Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2025 i Writing Magazine

As the old year draws to a close, it’s all-too possible to get swept up in the seasonal busyness and put your writing on hold. If that’s you, and even if it isn’t, we’re here to encourage you to give yourself the perfect present: the gift of writing. Because if writers aren’t involved in their writing process… what are they? Carve out some precious moments and do what makes you who you are: put words down, consider ideas, nurture your creativity and draw inspiration from wherever you can find it for your prose and poetry. This issue is here to invite you to do just that, so turn the pages and immerse yourself in the world of writing. Want to use the Christmas festivities as creative fuel? Flip to p6.…

Every so often I go on what I call my religious diet. It involves having no bread or wine for a week. Sometimes longer. Back in September I broke it mid-week to have a glass of Rioja. OK. Two glasses. It was to celebrate a good day of writing. I had written 2,345 words between breakfast and lunch time. That, for me, was a decent success. I believe in celebrating every writing success whatever the size. Some days I think of a treat I’ll allow myself if I write over 1,000 words. It’s similar to the carrot and the donkey. I’ll keep going, like the donkey following the carrot, so that eventually I can have my reward. It often means wine or chocolate. I have heard of some writers who…

Each month in WM, we feature creative writing by our subscribers. Selected pieces will be published in WM and we pay £50 for prose and £25 for poetry, and provide a mini-critique explaining what made the pieces stand out to us. As you’ll be reading this issue in the run-up to Christmas, and hopefully giving yourself the gift of writing, this month we’re inviting submissions on the theme of ‘The Gift’. Submit prose up to 500 words and poetry up to 40 lines to wmsubmissions@warnersgroup.co.uk. Include your subscriber number. The closing date is 31 December. Next month, look out for the pieces we’ve selected from the submissions call in the December issue on the theme of ‘Who Am I?’. SHORTLISTED Lucy Brighton; Cathy Cade; Alan Carter; Debbie Casey; Lynda Casserly;…

Q Would you be able to outline what a young or vulnerable witness would go through at court and anything that would be used to help them as they give evidence? George Lewis Watt via email A Those who have been the victim of violent crime, offences of a sexual nature, or those who are vulnerable, possibly through their age, are likely to be video/DVD interviewed by the police. This will be soon after the crime and well before the trial begins. This interview may form the basis of their evidence in court. Any further questions put to them by both defence and prosecution barristers can then be carried out via a link, with the witness in another part of the building. Another alternative is that the witness comes into…

Dark Holme Publishing Submissions are invited for the horror anthology, Ethereal Nightmares: An Anthology of Twisted Tales, writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. Submit short stories, 3,000 and 10,000 words, in any of the horror or dark fantasy genre/subgenres. Include contact information, name, story title and length plus a brief 100 to 200 word bio. Payment is £50.00. Details: email: Kerry@darkholmepublishing.uk; website: www.darkholmepublishing.uk/anthology-submission-guidelines Hearth Stories Springtime Fair Hearth Stories is a twice yearly magazine publishing speculative fiction ‘exploring connection, family, relationships, comfort, and the natural world,’ writes PDR Lindsay-Salmon. Currently the team seek stories for an anthology, The Hearth Stories Springtime Fair.’ Stories should feature a craft, recipe, or ritual as central to the plot and the author must provide instructions to make/enact that craft, recipe, or ritual. Stories, 1,000 to 5,000 words,…

Riverfolk Publishing Riverfolk Publishing, a US small press, accepts unagented novel submissions and will consider most genre fiction, but is particularly excited by all kinds of fantasy, slice of life, gamelit, sci-fi, portal fantasy/isekai, litRPG, and progression, writes Gary Dalkin. The editorial team of JP Weaver and Maxine prefer series to standalones, but are always happy to read submissions. If you have a finished manuscript of approx. 70,000 words or more, make your submission as separate Word documents to submissions@riverfolkbooks.com. Send the first 50 pages of your manuscript in Times New Roman and double spaced; a one-page synopsis of your novel which includes the ending, your real name (and your pseudonym, if you use one) and email address, plus a covering letter including a short elevator pitch and, if your…

Criminal Lines 2024 AM Heath’s competition is for debut, unpublished, unagented crime novelists from the UK and Ireland. The winner will get £3,500 and an offer of representation from AM Heath. The runner up will receive twelve months of mentoring from Orion. To enter, send the first 5,000 words of an unpublished crime novel manuscript and a synopsis up to 1,000 words. Entry is free. The closing date is 7 February. Website: https://amheath.com/criminal-lines/ CWA Emerging Author Dagger 2025 The CWA’s prestigious annual prize for unpublished crime writers is inviting entries. The Emerging Author Dagger, formerly known as the Debut Dagger, is for unpublished, unagented crime writers looking for agent representation and a publishing contract. The winner receives £500. Writers entering the competition must be unagented, and must never have had…

The Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2025 The major prize for undiscovered female writers is inviting entries. The Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, which is now in its 15th year, is given annually for novel manuscripts by unpublished, unagented women and non-binary writers from the UK and Ireland that combine literary merit with unput down ability. Novels may be literary fiction or fiction in any genre, and may be for adults, young adults or children. The winner will receive £1,500. All shortlisted writers will receive a one-to-one meeting with a agent at the Prize’s sponsor, Peters Fraser + Dunlop where they will be given feedback on their entry. Novel manuscripts may be finished or unfinished. To enter, send the first ten pages plus a one-paragraph pitch and a one-page synopsis. The entry…

The Londoner The Londoner is a new online newspaper devoted to capturing life in the capital in all its drama and glory, writes Gary Dalkin. The editorial team is led by former Evening Standard feature writer Joshi Herrmann, founder of parent company, Mill Media, who promises the title will cover a ‘dizzying array of topics commensurate with the sheer breadth of London’, and that the ‘red thread running through our stories will be the stuff that tends to get skimpy coverage elsewhere.’ The Londoner intends to go in-depth, for example, instead of a play review, investigating the clash of personalities behind that theatre that keeps pulling shows. They plan to delve into the city’s darkest corners, as well as providing lighter fare: what people are wearing, eating and talking about…

Self-publishing is now one of the most popular ways to publish a book. How did this happen to a route to publication that, less than 30 years ago, was on the fringes of the industry? In its early days, self-publishing was often dismissed as ‘vanity publishing’, a last resort for authors unable to secure traditional deals. It was seen as a marginalised choice, with many viewing self-published books as inferior or lacking broad appeal. Those days are long gone. The stigma around self-publishing has decreased significantly, transforming it from a perceived last resort into a respected and attractive option for authors. High-profile self-published authors demonstrated that self-publishing could lead to successful sales figures and also that high-quality books are now accessible for a fraction of the price they used to…

Mummy killed Daddy tonight. In the kitchen with a lead pipe. Then Daddy killed Mummy, in the ballroom with a spanner. “That’s not how you play the game!” said my sister, Emma. “Don’t worry, sweetheart,” said Mummy. “Daddy wouldn’t know what to do with a spanner even if you gave him a book called, ‘How to Use a Spanner.’” “And Mummy hasn’t done anything interesting in a kitchen for years,” said Daddy. Every Friday night is Games Night. We pull out all the board games, order a takeaway and play for hours. (Daddy always insists on the takeaway. He says that way we can all enjoy the evening. I think he means that Mummy doesn’t have to cook, although she never smiles when he says it.) Tonight, I worked out…

Never seen you last third of night. Up here in Allerton,souls sleep amongst stars. I hear the magic, fireworks frolicking. It’s now or never. Front door unlatched festooned withsteam. Tonight, she is abandoned, lifeless mound beneath a quilted tog. The Avenue is stone dead. No sound bites ofscreeching tyres or fist fuelled fights at Fleece Inn. Hurried steps take me face-to-face with the local fox. His eyes glisten like fairy dust.Like a robber, speeds off with stolen goods to mouth. I squeeze myself through a snicket’s vein, a contraption leaving me breathless.I watch for tiny sounds of life, that’s when I stumble upon it. A haloed light on a packet of Seabrooks brings out its lustre. Perhapssomeone craves like me. Fear rattles up by a crossroad, I turn right. Moorlands…

TRUMAN FOR TAKE-OFF The wonderful Truman books in Leeds gave Sally Hart and me the opportunity to talk about our recent releases (Out of Her Mind and Keepers of the Sun) to a very welcoming group of bibilophiles, writes subscriber Jaye Sarasin. We are both members of the Happy Scribblers writing group with, at the moment, five members writing in very different genres–psychological thrillers, science fiction, Viking slavery, Elizabethan wise women and children’s picture books! I asked Sally at the launch why she chose to write about murder and serial killers. Did she write from personal experience, I wondered. She pointed out that it was the psychology of both the murderer and the victim which intrigued her and, indeed, her book is very intriguing! I, on the other hand, have…

As soon as we commit an idea to paper or keyboard, it is protected by copyright. Our writing business is up and running! Once an idea has been expressed in a physical form, we, as the creator, have rights. Rights that we can licence to others. Copyright is an intellectual property right. It is granted automatically, with no need for registration. (Some countries, like the US, operate a voluntary registration service, which then allows copyright holders to pursue infringement lawsuits in federal courts for breach of copyright.) Copyright treats all writers equally, whether we treat our writing as a hobby or as a business. Other people cannot use our work unless they have asked for permission and we have granted it. Primary rights When a publisher expresses an interest in…

There’s a wealth of book awards – both well established and new – for writers and I’m often asked by first-time authors if it’s worth entering for these. There are plenty of awards for unpublished works, such as the prestigious Bath Novel Award, and I’d always encourage authors to enter for something that appeals to them when they feel the time is right. There are so many advantages for those who achieve a shortlist, or even the longlist. Primarily, you’ve put a lot of effort into your book, and an award or listing should be a huge source of personal pride. It offers validation, an external affirmation that your work has merit, and any form of recognition or feedback should help keep your creativity flowing. For novice authors, awards will…

The Bournemouth Writing Prize 2025 The annual contest from Bournemouth University has partnered with the Bournemouth Writing Festival. Now in its ninth year, the international Bournemouth Writing Prize has two categories: poetry and short stories. Enter original, unpublished short stories up to 3,000 words and poems up to 30 lines. The short story prize is £500 and feedback from literary agent Laura Williams from Greene and Heaton. The poetry prize is £500 and feedback from poetry publishers Dithering Chaps. Winners will also receive two free tickets and an open mic slot at the Bournemouth Writing Festival. Winners and shortlisted entries will be published in an anthology by Dithering Chaps. Each entry costs £10 (for one short story or three poems). The closing date is 15 January. Website: https://thebournemouthjournal.com/bournemouth-writing-prize/ The Elmbridge…

WestWord WestWord’s new ‘Story Sunday feature’ wants shorts no more than 1,000 words. The ‘Short Story Spotlight’ publishes one short story, no more than 5,000 words, each month along with an interview with the author about their craft. Submissions are open on a rolling basis for flash fiction stories, more than 750 words, for the twice-monthly ‘Flash Focus’ feature. Payment varies from £15 or £20 to £35 per piece. Website: https://westword.substack.com The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts Matter Press publishes The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, featuring ‘compressed creative arts, such as micro fiction, flash fiction, prose poetry, and visual arts,’ and whatever other forms compression might take. Submit fiction and creative nonfiction which has been compressed in some way. Work is published weekly. Deadline: 15 December. Payment is $50.…

Awards round-up The 2024 Booker Prize, which consists of a £50,000 award and a trophy, has been given to Orbital by Samantha Harvey. The result was announced by Chair of the judges, Edmund de Waal, who observed that the judging panel’s, ‘unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition’. The first Booker winner to be set in space, and at just 136 pages, the second-shortest book to win the prize, Orbital takes place over a day in the life of the crew of the International Space Station. Harvey said of writing the book, ‘I thought of it as space pastoral – a kind of nature writing about the beauty of space.’ It’s that time of year when everyone and their pet aardvark releases their list of the year’s best books.…

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2025 The biennial prize from Bruntwood and Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre has a prize pot of £50,000 The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is a major initiative to discover new voices and stories and to help playwrights hone their craft. The 2025 prize is split across four categories: • The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting (£20,000) • The Judges’ Award (£10,000) • The Bruntwood Prize International Award (£10,000). • The North West Original New Voice Award and Residency (£10,000 plus £10,000 for the winner’s professional development during a one-year residency). To be eligible for this award, writers must be based in the North West and must not have had a full-length play professionally produced for 12 performances or more in a professional venue. Enter original, unperformed and…

Keats-Shelley Prize 2024 Enter poems on the theme ‘Exile’ and essays on the lives and works of the Romantics and their circle. The Keats Shelley Association is inviting poetry entries on the ‘Exile theme, which has been chosen to reflect the 200th anniversary of Lord Byron’s death in Greece. Poems may be up to 30 lines. Essay entries may be up to 3,000 words and can be on any aspect of the work or lives of the Romantics. Winners in each category will receive £1,000 and runners up will get £500. The entry fee is £10. The closing date is 31 January. Website: https://keats-shelley.org/prizes/keats_shelley_prize_2024 Magma 2024/2025 Poetry Competition The annual poetry contest from Magma poetry journal is inviting entries. The categories are: • The Judge’s Prize for poems between 11…

NARRATIVE POETRY Creative non-fiction covers a complete range of forms and styles from factual essays to lyrical poetry and all points between. Experimenting with different ways of telling the same story can help you develop your ideas and gain new insights into what happened and why it’s important. This month, we’re looking at narrative poems – poems that tell a story. Creative non-fiction can be any length, so you could be thinking in terms of a single poem or a collection, like Helen Dunmore’s wonderful writing about her final illness, Inside the Wave, or Hollie McNish’s Nobody Told Me, with its glimpses into her experiences as a new mother. A poem is a small piece of writing that suggests a bigger truth or meaning, so the stories of narrative poems…

STAR LETTER TAKING REJECTION I just wanted to thank Julie Shackman for her article ‘Immaculate rejection’. I’m no stranger to being rejected by agents and publishers – as a somewhat naive twenty-something, I would churn out manuscript after manuscript, devour yearbooks and publication guides, and dream of the day when I would see my novel in print. rejection would only energise me more and add fuel to my creative fire. However, having recently been being diagnosed chronic fatigue syndrome (a dragon of a condition that I battle with on a daily basis) most days end with me too drained to lift a finger, let alone unleash my creativity on worn laptop keyboard. What Julie says about rejection and persistence something I once strongly believed, but now I know that my…

Parkin was always my favourite thing about Halloween. As soon as the weather became cooler and autumn turned the trees into riotous colours, the anticipation would start building. Then I’d come home from school one day and smell the ginger and cinnamon and know mum had spent the day baking. I’d beg her for a piece and she’d reward me with a thick, treacly slab that left me sticky-fingered and sated. It was something special, something redolent of winter and darkness and a hint of old gods. That’s all lost these days. It’s all about cheap nylon costumes and getting free sweets. ‘Candy’ they call it, not kets or kali like we used to say. We never got given sweets, just went round with our turnip lanterns through the dark…

When and where did your journey as an author begin? I entered a competition in Woman’s Weekly for a first chapter and synopsis. The three judges were from Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, Woman & Home and the Woman’s Weekly fiction editor, Linda O’Byrne. I didn’t win, but Linda suggested I complete the novel and send it to Robert Hale. It became the first of four Rainbow Romance Novels. Thank you, Linda! What is (or has been) your proudest moment as a writer? I wrote my first long saga, got an agent, then an acceptance with a contract for the Fairlyden series of four from Headline. Who or what is your greatest inspiration? I’ve always had a vivid imagination. I’ve also loved reading: Bambi, Enid Blyton, Dickens, Daphne Du Maurier, Reach…

BOOKSPLAINING Within two days of the announcement of the result of the US election on 5 November, several books notably soared up the Amazon bestseller listings, writes Gary Dalkin. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, set in a future Republic of Gilead in which women are little more than property, climbed over 400 places to number 3, with Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell quickly taking the number 16 slot. In non-fiction although Kamala Harris’ The Truths We Hold languished at number 345, Melania: A Memoir by Melania Trump topped the non-fiction chart, and Hillbilly Elegy by vice president elect J.D. Vance rose to number 7. Democracy in Retrograde by Sami Sage and Emily Amick almost reached the top of the Movers and Shakers chart, sales increasing by over 30,000 percent. Timothy…

Dracula Beyond Stoker Dracula Beyond Stoker is a magazine published by DBS Press which describes itself as a fiction journal dedicated to celebrating and continuing the legacy of Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel, Dracula, writes Gary Dalkin. The title is published in print and digitally biannually, with shorter supplementary issues in between each main edition. In each issue editor Tucker Christine and consulting editors Edward G. Pettit and Shannon Vare Christine focus on one element of the great vampire novel, whether it be characters, locations, themes, or even, in the first issue, Bram Stoker himself, and invite readers to speculate. Christine notes that they like stories that feel like they could be canon, but that they also enjoy fun alternate takes and pastiche. Stories can be prequels, sequels, updates, divergent…

Acumen Celebrating its 40th, Acumen is a non-profit volunteer-run UK literary print and PDF magazine which seeks to publish the best in new poetry and poetry translations, alongside articles, debate, comment and reviews of recent poetry publications, writes Gary Dalkin. Founder editor Patricia Oxley is still on board as advisory editor, while Danielle Hope has been the editor since issue 101 in 2020. Acumen’s aim is to be wide-ranging, publishing contemporary poets both known and unknown, relying on the strength of the poetry rather than the name behind it. Before submitting you are recommended to read some examples of content on https://acumen-poetry.co.uk/guest-poems/ or read the magazine. Acumen is always open for submissions, and you can submit up to six poems at a time, fewer if they are long, or one…

The Nine Dots Prize 2024/2025 Now in its fifth cycle, the Nine Dots Prize was established in 2016 to reward innovative thinking that provides creative solutions to issues facing the modern world. Entrants are invited to send a 3,000-word response to a question. This year’s question is: ‘Is data failing us?’ The winner will receive $100,000 to expand their response into a short book of between 25,000 and 40,000 words for publication with Oxford University Press. To enter, submit the 3,000-word response, an outline of how the idea could be expanded into a short book, and a justication of your ability to complete the book within a given time. Entry is free. The closing date is 27 January. Website: https://ninedotsprize.org/…

You best be pretty hard skinned if you want to pursue a money-making approach to your writing. The odds against you can be daunting; I always describe it as being about the same as that of being hit by lightning… but without the same degree of certainty. So, you need to put plenty of bread on the waters. That said, many writers could pitch more than they do. Unnecessary self-doubt can dilute the best of intentions and what are actually good pitches or good finished pieces end up being unused while the internal self-talk says things like: I’m not sure… One more edit… Not yet… I’m sure they won’t like it. Of course, you need to work on any writing you hope to sell – no one will buy rubbish.…

WriteTime Short Story Competition The next quarterly contest for writers over 60 is inviting entries. The WriteTime competition is for original, unpublished stories up to 1,500 words on any theme by writers aged 60 and over. Each competition has prizes of £100 for the winner and two £50 prizes for runners up. Winning entries are published online. The entry fee is £5 for one and £10 for three. The closing date for this quarter’s contest is 31 December. Website: https://writetime.org/how-to-enter/ The Bristol Short Story Prize 2025 The international contest has a £1,000 prize for the winner and is now run by Bristol University. The Bristol Short Story Prize is for original, unpublished short stories up to 4,000 words, in any genre or style. It is open to all writers, published…

In a small terraced house a short way from the sea front a man wakes. It is the dead time, when the last shouting revellers have gone to bed, when even the seagulls are silent. He stares into the darkness, bereft and alone in the centre of the big bed. There is no light coming through the thick curtains so he shuts his eyes, tries to force himself to sleep, but instead his mind revisits – yet again – the eternal question of what went wrong. He sinks into a sad despair, his stomach twisting with a misery as heavy as the dark that surrounds him. After seemingly endless hours he falls into a half-sleep, once again dreams the dream. He dreams that she has returned, that there has been…