INTERNATIONAL ZINE SCENE

Welcome

Dear Reader

A £20k Amazon award

You could win £20,000 in the Kindle Storyteller Award.

GLOBAL TRAVEL MARKET

Get travelling

Expanding novel possibilities

Fitzcarraldo Editions is accepting submissions for

Write a Big Finish adventure for Doctor Who

The Big Finish is giving writers the chance to submit

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Blue sea thinking

Make the best impression

The competition is for writers who have not had a book

Make ‘em laugh

Furthering its aim to empower women in comedy, the

Scantic opportunity

The Scantic River is a delightful US indie based near

FLASHES

Just Jazz magazine covers traditional jazz and is edited

Environment matters

In conjunction with Aftermath online literary magazine

Mystery winners revealed

The Mystery Writers of America have awarded the 2019

Phileas Blog

A travel site with ‘travel news, commentary, insight

Cycles of feminism

Elly Blue Publishing projects is a quirky personal

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Dig deep

A foot on the ladder for new writers

Scottish Book Trust is inviting applications for its

It’s a Funny Old World

Comedian Tony Hawks (centre) has written a new book

FLASHES

Which magazine, edited by Harry Rose, awards £150-worth

UK LITERARY MARKET

Planetary attraction

Prize poems for Winchester

The Winchester Poetry Prize 2019 is open for entries.

Get into Grist

Grist is the print and online journal produced by the

GLOBAL LIFESTYLE MARKET

Gay for today

UK NON-FICTION MARKET

Go beyond

Get busy for Bedford

The International Bedford Writing Competition is inviting

FLASHES

That’s Life Mega Monthly, launched by Australia’s Pacific

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Be heard

Set out for Hunger Mountain

Hunger Mountain is a lively arts print journal with

Stories to go

Three vending machines have been installed at Canary

GLOBAL POETRY MARKET

Rattle off a submission

In a dark place

Noir Nation is a crime fiction journal with bite. It

OK’s OK, OK?

The newly published fifth edition of Collins Official

And another thing And another thing

‘It gets both easier and harder at the same time. Easier

FLASHES

Simon Caney, editor of Garden News, welcomes letters

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Urban Farmhouse Press

Finally not trivial

What is the use of being remembered as the world’s

Excitement from Exeter

Exeter Literary Festival 2019 is inviting entries for

Develop your play, and your career

New full length stage plays are wanted by Panglossian

INTRODUCTIONS

Writing Magazine presents a selection of Specialist travel magazines currently accepting contributions. We strongly recommend that you read back issues, familiarise yourself with their guidelines before submitting and check websites for submission details.

GLOBAL CULTURAL MARKET

Progressive gains

FLASHES

Suren Ala edits, and welcomes letters for, The Hardy

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Dream on

Spook stories for Olga

Norwich Writers’ Circle is inviting entries for the

Celebrating Simon

Simon Armitage was announced as the 21st Poet Laureate

UK GENRE MARKET

Deadstarly dealings

FLASHES

The Flash 500 quarterly flash fiction competition for

UK HISTORY MARKET

History matters

Prize drawer for poems?

Entries are now being accepted for The Writers Bureau

FLASHES

Scribble’s annual article competition for pieces between

GLOBAL GENRE MARKET

Get in Pace

Get in Pace GLOBAL GENRE MARKET

PDR Lindsay-Salmon US small press Pole to Pole Publishing

Alien induction Timeworn opportunity

The editorial team at Timeworn Literary Journal, feel

GLOBAL LIFESTYLE MARKET

Head for Paradise

Tor goes dark

Nightfire is a new horror imprint to be launched by

Merely poetry

Entries are invited for the Mere Literary Festival

THE WORLD OF WRITING

It’s elementary, in this month’s wide world of writing. Derek Hudson discovers we should junk the jargon and read portable pieces of thought

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We want to hear your news and views on the writing world, your advice for fellow writers – and don’t forget to tell us what you would like to see featured in a future issue

Editorial calendar

Strong forward planning will greatly improve your chances with freelance submissions. Here are some themes to consider for the coming months.

On the movie

Greta Powell looks at video-editing software and its applications for writers

Don’t be sorry

Patrick Forsyth commends having the courage of your convictions

Novel Ideas Touch wood?

Lynne Hackles wonders if chance and fate play a part in the writing life

Change checker

Keeping readers updated in times of change is a good skill for the travel writer, says Patrick Forsyth

FLASHES

Each week Hour of Writes offers a new peer-reviewed

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Inspiring notes

Scumm writing

Planet Scumm is a lively SF audiobook, print and ebook

£500 prize for pre-teen poets

The 2019 Betjeman Poetry Prize is open for entries

Young poets line up

The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award

UK WELLBEING MARKET

Make your own magic

Write lines for Ledbury

Ledbury Poetry Festival is inviting entries for the

Home Study Course Started A 20- Year Writing Career

Heather Burnside took a home study Creative Writing Course with The Writers Bureau in 1999. 20 years on Heather is still writing and has recently signed another threebook deal with Aria Fiction at Head of Zeus.

Weigh anchor on piracy

Online piracy is real concern for authors. The Society of Authors’ public affairs manager Tim Gallagher has advice on tackling book pirates

FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DESK GETTING RIGHTS RIGHT?

Make sure you understand about rights reversion to give your book the possibility of second-chance success, urges Piers Blofeld

Ask a Literary Consultant

Is it possible to write and self-publish a book in a very tight time-frame? It is if you take Helen Corner Bryant’s advice!

On Writing

Tony Rossiter explores great words from great writers

Helpline Diana Cambridge solves your writing problems

Email your queries to Diana (please include hometown

Researching while travelling

Turn time away from home into a fact-finding mission with advice from research expert Tarja Moles

BEHIND THE TAPE

Expert advice to get the details right in your crime fiction, from serving police officer Lisa

Strength in numbers

Forget the stereotype of the solitary author and let your creativity flourish in the company of like-minded writers, urges novelist Clare Empson

Write away

Why should you go on a writing retreat? Tina Jackson highlights some of the many benefits

Giving yourself PERMISSION

Jane Wenham-Jones urges a reader who has spent her

PATHS TO PUBLICATION

There are many ways to achieve your publishing dream. Margaret James talks to four authors with very different routes to seeing their books in print

I wish I’d known…

‘When I self-published Working it Out in 2011, I thought

Mapping a way through

Bestselling children’s author Abi Elphinstone tells us how she used her dyslexia to evolve writing strategies including imaginative thinking and creative courage

Away from your desk

Get out of your garret for some upcoming activities and places to visit \

Let us prey

WM’s Open Poetry Competition yielded a masterpiece of precision, says its judge, poet Alison Chisholm

School ’s out for summer!

Managing a writing business with children isn’t easy during the long summer holidays. Simon Whaley discovers how two writers cope.

You wrote in

Lorraine Mace has been tickled by the stories you’ve shared about the idiosyncrasies of the writing life

Real world building

Think worldbuilding is mainly a fantasy thing? Think again. All fiction writing requires you to carefully construct the world of your novel, says Gary Dalkin

Make it happen

Keep readers hooked by paying attention to what happens next in your story, says Adrian Magson

Parrot talking

How do you create characters who speak a different version of English from you? Follow Jan Snook’s linguistic advice to make them sound convincing

Under the Microscope

James McCreet puts the first 300 words of a reader’s novel under his forensic gaze

The write idea

Helen M Walters explores what writers can learn from a story about the contrast between an unpublished writer’s dream and his everyday existence

Script to screen

Interested in getting into writing TV scripts for children? Amy Sparkes gets advice from the experts

Fear in all FIVE SENSES

Alex Davis shows you how to create an atmosphere of fear using each one of the senses

IN THE NOW

The thrills and pacing ratchet up the tension and keep adrenaline high for readers, but it’s all meticulously planned, Jeffery Deaver tells Tina Jackson

CAZ FREAR

The author tells Dolores Gordon Smith how her debut, Sweet Little Lies, won the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition.

The style & technique of DANIEL DEFOE

Tony Rossiter looks at a writer who has been described as the first true novelist

Shelf life: TIM WATERSTONE

The book chain founder shares his top five reads with

THE GOOD SOLDIER

‘This is the saddest story I have ever heard is the

THE LEOPARD by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

‘The novel is best understood as a sweeping, glorious

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

‘The novel is set in London in the Second World War

CITIZEN CLEM

‘I chose Clement Attlee as my “hero” in the initial

THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE

‘I was tempted to list here Wavell’s Other Men’s Flowers

RENITA D’SILVA

Margaret James meets a writer whose novels transport readers to different times and places

CHARLES CUMMING

The spy novelist tells Lynne Hackles how the reality of his writing life fails to match up to his dreams

A Thing

Anna Pye is working on the fi rst book in a fantasy

Beach combing

Use what you find by the sea to prompt new writing in these exercises from Jenny Alexander

Cooking up a storm

Use recipes as a template for crafting new writing in this group exercise from Julie Phillips

CIRCLES’ ROUNDUP

If your writing group would like to feature here, whether you need new members, have an event to publicise or to suggest tips for other groups, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

SUBSCRIBER SPOTLIGHT

Share your writing success stories. If you subscribe to Writing Magazine and would like to feature here, email Tina Jackson, tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk

Butterfly going backwards

Alison Chisholm is impressed by a poem that reverses the life cycle of an insect

Poetry in practice

Stuck for ideas? Doris Corti has a plan to prompt a new poem