Charlotte's done it again - she's got herself short-listed for another award. The Apothecary's Daughter is up for Choc Lit Best Historical Read Award, for novels of any romance genre set prior to 1961.As Charlotte states on her web site:The winners will be announced at the Festival of Romance Have A Heart Ball and Awards on Saturday 22 October, along with the Festival of Romance New Talent Award to recognise writers of great talent who have not yet been commercially published. The Festival of Romance takes place on 21st and 22nd October at Hunton Park in Hertfordshire. Supported by over 30 authors and six publishers, the literary event is a celebration of the romantic fiction genre for readers, with chocolate and cupcakes alongside literary debate.Read more about it on Charlotte's web site.
Charlotte's Light and Fluffy winner
A tough short story competition has given us all a new found respect for authors of so-called light and fluffy stories. Every six months we give ourselves a new challenge to test our story-telling, and this summer saw us wrestling with something that (judging by all the complaints going around on email) proved to be a new direction for most of the group - the light and fluffy, uplifting story.Lorum diddly humpty dumpty piddly poosie woosie.
Summer 2011 Short Story Competition: Uplifting
The 2011 WordWatchers Short Story Competition is well and truly underway. The theme for this one is 'Uplifting' - a feel good story on any subject. Submissions are due at the July meeting.
Winter Competition
Wordwatchers
John wins!
John Wins
This summer's hotly anticipated WordWatchers short story competition has come to a close, with John Hoggard's highly original 'We Are The Stranded' taking top slot. Well done, John!
Full results to follow as soon as we've figured out the identity of the author who came second - congratulations going to either Abbie or Andrew (who weren't at the party to reveal the successful author's identity). Brian came third.
Wordwatchers Summer 2010 Comp. Results
In 3rd Place - Author C aka Brian.
In 2nd Place - Author D aka... well we don't know yet - it's either Andrew or Abbie - as for various reasons neither could attend.
And In 1st Place <drum roll> Author G aka John aka me aka The most surprised man in the world.
What can I say - having joined WW in May 2007 straight in to a summer competition which I naively thought I might win, the short story competition has turned into a twice yearly hand-wringing of tortured disappointment. I've always (fatally) tried to cram a 10,000 word story in to the 2,500 word limit, simply because I often let the idea outgrow the limitations and then had to prune viciously, with fatal consequences for my prose. Oddly though, this particular story was even bigger than that, not on the page, but in my head, scurrying around for a month, sucking up words like a black hole might soak up stellar matter. Then, because I am dumb, I left myself one night to crank this monster out into an ever tighter limit, 2000 words. So, I did the only thing I could, I wrote without stopping or thinking and produced 1999 words in two hours, culling, sub-consciously I suppose, before the words hit the page (in the electronic sense), because if they make the page, they scream in protest should you have to snip them off the main branch, promising buds of genius culled for the greater good. So perhaps, if I leave only two hours, I have developed a knack that I have not previously possessed, to make a 2000 word story convey that it is indeed a 10,000 or even a 100,000 word idea but leave the reader satisfied with their view through the keyhole of the room beyond...
Who will win...?
Wordwatchers - Summer 09
In just a few hours (from time of writing), the winner of this year's Wordwatchers Summer Short Story will be announced…
The simple one word theme "Stranded" produced an amazing variety of stories. Results and pictures of the "summer" (raining as I type) get together will be announced after the event. Until then a picture from last year's event to tide you over (and to prove I can add imagery!)