Just got back from the cinema with my daughter who I took for a girlie treat as she had such a brilliant parents evening. Considering it has only been out a very short while, the cinema was surprisingly quiet, though I guess when there are two showings per hour, it may get spread out. I have only twice been to the cinema and been witness to the phenomenon of people clapping during and at the end of the movie (after all we are in Britain), but this movie caused the audience to do so.
Having read the books, I was expecting the fight scene to be pretty good, but I wasn't expecting the gasps and the claps. The Volturi are very good at menacing, except perhaps Michael Sheen as Aro who plays insane very well, yet still manages to be threatening - psycho anyone? The new vampires are very good too, dracula one and two a tad bizarre, but the ones with abilities make up slightly for the fact that my favourite character (Alice) is not in as many scenes as I would wish her to be (loved her ability in the books and I think Ashley Greene plays her very well). My daughter has always found Carlisle to be her favourite character and she still held on to that at the end of the film. I loved Billy Burke (who plays Bella's Dad Charlie) in all of the movies and again I think he stole the movie in the scene following Jacob's revelations.
The gore factor was upped as were the fights, so I am sure there will be plenty more for the boys to convince them to want to accompany the girls, though the romance was still there and there were many nods to the previous films in the franchise. I did find the CGI used for Renesmee very distracting and unnecessary as Mackenzie Foy was enough like Kristen Stewart (KS) to carry it off and if I'm honest, I would love there to be a movie that did not have to revolve around KS. I never thought her acting was particularly good in these movies, though she was convincing in Panic Room, and she was painfully bad in this one. Quite a few of them seemed more over-the-top in their characters, except maybe for Edward (Robert Pattinson), Charlie, Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Alice, Rosalee (Nikki Reed), Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) and I missed seeing Mike, Jessica, Eric and Angela (though we did see them briefly in the credits).
As my daughter liked 'everything about it' I think it may be a fitting ending for most fans, though I still think there were enough nods and characters left for spins offs to be possible. Having said that though, please, if the powers that be do decide to make spin off movies, let them be about the new vampires with abilities and KS free. 7.5/10
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Local Writing events January 2013
Anna Turner has just informed me of some fantastic events taking place locally in January, so I thought I would post the information for my followers:
Thursday 17 January
Meet the Author - Fiona Shaw
Central Library, Halifax
7.30pm
King Cross Library
6pm
Writing the Journey – a Poetry Workshop with Christy Ducker
Using mythic and fairy tale journeys, we'll look at plotting the long narrative poem - orchestrating its parts to create contrast and narrative hooks. We'll link that to the forms of poetry, mood and tone, using examples from a range of verse novels/autobiographies from Bernardine Evaristo's 'Lara' to Basil Bunting's 'Briggflatts' and Byron's 'Don Juan'.
Thursday 17 January
Meet the Author - Fiona Shaw
Central Library, Halifax
7.30pm
FIONA SHAW is a writer living in
York. She is the author of a memoir, Out
of Me (Virago, 2001) and four novels. She is a Royal Literary Fund
writing fellow and teaches creative and life writing. Her most recent novel, A Stone’s Throw, is
published by Serpent’s Tail. Set in England and Africa, and opening during
World War II, A Stone’s
Throw is a novel about family, about love, about duty; it’s about
the people we miss and the secrets we keep. Above all though, it’s about the
choices we make – and those we don’t.
Tickets - £3
Wednesday 23 January
Meet the Author - Stephen MayKing Cross Library
6pm
STEPHEN MAY is an award-winning novelist who lives
in West Yorkshire. In 2009 he won the Welsh Book of the Year Reader’s Prize for
his first novel TAG (Cinnamon Press, 2008),
despite not being in the slightest bit
Welsh. His second novel Life! Death! Prizes! was published by Bloomsbury in 2012. For
19-year-old Billy and his little brother, Oscar, their mother’s death is the
most random and tragic and stupid thing that could possibly have happened to
them. Now Billy must be both mother and father to Oscar. Funny, bittersweet and
unforgettable, Life! Death! Prizes! is a story of grief, resilience and
brotherly love.
£3
Sunday 27 January
11.30am – 1.30pm
Writing the Journey – a Poetry Workshop with Christy Ducker
Write yourself into a change of scene. Join Christy Ducker
for a poetry workshop that focuses on travel and transformation.
£6/4
2.30pm – 4.30pm
Literary Thievery - Short
story workshop with Cassandra Parkin
Do we ever really grow out of
fairy-tales? Why do grown adults still love films like A Company of Wolves and Snow White and the Huntsman? And if you’re writing
for modern adults, what exactly is the relevance of stories about dwarves,
royalty, stepmothers, gingerbread houses, and wolves dressed up as our
grandmothers? Dive into the world’s Grimmest treasure-chest and see what you
can discover to fire your short-story writing.
£6/4
2.30pm – 4.30pm
The Long Poem: finding the
story and the form – a Poetry Workshop with Pauline PlummerUsing mythic and fairy tale journeys, we'll look at plotting the long narrative poem - orchestrating its parts to create contrast and narrative hooks. We'll link that to the forms of poetry, mood and tone, using examples from a range of verse novels/autobiographies from Bernardine Evaristo's 'Lara' to Basil Bunting's 'Briggflatts' and Byron's 'Don Juan'.
£6/4
5pm –
6pm
Tales of Magic and Faraway
Places
Readings and discussion with
Christy Ducker, Cassandra Parker and Pauline Plummer
Chaired by James Nash
The nights have drawn in and the hours of darkness crowd the
days at both ends. Are you fed up of winter already? Come along to this reading
where three exciting new writers will transport you through magic and tales of
faraway places.
Free event
CHRISTY
DUCKER lives in
Northumberland. Her pamphlet Armour (Smith/Doorstop, 2011) was a Poetry Book
Society Choice. She has received the Andrew Waterhouse Prize, and is currently
writing a collection of poems about Grace Darling, as part of her PhD research
at Newcastle University. ‘Unsettling and edgy, these poems have
the strangeness of myth and the zany logic of nursery rhymes, but for adult
ears.’ Simon Armitage
CASSANDRA
PARKIN grew up in Hull,
and now lives in East Yorkshire. Her short story collection, New World Fairy Tales
(Salt, 2011), won the 2011 Scott Prize for Short Stories. Drawing on the
original, unexpurgated tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, six of their
most famous works are re-imagined in the rich and endlessly varied landscapes
of contemporary America.
PAULINE PLUMMER is originally from Liverpool but has
lived in the North East since the 1980s. She tutors creative writing for
Northumbria University and the Open University. Written in Chaucer’s rime
royal, From Here to Timbuktu is a book about Third World poverty and
First World consumption. It’s a travelogue, a satire, an epic poem, and a
journey across the savannah in a four–wheel drive from here – to Timbuktu.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting 12/11/12
Just got back from the Writers Group where we welcomed our new member D. Sadly N and L were unable to make the meeting, but D, P and I were in attendance and explained to our new member the pieces were working on at the moment. D informed us that he didn't write prose or short stories but that his writing was dialogue-based in that it was for plays and films. We discussed how the meetings usually worked and the backgrounds to genres, working styles etc. before pointing out the strengths we each felt we had gained from the Writers Group.
D read out her reworked chapter thirty from her second draft of TSC and we all gave feedback, including D who possessed none of the backstory to the novel that the other members are aware of.
P read out some of her short story Escape which was about an evacuee after the war told from a young girls perspective. Sadly, we were only to give brief feedback as time got away from us and it was time to leave because the library was closing.
P.S. I have written over 3,000 words today for NaNoWriMo so now have a total of 19,928
D read out her reworked chapter thirty from her second draft of TSC and we all gave feedback, including D who possessed none of the backstory to the novel that the other members are aware of.
P read out some of her short story Escape which was about an evacuee after the war told from a young girls perspective. Sadly, we were only to give brief feedback as time got away from us and it was time to leave because the library was closing.
P.S. I have written over 3,000 words today for NaNoWriMo so now have a total of 19,928
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Quick NaNoWriMo update
After a little bit of a lull in my writing due to work, sorting out College visits and applications for my eldest, I have started to try and catch up with NaNoWriMo. I am now up to 16,706 words but this is slightly behind schedule (at the moment, at the usual rate of wordage per day, I would finish on the 2nd of December, so I need to write a few more to catch up). I also have a full week of work scheduled from the 19th so I really need to write much more so that I can have leeway for if I don't get chance then. I did very well today writing about 4,000 words, but I need to keep this up for the week if I am to give myself this leeway. Fingers crossed I can achieve this. Any words of advice or encouragement welcome............
Friday, 9 November 2012
Andy McNab author event
D, N and I attended this event last night at Huddersfield Town Hall and what an entertaining and inspiring man he is. His official website is a fascinating read (and where I got most of this in depth service information) as are his books and his well-loved character Nick Stone.
When Andy was 16 he went into 'the Borstal System' (now known as Juvy) for a short, sharp shock. Back then, the army used to recruit boy soldiers from this (according to Andy using a 'cool video of a helicopter pilot waving at bikini clad women on a beach) and he joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier, after a three day test at Sutton Colefield. Three months in, he was at the army education centre when he was told that the boys there weren't thick, they were just uneducated and that this was going to start from that day forward so that they could learn to read, gain knowledge and this knowledge would give them the power, so they wouldn't always have to do what others told them to. The first book that he read was a Janet and John story, but the sense of achievement that can be gained when shutting the book that you have read, is irreplaceable. He also read military history and Sven Hassell novels.
He was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment in 1984. He then served in B Squadron 22 SAS for 10 years working on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland. Andy recalled that he liked Northern Ireland because it had soft toilet paper when he was used to the baking paper stuff that gave you 'one up, one down and one shine' and he also recalled learning Swahili when he spent time in West Africa from Benedictine monks 'that were more interested in beer and were drunk by lunchtime.'
Andy is trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, demolitions, prime target elimination, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments including VIP protection. He has worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In America he was part of the first strike in stopping crack cocaine coming to the U.K. and was part of a CIA operation to Columbia to destroy the plantations and kill the men making it. Andy informed us that drugs bring in $20 billion more than McDonalds, Kelloggs and another big brand name combined. He explained that the mexican cartels have a very sophisticated drugs system including their own secure mobile phone system.
In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor and he explained to the audience that in order to get the confidence in that situation, you have to bluff yourself that you have a reason to be there and that he always told himself that he was there visiting his brother in law.
McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
In the Gulf War, McNab commanded the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol, an eight man patrol tasked with destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with finding and destroying mobile Scud missile launchers. They had to static-line jump to the power stations 4 hours before the air strikes began, destroy it and head south to their ERV under the cover of darkness. The patrol infiltrated Iraq in January 1991, but were soon compromised when a boy herding goats discovered them and as Andy said, quite rightly made a lot of noise and ran away. A fierce fire fight with Iraqi troops ensued and the patrol was forced to escape and evade on foot to Syria.
Three of the eight men were killed; four were captured after three days on the run; one escaped. One of the four taken prisoner, McNab was held and tortured for six weeks. He explained to one audience member that he still suffers from nerve damage to both hands and kidney damage, but when he was first released he also had a dislocated shoulder, liver damage and had contracted hepatitis, yet after six months of medical treatment he was back on active service. Andy said that he was lucky in that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) can hit 15% of people 10-13 years after the trauma and that they would need professional help, but that for another 20% it would benefit them and that he was one of that 20%.
Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in three bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993), Immediate Action (1995) and Seven Troop (2008). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. It has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages and the CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 was released on DVD in 2000. Andy explained that he wrote Bravo Two Zero in 3 months after being approached by a publisher via his agent (following a 20 page treatment), but then he had to spend 4 months putting texture into it as it read too much like a report. To achieve this, he read Touching the Void by Joe Simpson as it gives you the feelings and the sense of really being there.
Andy is now writing a new series of fiction with co-author Kym Jordan about one platoon's experience of warfare in the Twenty First Century. The first novel in this series, War Torn, was a Sunday Times bestseller, but he informed the audience that his publishers only formalised his working agreement with them 6 years ago.
Andy McNab has collaborated with scriptwriter Robert Rigby on the bestselling young adult thriller series Boy Soldier and has written another series of books for young adult readers, DropZone. He's also written two novels for emerging adult readers, The Grey Man and Last Night Another Soldier. He was technical weapons advisor and trainer on the hit Michael Mann film Heat (1995) and spent five months in Hollywood working closely with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer. As well as advising on weapons handling and use, McNab was drafted in to work out in detail how master-thief De Niro would go about pulling off robberies on an armoured car and a bank, and how cop Al Pacino would go about tracking him down and stopping him.
Also a director of a Hereford based security company, McNab developed and runs a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-governmental organisations working in hostile environments (including war zones). The course is currently the only one of its kind in the world. He is also involved in training videos for the Ministry of Defence, lectures for the FBI and gives motivational talks for large corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. He believes that the fantastic success stories Britain has, was instrumental in NATO considering adopting their practices going forward.
His new novel Red Notice stars a new character Tom Buckingham and the film is due to come out next year in April/May. Andy is currently writing the next Nick Stone novel for release this time next year and he is 20k words in to the 120k novel. He reveals that Nick's character is an amalgam of people he knows with a first person narrative. He likens the process to writing first person as 'talking to someone in the pub' and believes the benefit to this is that readers invest in the character and then you can do whatever you want after this, but you must work out what you want the character to be before anything else.
Bringing the discussion right back to the beginning of the night, Andy explained that the average numeracy and literacy age of 18/22 year-old infantry recruits is still 11 and below and that he believes reading can change lives. He does talks on the power of reading in the military and in prisons (he laughed that he gave a talk on how to escape Pentonville Prison and two days later there was an escape!) and that prison education gives qualifications in English, Maths, Geography and Management to educate people to a better life.
When Andy was 16 he went into 'the Borstal System' (now known as Juvy) for a short, sharp shock. Back then, the army used to recruit boy soldiers from this (according to Andy using a 'cool video of a helicopter pilot waving at bikini clad women on a beach) and he joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier, after a three day test at Sutton Colefield. Three months in, he was at the army education centre when he was told that the boys there weren't thick, they were just uneducated and that this was going to start from that day forward so that they could learn to read, gain knowledge and this knowledge would give them the power, so they wouldn't always have to do what others told them to. The first book that he read was a Janet and John story, but the sense of achievement that can be gained when shutting the book that you have read, is irreplaceable. He also read military history and Sven Hassell novels.
He was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment in 1984. He then served in B Squadron 22 SAS for 10 years working on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland. Andy recalled that he liked Northern Ireland because it had soft toilet paper when he was used to the baking paper stuff that gave you 'one up, one down and one shine' and he also recalled learning Swahili when he spent time in West Africa from Benedictine monks 'that were more interested in beer and were drunk by lunchtime.'
Andy is trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, demolitions, prime target elimination, weapons and tactics, covert surveillance and information gathering in hostile environments including VIP protection. He has worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and western backed guerrilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In America he was part of the first strike in stopping crack cocaine coming to the U.K. and was part of a CIA operation to Columbia to destroy the plantations and kill the men making it. Andy informed us that drugs bring in $20 billion more than McDonalds, Kelloggs and another big brand name combined. He explained that the mexican cartels have a very sophisticated drugs system including their own secure mobile phone system.
In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14th Intelligence Group, going on to become an instructor and he explained to the audience that in order to get the confidence in that situation, you have to bluff yourself that you have a reason to be there and that he always told himself that he was there visiting his brother in law.
McNab also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training team and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
In the Gulf War, McNab commanded the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol, an eight man patrol tasked with destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with finding and destroying mobile Scud missile launchers. They had to static-line jump to the power stations 4 hours before the air strikes began, destroy it and head south to their ERV under the cover of darkness. The patrol infiltrated Iraq in January 1991, but were soon compromised when a boy herding goats discovered them and as Andy said, quite rightly made a lot of noise and ran away. A fierce fire fight with Iraqi troops ensued and the patrol was forced to escape and evade on foot to Syria.
Three of the eight men were killed; four were captured after three days on the run; one escaped. One of the four taken prisoner, McNab was held and tortured for six weeks. He explained to one audience member that he still suffers from nerve damage to both hands and kidney damage, but when he was first released he also had a dislocated shoulder, liver damage and had contracted hepatitis, yet after six months of medical treatment he was back on active service. Andy said that he was lucky in that PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) can hit 15% of people 10-13 years after the trauma and that they would need professional help, but that for another 20% it would benefit them and that he was one of that 20%.
Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in three bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993), Immediate Action (1995) and Seven Troop (2008). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK. It has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages and the CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. The BBC's film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, shown on primetime BBC 1 television in 1999 was released on DVD in 2000. Andy explained that he wrote Bravo Two Zero in 3 months after being approached by a publisher via his agent (following a 20 page treatment), but then he had to spend 4 months putting texture into it as it read too much like a report. To achieve this, he read Touching the Void by Joe Simpson as it gives you the feelings and the sense of really being there.
Andy is now writing a new series of fiction with co-author Kym Jordan about one platoon's experience of warfare in the Twenty First Century. The first novel in this series, War Torn, was a Sunday Times bestseller, but he informed the audience that his publishers only formalised his working agreement with them 6 years ago.
Andy McNab has collaborated with scriptwriter Robert Rigby on the bestselling young adult thriller series Boy Soldier and has written another series of books for young adult readers, DropZone. He's also written two novels for emerging adult readers, The Grey Man and Last Night Another Soldier. He was technical weapons advisor and trainer on the hit Michael Mann film Heat (1995) and spent five months in Hollywood working closely with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Val Kilmer. As well as advising on weapons handling and use, McNab was drafted in to work out in detail how master-thief De Niro would go about pulling off robberies on an armoured car and a bank, and how cop Al Pacino would go about tracking him down and stopping him.
Also a director of a Hereford based security company, McNab developed and runs a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-governmental organisations working in hostile environments (including war zones). The course is currently the only one of its kind in the world. He is also involved in training videos for the Ministry of Defence, lectures for the FBI and gives motivational talks for large corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. He believes that the fantastic success stories Britain has, was instrumental in NATO considering adopting their practices going forward.
His new novel Red Notice stars a new character Tom Buckingham and the film is due to come out next year in April/May. Andy is currently writing the next Nick Stone novel for release this time next year and he is 20k words in to the 120k novel. He reveals that Nick's character is an amalgam of people he knows with a first person narrative. He likens the process to writing first person as 'talking to someone in the pub' and believes the benefit to this is that readers invest in the character and then you can do whatever you want after this, but you must work out what you want the character to be before anything else.
Bringing the discussion right back to the beginning of the night, Andy explained that the average numeracy and literacy age of 18/22 year-old infantry recruits is still 11 and below and that he believes reading can change lives. He does talks on the power of reading in the military and in prisons (he laughed that he gave a talk on how to escape Pentonville Prison and two days later there was an escape!) and that prison education gives qualifications in English, Maths, Geography and Management to educate people to a better life.
Tuesday, 6 November 2012
Quick NaNoWriMo update
Well I am motoring along with NaNoWriMo this year so far. Today I hit 10,149 words in my word count, not bad for 6 days of writing. This means I am essentially at chapter four, though I do think I will be adding things as I go along. This may appear to look like chapters are not being written quickly enough, but that will probably just be that I have lengthened them as I think that at page 40 for the beginning of chapter five, it is not long enough page wise per chapter at the moment.
So far I have established my main character, the killer (though not his identity), the back story of the main characters ability to 'see' the killings as they are planned/happen and how she has got to the stage of the police seeing her as an aide rather than a suspect. I have also introduced the key players in the police department, their main suspect, plus a few others that have a bearing on the killings. Onwards and upwards.............
So far I have established my main character, the killer (though not his identity), the back story of the main characters ability to 'see' the killings as they are planned/happen and how she has got to the stage of the police seeing her as an aide rather than a suspect. I have also introduced the key players in the police department, their main suspect, plus a few others that have a bearing on the killings. Onwards and upwards.............
Monday, 5 November 2012
Writing Competitions
Found these free to enter writing competitions that I thought I would share with my followers:
DEADLINES
15 November: Jukebox Story - 1000 word stories inspired by tunes that reference food or drink in the title/artist. Stories performed and winner gets unique Jukebox Story USB mixtape and published on their website www.futureperfectwriters.com. Send stories as word doc to jukeboxstory@gmail.com
30 November: Short story with a 'Fall' theme. Send stories of 3000 - 5000 words in length as a word doc with title of piece, but put your name and details on the email only (not on the story doc). Two entries are allowed. Send to contest@almondpress.co.uk
1 December: Short story competition with an Autumn theme where winner gets book published and 10 copies of their story, £50 amazon voucher prize for runner-up. Send story in word doc to competitions@printerinks.com
14 December: BBC Writers Room stories for radio of 14 minutes, i.e. 1,900-2000 words in total. Include brief covering letter giving name, address, email and writing bio and send double-spaced word doc with your name and address on the script to OpeningLines@bbc.co.uk
16 December: James White Award - sci-fi stories of up to 6000 words. Complete the entry form and see how to enter at www.jameswhiteaward.com
17 December: Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition - Complete on-line entry form and upload electronic file of double-spaced, page numbered doc saved as 'Manscript Title - Entrant Name'. 220 words - 60,000 words with murder or serious crime at the heart of the story. For full details and other mystery/private eye competitions see www.MinotaurBooks.com
31 December: Perpetual Publishing here goes a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut 100 - 10,000 word stories as doc attachment to submit to submit@perpetualpublishing.com with subject line Anthology/Story Title/Author (attachment labelled in same way) in 12pt sans serif with 50 word bio. Queries contact@perpetualpublishing.com
5 January 2013: Plays to upload as pdf doc at www.theatreconference.org
10 January 2013: The Sophie King Prize. 2000 - 5000 word romance stories. See www.SophieKing.info
15 February 2013: Short story for adults competition with 'Freedom' theme to win £500, Arvon Foundation course of choice and publication on Writers & Artists website. Stories of no more than 2000 words emailed to shortstorycompetition@bloomsbury.com with 'WAYB13 competition' in subject line and inc email address.
DEADLINES
15 November: Jukebox Story - 1000 word stories inspired by tunes that reference food or drink in the title/artist. Stories performed and winner gets unique Jukebox Story USB mixtape and published on their website www.futureperfectwriters.com. Send stories as word doc to jukeboxstory@gmail.com
30 November: Short story with a 'Fall' theme. Send stories of 3000 - 5000 words in length as a word doc with title of piece, but put your name and details on the email only (not on the story doc). Two entries are allowed. Send to contest@almondpress.co.uk
1 December: Short story competition with an Autumn theme where winner gets book published and 10 copies of their story, £50 amazon voucher prize for runner-up. Send story in word doc to competitions@printerinks.com
14 December: BBC Writers Room stories for radio of 14 minutes, i.e. 1,900-2000 words in total. Include brief covering letter giving name, address, email and writing bio and send double-spaced word doc with your name and address on the script to OpeningLines@bbc.co.uk
16 December: James White Award - sci-fi stories of up to 6000 words. Complete the entry form and see how to enter at www.jameswhiteaward.com
17 December: Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition - Complete on-line entry form and upload electronic file of double-spaced, page numbered doc saved as 'Manscript Title - Entrant Name'. 220 words - 60,000 words with murder or serious crime at the heart of the story. For full details and other mystery/private eye competitions see www.MinotaurBooks.com
31 December: Perpetual Publishing here goes a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut 100 - 10,000 word stories as doc attachment to submit to submit@perpetualpublishing.com with subject line Anthology/Story Title/Author (attachment labelled in same way) in 12pt sans serif with 50 word bio. Queries contact@perpetualpublishing.com
5 January 2013: Plays to upload as pdf doc at www.theatreconference.org
10 January 2013: The Sophie King Prize. 2000 - 5000 word romance stories. See www.SophieKing.info
15 February 2013: Short story for adults competition with 'Freedom' theme to win £500, Arvon Foundation course of choice and publication on Writers & Artists website. Stories of no more than 2000 words emailed to shortstorycompetition@bloomsbury.com with 'WAYB13 competition' in subject line and inc email address.
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