Showing posts with label Writing Competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Competition. Show all posts

Friday, 22 May 2020

Fly by the Hours with Words and Flowers

This week's been a very busy week!

Dusting myself down from the disappointment of countless rejections last week could only be done in one way...

Do more writing!


So, in the last seven days, I've:
  • completed a piece of writing which was meant to be a 5,000 word short story, but bloomed into a 35,000 word novella
  • written a 500 word piece of prose for the Wild Inside competition run by the John Muir Trust which, in turn, led to...
  • revisited something I wrote for Consequences and always had an idea of returning to. I'm about 7,000 words in so far
So, I've not been idle!

In addition to writing, I've also been snapping shots!
 


Remember! Tune in to Our Own Write on Twitter this week. I'm talking Historical Fiction at 3pm BST!

Find me here: www.stompermcewan.com
www.twitter.com/DaysDyingGlory - follow me there!

Friday, 8 May 2020

A Directory of Inspiration!


Last week (27th April - 3rd May), I was the Crowvus Author of the week. For the first five days I wrote a blog on various ways in which I become inspired. These were:
[you can read these by clicking the links!]
On the last two days I considered looking forward and looking back.

The lockdown has given us plenty of opportunity to do this!

I had the idea of writing a series of short stories with the same group of characters, and that's what I've been on with for most of this week. I haven't finished any, but that's just the problem of writing outside - too many distractions - but so much inspiration!

Currently, I have characters I write short stories about for the following genres:

  1. High Fantasy
  2. Historical Fantasy
  3. Mystery
  4. Historical Fiction
Probably no surprises there!

My New Year's Resolution is continuing, having made submissions to KSAA's #Chatterton250 and The First Line. Time will tell how those get on. If nothing else, I'm building up a collection of poems and stories of which I am proud.

In other news (that is: wearing my publisher hat!) the 4th Crowvus Ghost Story Competition is now open for entries. Head over and have a peek! The other judges and I are putting together a free eBook of our own ghostly experiences - this is coming out in mid- to late May.

Remember! You can read my books here, here and here(this one's free until 20th May).

Find me here: www.stompermcewan.com
www.twitter.com/DaysDyingGlory - follow me there!

Friday, 24 April 2020

A Virtual Book Fair and A Reincarnation


Without a doubt, my biggest writing event of the week was Our Own Write. This virtual book fair brought together authors from across the globe, and I was delighted to be one of them! I got an opportunity to talk about Caledon, a topic which I am more than happy to talk and talk and talk about! The whole book fair was run via Twitter Live, and most of the authors' talks are still available on the Our Own Write Twitter page.

You can watch my presentation here:
https://twitter.com/DaysDyingGlory/status/1253035356867485697?
I can say with all honesty, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of 2020. I loved taking part, although I was shaking like a leaf!

Reluctant to let go of Caledon, my short story of the week - written for an Historical Fantasy anthology - tells the initial story of Caledon's 6th incarnation. The novel is Caledon's 7th incarnation, so going back 125(ish) years to tell the story was really strange. It was a great challenge, and I'm currently just tightening it up in time for the 30th April deadline.



Thus far, 2020 has still had a submission a week, and I'm feeling very proud of myself for actually sticking to a New Year resolution!

Stay safe, one and all! Remember, all the books are still there. Hunt them out and read them all!
[Ok, maybe not all of them!]

Find me here: www.stompermcewan.com
www.twitter.com/DaysDyingGlory - follow me there!

Friday, 13 March 2020

Hello Again - 2020 Writing Challenges

Someone pointed out to me that a blog was a good way of sharing ideas and thoughts on writing. Since there are very few activities I love as much as writing, I decided to give it a go, and share some of my 2020 antics with you, one writer to another, this author to her readers.



2020 is a new decade and so I've set myself a new writing challenge or two. My New Year resolution was to enter one writing competition/award each week and, so far, I've managed to stick to it. I'm 12 entries in, and scribbling eagerly at number 13!

Although that resolution has constantly pressing deadlines, by far the harder goal I've set myself is to write a book in each major genre.  Until now, all my books have had an historical backdrop, but this year will see the release of my first contemporary novel, a thriller with the working title Among These Dark Satanic Mills. This has been a while in the making but, when my publishing team suggested it was good enough to put "out there", I decided I wanted to know if I could write in other genres.



At the moment I'm writing a horror novel, trying to balance the right amount of cliche with a fresh plot and my own style of telling the story. I'm not sure horror is the genre I'm best cut out for, but we'll see how the end product looks!

In a way, I have NaNoWriMo to thank for this new challenge. Stories I have stored up in my head for months and years formed the basis for my first November writing month last year. Going back to these plot lines, scrawled in the tiny notebook I keep by my pillow, has given me a new drive to get them written. So far, it's still at the enjoyable stage!

Find me here: www.stompermcewan.com
www.twitter.com/DaysDyingGlory - follow me there!

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

"Christmas Pudding For The Soul"



We are currently very excited about our first publication, Day's Dying Glory, which will be published in April this year. Day's Dying Glory is an historical fiction novel set in Scotland and spanning the years 1806-1812. It is the story of three sisters who are forced to come to terms with the cruelties of loss, treason and betrayal, all whilst limited by the expectations of Society.

In conjunction with this project's Orcadian Book Launch, we are inviting secondary school pupils to take part in a competition to design a front cover for a booklet of 4 short stories that were written especially for Christmas 2016. The title, which must feature on the cover, is "Christmas Pudding for the Soul". The winner of this competition will be announced at the Day's Dying Glory Book Launch which is taking place in the St Magnus Centre on 6th May. The winner will receive a £50 One4All voucher, with small prizes for two highly commended entries.

All entries should be submitted electronically and will be judged by our authors. The deadline for entries will be midnight on Friday 7th April.

For the full list of rules head over to the Crowvus website.

Like it?  Support it!