27 January, 2011

The Writer's 2011 Short-Story Contest

The Writer has announced its 2011 Short-Story Contest. "Once again, we're partnering with Gotham Writers' Workshop to bring you this contest, which offers great prizes to the top three finishers."

For all the details visit The Writer website.

15 January, 2011

Rod's blog

Group member Rod Rees writes on his blog about his book signing session at London's Forbidden Planet. He was signing his debut novel, Demi-Monde: Winter.

13 January, 2011

Giggle Magazine. Competition

 Giggle Magazine has announced its first short story competition: “Send us your wild and wonderful words, make them count and make them funny. We want to giggle!  Giggle Magazine is a platform publication offering a voice to Artists, Writers, Comedians, Photographers and Musicians. Giggle Magazine provides a promotional outlet for fresh talent in a competitive industry, simultaneously we provide high quality entertainment for readers in Wales and the South West of England and the opportunity for struggling talent to earn a bit of money promoting their own material and the work of others.

1st Prize: £50 plus publication in February issue and copies of the magazine. 2nd and 3rd Prizes: Publication in April issue and copies of the magazine.

Entries must be no more than 1000 words in length, typed, double spaced, and have the author’s name, address and contact details on the cover page. Please also include a word count at the end of the manuscript. We can only accept stories in English. Entries over the word count will be disqualified. No correspondence will be entered into.
Entries may be on any topic, but remember, we want to laugh.

Entries must be previously unpublished. Submissions are accepted from both published and unpublished writers.

The entry fee for each story is £3 sterling, please pay by cheque if possible, and make it payable to ‘Giggle Magazine’. For alternative payment methods contact Jess Dando. You may enter as many stories as you wish. Entries may be sent be email or post."
Contact Details:  Jessica Dando, No 3 Arthur Street, Cardiff, CF24 1QR. Tel: 029 2030 2196

For more information and updates visit their website.

Otterburn

Group member Jan Edward's short story "Otterburn" saw publication recently in the Christmas issue of Estronomicon. This is an online magazine -- and free to download.

Dark Horizons

Renegade Writers' group members Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards now edit Dark Horizons for the British Fantasy Society. DH publishes fiction with a fantastical element -- fantasy, SF, ghost stories, noir, weird, horror, supernatural...

Submission guidelines can be found here.

The Demi-Monde

Congratulations to group member Rod Rees. His debut novel Demi-Monde: Winter is published this week by Quercus.

"Funnily enough I began ‘world building’ without realising that this is what I was doing but then being a novice writer I suppose I started the whole of the writing process without realising what I was doing.

No matter.

World building is the term applied to the exercise undertaken by all Science Fiction and Fantasy writers involving the creation of a believable and coherent backdrop – be it an alien world, a dystopian future or an alternative reality – to dress the stage upon which the writer’s fictional thespians can perform. And its purpose is just the same as scenery; to allow the audience to more easily suspend disbelief and willingly to enter the counterfeit world of the writer’s imagination, a world (hopefully) made so speciously plausible, so consistent, so logical, and so precise that the reader is persuaded to think…well, why not."

Read more by Rod here.

Closure of venue

Our regular venue, the Jolly Potters pub in Hartshill, Stoke, is temporarily closed for repair work. They expect to open in five or six weeks. We hope to arrange alternative venues for meetings. Please email for details. And keep an eye on this blog and on our FaceBook page (search for Rene Writers-Group)