August’s Global Short Story Competition has now closed and the stories are on their way for judging - now we turn our attention to September.
Also ending at the end of this month is the latest free flash fiction competition - and what a terrific entry that is. You can enter via our free social networking site for authors at globalwriters.net
John Dean
There’s been a late rush to the August Global Short Story Competition with the result that, although numbers are slightly down on recent months, it’s still a decently competitive field. Still time to enter.
John Dean
I mentioned recently that we are grateful to The Caribbean Book Blog for allowing us to promote our Global Short Story Competition with them. Well, it has led to an entry from Trinidad and Tobago, which is excellent.
Another reminder - if you have not joined our free social networking site for authors at globalwriters.net, you don’t know what you’re missing!
John Dean
The August Global Short Story Competition ends at midnight GMT on Tuesday (August 31) and it’s still a fairly small entry so this might be one of those chances to dust off that story that’s been sitting in the cupboard and give it a chance of glory!
John Dean
Three days to go in our August Global Short Story Competition!
John Dean
Fiona Cooper, our judge, makes an interesting observation in her citation for our July winner, Catching the tap-tap to Cayes-de-Jacmel by Lane Ashfeldt.
Fiona says: “Atmospheric and compelling, this story had my attention immediately. The title is intriguing and the narrative lives up to it.”
Titles are crucial and we get some real crackers into our competitions. Yes, the story has to live up to the billing but I have started a discussion in Forum (General) on our free social networking site for authors at globalwriters.net, asking which title works for you - perhaps you came up with a cracker for one of your stories or read someone else’s work which dragged you in because of the title?
I think titles are very important. As a crime writer, I have to come up with titles that hint of crime. That is important because publishers need to market into a niche - no point having a story saying A romantic interlude in Paradise if it’s a gore fest! My favourite title on one of my novels is The Long Dead, which was changed from Ghosts to place it more firmly in the crime genre on the bookshelves rather than ghost stories.
So which title works for you?
John Dean
Fiona Cooper has chosen her winners for the July Global Short Story competition and the honours go to England and India with a special mention for Singapore.The £100 first prize goes to Lane Ashfeldt, of London, England, with Catching the tap-tap to Cayes-de-Jacmel.
Fiona says in her citation: “Atmospheric and compelling, this story had my attention immediately. The title is intriguing and the narrative lives up to it. By turns quirky, humorous and almost macabre, the narrative manages to telescope into the reality of one earthquake victim and by so doing, brings home the awful human truth so often obliterated by news bulletins. It shows the eternal hope and resilience of the human spirit, which is no mean feat.”Our highly commended £25 runner-up comes from Indian writer Geeta Sahai, from New Delhi, with Living in Shadows.Fiona says: “At the other end of the fiction spectrum, this story breathes anxiety and truly brings to life the claustrophobia of living with family secrets. The writer conveys deep emotion while describing how the only way to survive such a childhood is to blank emotion out completely. For some questions there are no answers and it is brave indeed to pose these questions. Excellent.”
Fiona also singles out for a commended mention, To Daddy Long Legs, with love, by Ananya Mukherjee, of Singapore. Although just missing out on a cash prize, the story did strike a chord with Fiona, who said: “A very subtle story, with which I have only two problems. One is the title - Daddy Long Legs just doesn’t seem right - the original is too firmly etched in my mind. I couldn’t quite swallow either that a little girl would be happy calling a stranger she had never seen ‘Daddy’ anything. A pet name, yes, but Daddy seemed just a step too far. Change that and the title and what a story we have!”
The writers on the shortlist (from eight countries) were:Anita Acavalos, Athens, Greece
Peter Lubeck, Malmo, Sweden
Semhar Abrham, Eritrea, East Africa
Anne Skyvington, Coogee, NSW, Australia
Paul Sherman, Dover, Kent, England
Laura Tully, Edinburgh, Scotland
William Macfarlane, Germasogeia, Cyprus
Fan Li, Toronto, Canada
As usual, the winning stories will be posted on www.globalshortstories.net and our social networking site globalwriters.net (in the Forum section)Well done to our successful writers and there is still time to enter the August competition.John Dean
The August Short Story Competition has suddenly come to life with quite a few entries in the past 48 hours. Still a week to go.
Re July’s competition, because of holidays we got the stories late to Fiona Cooper so hopefully we can announce by the end of the month.
Not joined our free social networking site for authors yet? You can do so at globalwriters.net
John Dean
I am mentoring three talented writers now and really enjoying the work we are doing together. Mentoring is an excellent way for writers to learn and support each other and hopefully those involved are finding some benefit from what we are doing.
If you want to find out more about our scheme, you can get in touch with me through our free social networking site at globalwriters.net or at john.dean@certys.co.uk
John Dean
We receive lots of requests for advice and are delighted to try to answer as many as we can, so it seems a good time to remind you that we have a free writers’ toolkit which is our take on what really matters in writing.
If you want to download the pdf, simply go to our social networking site at globalwriters.net and go into our Shop (you will find it across the top of the home page) and go to free downloads. The shop also has details of how to buy our first anthology Global Shorts.
John Dean