie would even exist. So thank the competition gods for that sand timer, even if you miss it.

The litmus test

The most important part of competitions for me and my writing, and especially my collection ‘This is (not about) David Bowie’ were the longlists. Sure, I would have sold my hair if it could get me a win (for some reason people really dig my hair), but if one of my stories had made it to a longlist or shortlist – that one was a keeper. It made it into the collection.

If you’ve made it to the longlist and are even lucky enough to make the shortlist – you’re a winner. Take up your crown! Your writing made it to the top. Everything from that point onwards is up to the writing gods and what they dreamt the night before, or what school they skived from, or whether they can ever know the mortifying shame of what it’s like to sneeze so violently in public that you fart at the same time. Your story may make coffee come out of some people’s noses and not others, there’s just no way of knowing.

Half of the stories in This is (Not About) David Bowie were sent into competitions, and made it onto longlists, shortlists and even prizes. It was the best feedback I could ask for. It gave me confidence in the writing when I had doubts. And when I wrote stories which I didn’t see being able to win a competition (and so I didn’t even bother entering them), I realised they needed to be binned.

Because you’re worth it

You are. Even if you can’t scrape together some cash, there are free competitions, subsidised places, or even ones that only cost a few pounds. I used to only enter one or two a month, depending on the cost. I would budget myself to just £10 a month. One of the biggest barriers I have to entering competitions is ME. On the one hand, I can’t help but feel like that money has been wasted if there’s no win, and on the other hand I feel guilty using the money and having nothing tangible to show for it. That’s a life lesson for me – to find a balance with my money. What I get from competitions has been SO valuable and helped me hone my writing in all aspects of my life (including my work as a Communications Officer) and that is worth investing in.

So if there’s one thing I want to tell writers who struggle with the money like I did, is to believe that you’re worth it. Ask for that subsidised entry (and no, owning a mobile phone doesn’t disqualify you, most homeless people have one too but it doesn’t make them rich). You are worth investing in. You deserve to grow. Tell yourself that every day.

The first rule of Write Club…

There’s something almost sport-like about writing competitions. It brings writers together, people with similar aspirations, and it widens your horizons. The spirit of the competition (no blood has been spilled yet) has introduced me to so many people, and to so many writers and their stories. Reading the stories that win is an enlightening experience, and will always guarantee to improve your own writing. Go on to Twitter during a day when some results are announced and just watch the support roll in for those who did or didn’t make it. You have found your people.

Empower yourself

When you decide to take that shot, when you decide to dip your toe into something that feels risky, unsure, a long shot… you’re doing something incredible. You are believing in yourself. You’re putting yourself into the arena. And that’s worth pursuing every day, whatever the results maybe. So I will leave you with a rather special man, who inspired me and my own writing:

“If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

― David Bowie

Buy This is (Not About) David Bowie

Copyright © 2019 Retreat West, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

Retreat West

Apartment 3735 Chynoweth House

Trevissome Park

Truro, Cornwall TR4 8UN

United Kingdom

Thanks for being part of our reading and writing community this year. Here's our latest monthly round-up of Retreat West News that comes out in the first week of each month. So our next news will be in 2020!

We hope you have a great festive season and do head over to our social media pages this week as we're giving away lots of seasonal goodies. You can win prizes on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Competitions News

The winners for the November Micro Fiction competition have been chosen by the public vote and we had joint first place winners this time around. See the results here. Congrats to our three winners! We're having a month off this competition for December and will be back with a new prompt on 6th January. This one comes from award-winning author, Susmita Bhattacharya, who has had stories published with Retreat West Books in the charity anthologies, Nothing Is As It Was and No Good Deed.

The results for the WATER themed quarterly flash comp have also just been revealed. Congratulations to the winners! Find out who won here. The final theme for 2019 is EARTH and the deadline for entries is December 29th. New judges and themes for 2020 will be live on 1st January 2020.

Amanda is still reading the longlisted books for the annual Novel Prize and is aiming to make the shortlist decision before Christmas.

The longlists for the annual RW Flash Fiction Prize and RW Short Story Prize will be published later on this month too so keep an eye on our social media pages and the blog for the announcement.

The deadline for the 2020 First Chapter Competition is getting very close now so do check out the interview with judge, Carrie Plitt, on the blog. The winners get their submission package reviewed and all shortlisted authors get short feedback on their first chapter from Carrie. Previously shortlisted authors in this competition (Laura Laakso and Diana Cambridge) have gone on to get publishing deals as a direct result of being shortlisted. So if you've got a submission ready novel, this is a great chance to get it noticed!

Courses and Workshops News

The Write a Novel course starting in January is sold out but applications are open for the next start date of the Ultimate Novel Writing Course that Amanda teaches with Jericho Writers. The course will help you write or revise a novel, get your author platform set up, make a plan for getting it published and help you pitch it to agents and publishers, or prepare a savvy marketing plan if you want to self-publish. You also get a weekend ticket to the Festival of Writing and a Get Published Day included. The next course starts in March 2020 and several spaces have gone already so better get your application in quick if you're determined to get that novel written next year.

The next Flash Weekender online course is open for bookings and Amanda and Mary-Jane will be helping writers create great new flashes from Feb 18-21st. The last course had writers from all over the world flashing together, sharing stories and getting great insights into how to write stories that get noticed. Just 20 places available. Book here.

If you want a longer flash course, then new Spring dates for the Fantastic Flashing group courses are now open for booking. This is a 2-week course with online forum for up to 12 writers. Amanda will take part in the forum and provide brief comment on stories posted throughout the course and you get to send her a story at the end for detailed feedback. There are now two versions available for booking - the original and a new course with different writing prompts, readings and advice. Come flashing!

In the summer we'll be running a new Micro Month online workshop to get you creating lots of new tiny stories. Get a reading and a prompt every week day for a month to write tiny stories of 75 to 200 words. There'll be an online forum and you'll get detailed feedback on stories created during the month. It will be limited to 20 writers and full info will be released early next year. But you can register your interest to get notified first when bookings are going to open.

Unfortunately we had to cancel the Hive events as Amanda has been booked to teach at the Jericho Writers Get Published Day in March and the date of their event was moved. We'll be looking at new dates and hope to run it later in the Spring.

Retreats News

The final residential retreat that we're running directly, The Plot, People and Place Retreat, is in January 2020 and there is only 1 room left now. So if you want to get the new writing year off to a great start, spend the week with Amanda in Devon and she'll help you gain a deeper understanding of your characters and how setting is an important part of your plot, character and story development. Get all the info here.

In May 2020, Amanda is returning to Albergo Leso in Valdiporro, Italy to host a 6-night mentored retreat. Join her for dedicated writing time with 1-1 sessions to get tailored feedback on your work and advice on how you can develop it. Plus fantastic food, stunning views and gorgeous mountain walks. Get more info here.

In November 2020, Amanda is the mentor-in-residence at Casa Ana in Spain for two weeks. You can work on novels, short stories or memoirs and get 1-1 guidance and feedback from Amanda throughout the retreat. All info here.

Books News

On 28th November the brand new novel from Sophie Joans-Hill, Unprotected, published.

It's had a brilliant reception from both readers and reviewers.

We especially like this comment from The Bookwormery blog, who gave it 5 stars and said: "A remarkable, thoughtful and utterly engrossing read."

You can still get a signed paperback copy with the illustrated postcard set from Sophie.

Unprotected by Sophie Jonas Hill

She's fighting to save everyone else but will she have anything left to save herself?

Witty, sharp and sarcastic tattoo artist Lydia’s life is imploding. Her long-term relationship has broken down after several miscarriages and she’s hiding from her hurt and loss in rage. After a big night out she wakes beside a much younger man who brings complications she could really do without.

As her grief about her lost babies and failed relationships spirals out of control, she obsesses about rescuing a wayward teenage girl she watches from her window and gets more involved than she should with her charming but unstable young lover.

A raw and punchy story of love, family and accepting yourself for who you really are.

"An absorbing, thought-provoking story of betrayal and bravery. Jonas-Hill probes the darkest corners of modern society with boldness and sensitivity. I loved it!" – Ruby Speechley, author of Someone Else’s Baby

Order signed copy with postcards: £12 including P&P in the UK

Order signed copy with postcards: £14 including P&P Rest of World

Buy the ebook direct on our website

Buy on Amazon

The Flash Weekender
£75
Spend the weekend online for 3 days of intensive flashing fun. Spaces limited to 20 writers. Online content, forum and tutor feedback on work created all included.

Book Here

Fantastic Flashing
From £85
A 2-week online course where you'll get to read, create and learn more about writing flash fiction stories that have a real impact. Work alone or join the group course in April 2020.

Book Here

Flash Fiction Membership
From £5 a month
Entering lots of our flash comps? Sign up as a member and get entries included plus weekly emails and the Fantastic Flashing course to develop your craft.

Book Here

Retreat West

Apartment 3735 Chynoweth House

Trevissome Park

Truro, Cornwall TR4 8UN

United Kingdom

Exclusive author insights

Welcome to the latest newsletter exclusive.

This month's author insight comes from Sophie Jonas-Hill, whose novel, Unprotected, will be published by Retreat West Books on 28th November 2019.

“Unprotected is an absorbing, thought-provoking story of betrayal and bravery. Sophie Jonas-Hill probes the darkest corners of modern society with boldness and sensitivity. I loved it!”– Ruby Speechley, author of Someone Else’s Baby

Let’s Talk About Sex...Scenes

This request to write a blog for Retreat West, something I would like to share with our readers about my writing process, has prompted me to share something I don’t really want to share with you at all.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the radio four show ‘My teenage diary’, where people share extras from their diaries with comedian Rufus Hound - the clue’s in the name I guess - but this is kind of going down the same kind of route. Because I first learned about writing fiction, from writing sex scenes in the back of my school rough book for my friends.

I should point out that, at the time, me writing about sex was a little like me writing about playing rugby - sure, I know it involves a lot of weird physical contact and sweating, but I wouldn’t even know which end you’re meant to start at, let alone how you score - especially as I went to a girl’s school. Thinking back on it now, my early so-called sex writing, mostly involved descriptions of ‘flashing eyes’ and ‘meaningful stares’, and long hours at the dictionary, trying to find words which might imply body parts I was far too embarrassed to actually name.

This was the eighties, decades before the internet and smart phones saw fit to give school children access to hardcore porn in the palms of theirs hands, and the only access to such material we really had was when we found torn up adult magazines in the park, or the secret video stash of one girl’s rather more progressive parents. What the experience taught me though, was that somehow I was able to string together enough meaningful glances and deep breathing to draw in an audience, and that you need more than that to keep them.

It is now enough years into the future to reduce my gut-wrenching embarrassment at this juvenile folly to an amused chuckle - I can even recall with special pride the scene where the dark eyed hero un-buttoned the blouse of his true love, only for me to wonder if it was all moving a bit fast, so he then buttoned it up again and continued the conversation about the legal case they were working on - yes, I did attempt character and plot development even then!

I’m really telling you about this now though, because interestingly enough, I often still do start writing many of my books from a sex scene. Because when done right, a sex scene is the most amazingly revealing way to get to the heart and soul of the characters involved (though now I tend to use a lot less euphemism).

Of course, sex writing is a huge trap for the unwary, and although I might write a sex scene as a way to get into my character’s heads, very few make it into a book - you can decide whether this disappoints you or not!

The point of the sex scene though, like any other scene, is that it should allow the reader to understand something fundamental about the characters, it should develop them in our minds and illustrate their relationship, with all its complexity. It’s a situation where they are both literally and metaphorically, stripped down and forced back onto their own resources.

Sex writing should never be about searching the thesaurus for euphemism, because it isn’t about the physical act itself, but what that act means to the people taking part. If you want a great invocation of how tedious sex writing, or pornography really is most of the time, listen to ‘This is Hardcore’ by Pulp - it’s a great song, and melancholy-beautiful, invoking a tedious and unfulfilled relationship far more about alienation than sex. That is when sex writing really works, when you realise that what you’re reading the scene for isn’t the unbuttoning, or buttoning up again, but the details and feelings in the silence afterwards, the brush of the hand against the neck that contains within it more connection - or isolation - than in the previous hours of exertion.

Have I ever written a sex scene in order to please my readers? Not since I was fifteen, though I have, I confess, written a very brief one in to please my characters, because I kind of felt they deserved it, after what they’d been through. I kept the actual act off the page because, well, it wasn’t for the reader, it was just between them.

We have a limited number of signed editions of Unbreakable, complete with exclusive postcards designed by Sophie (available to our subscribers in the first instance). Click below to order.