Still Scribbling

Okay, so still scribbling but also sneezing - hacking, sniffing and coughing. Of course, all of which makes for being a Bad Blogger. (A pretty bad Tweeter too - not that I have ever managed to "get" Twitter in the first place. At least I'm holding my own on Facebook - so if you want to know what I'm thinking, best you friend me...)

Given all that, it's a wonder that I actually managed to scribble something for the Clarity of the Night flash fiction competition - see post below. It's handy when short stories come to you in your sleep though. There are some great stories in the competition this year and if you've got a few free spare minutes - yes, yes, I know, who has these days - do go and take a peek. If you want to have a read of mine, it's here - called Truth and Justice. And it's not too late to enter, though you'd better scribble pretty fast as the competition ends today. Go on, whatcha waiting for, ya know ya wanna...

Oh, and this is my new writing companion...

Popping in for a nut...

See you soon (just don't ask me when)!

SSSSH!!!! (writer at work - and a contest)

scribble, scribble, scribble, tappity, tappity, tappity, tap=tap-tap...

SSSSSSH!!! Writer at work...

I'm in the throes of furious writing again - and oh, it feels so good! I feel like I come home to myself when I write, when the words flow and the story takes shape. I am so keen to get this current manuscript finished (ie totally rewritten from scratch) and make it the best I can and then get back to another manuscript that's in the queue waiting for a rewrite.

I guess what I'm trying to say, amongst other things, is that there is going to be a whole lot of Blogging Interruptus going on. Bear with me if you will.

And while you're doing that, perhaps you might like to have a go at a bit of writing yourself.

Jason Evans, over at Clarity of the Night, is once again hosting one of his blog short story contests. The competition opens tomorrow and the subject, based on the image below is In Vino Veritas (Truth in Wine).

Why not join in; it's fun, you get to read some brilliant flash fiction and meet a whole lot of new people.



The blurb for the competition which you will find on the Clarity of the Night blog is as follows:

This spring, Jaye Wells released her kick-butt novel RED-HEADED STEPCHILD. Her debut. It was a wonderful moment for a hard-working writer and a great blog friend. (Go Jaye!)

RED-HEADED STEPCHILD had a birth of sorts back in August 2006 during the "Lonely Moon" contest here at The Clarity of Night. Jaye penned an honored entry called "I Can Dig It," which introduced the world to a rockin' female vampire/assassin burying her latest handiwork. That character is the beloved Sabina Kane now taking names and dishing punishment in her on-going series. Today, Jaye is returning to The Clarity of Night to inspire YOU, the next debut novelist who will ignite the world. Welcome to the "In Vino Veritas (Truth in Wine)" Short Fiction Contest in honor of Jaye and all of her accomplishments!! (Can I get an OH-YEAH?!!!) Please join me in welcoming her as co-host and in offering well-earned congratulations.

THE CONTEST WILL OPEN ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2009.

Now, down to business. Here's how the contest works. Using the photograph above for inspiration, compose a short fiction (or poetry) piece of no more than 250 words in any genre or style. After the contest opens, send your entry to me by email at jevanswriter at yahoo dot com before 11:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 15th (Eastern Time, United States). I'd prefer attachments formatted in Microsoft Word or Word Perfect (please see the format request below), but if you have something more exotic, you can paste the text into the body of an email. Each entry will be posted and indexed.

Now for the goodies. The following prizes are up for grabs:

• 1st Place: $50 Amazon gift certificate and a signed copy of RED-HEADED STEPHCHILD
  
• 2nd Place: $30 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 3rd Place: $25 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 4th Place: $20 Amazon gift certificate
  
• 5th Place: $15 Amazon gift certificate
  
• Readers' Choice Award 1st Place: $30 Amazon Gift certificate and a signed copy of RED-HEADED STEPCHILD

But this is about more than prizes. I hope you take advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with your fellow writers. Our different perspectives, styles, and skills shine when we all start at the same place. It's a great opportunity to learn from each other.

Rules:

1. 250 words maximum.
   
2. Titles are optional, but encouraged. Titles do not count toward your word count.
   
3. One entry per person.
   
4. Any genre or style is welcome. If you choose to submit poetry, you must have narrative movement within the poem if you wish to compete with the prose pieces for the prizes.
   
5. The copyright remains with you, the author; however, you grant me worldwide first electronic publishing rights to post your entry on this blog indefinitely.
   
6. Judging will be conducted by me, Jason Evans. For an explanation of the judging criteria and scoring system, see A Note on Judging. You can also read the winning entries from past contests. Judging will also be conducted by Jaye Wells as co-host. (See below.)
   
7. Please provide a name for your byline. If you have a website or a blog, I'd be happy to link your site to your byline. If you don't have a website or blog, feel free to include a short bio. A bio does not count towards your word count.
   
8. At the close of the contest, I will give the date and time for the announcement of winners.
   
9. After the winners are announced, I will post what I liked most about each entry in the comments.
   
10. The Readers' Choice Award is awarded by vote of the contest participants. The entry with the highest number of votes wins. The rules for this portion of the contest will be posted after the entry period closes.
    
11. Public critiques in comments are encouraged, but must remain respectful. I reserve the right to delete comments and ban participants who do not abide by the collegial spirit of Clarity of Night contests.
    
12. For prior contests and their results, see the links on the sidebar.

Format Request:
These are not rules, and I will not reject an entry which does not conform, but if you follow them, my work in running the contest is much less. For that, I will be eternally grateful!

1. Single space lines, and double space paragraph breaks.
   
2. No tabs or indents for new paragraphs.
   
3. If you have italics in your text, please code it for html by putting a begin italics code <> where it starts and an end italics code < /i > where it ends.
   
4. Although it's rarely used, handle bold <>< /b > and underline <>< /u > the same way.
   
5. Write your title at the top of the document left justified in title case (first letters capitalized). On the next line write your byline left justified (example, by Jason Evans). Add two blank lines, then begin your story.

So you wanna write, do you?

Two links for you to look at, if you're feeling inclined to write a story or two.

First, Jason of Clarity of the Night is hosting another of his 250 word competitions, this one entitled "Whispers, short fiction contest". As always, Jason's competition is based on a picture, in this case, the one below.


Jason's flash fiction competitions are becoming something of a legend in blogosphere and aside form exercising a bit of creative muscle, you also get to connect with lots of other bloggers. It's fun, give it a whirl. Rules can be found here. Deadline is 27th February 2008.

What me? Yes, of course I've written something - you can find it HERE. It's called The Oneness of the Infinitree.

And then I found this via Minx and Kat Campbell on Peach's site


Entitled "You're Not the Only One" it is about connecting bloggers and raising money for charity.

Peach says this on her blog:

We would like you to submit (to us at bloggersforcharity@yahoo.co.uk) a written piece about something you've been through from any aspect of your life that you want to share. It can literally be about anything: your relationships, your past, a road not taken, being a parent, an illness or your regrets etc. We've called it "You're Not The Only One" to reflect the camaraderie of blogging.

Proceeds will go to WARCHILD, a UK based charity that helps children all over the world. The book will be published through lulu.com. This is a no upfront fee internet publishing site who will take £4.70 per book sold if we make it no longer than 200 pages. We're pricing the book at £9 so £4.30 will go to straight to the charity. Because the cost lulu.com takes goes up according to how many pages we want published, we do have to stick to the 200 page limit so we can't guarantee you'll get your submission in for sure and the absolute maximum length for submission is 1500 words (but we’d rather not have too many at that length. In fact you may stand more chance if your piece is on the less wordy side).

Deadline is 29th February 2008. Rules can be found here.

So, what are you waiting for, get writing.

And no, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to submit to Peach - I might submit this, or I might write a new variation on the same theme.