WRITERS’ NEWS
90 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.ukFirst prize is
£300 in the
Writers Bureau
Flash Fiction
Competition, with
£200 for second
and £100 for third.
All winners also
receive a Writers’
Bureau course of
their choice worth
over £374. Entry
costs £5 for one
story of £10 for
three stories.
The closing date is
30 November.
Website: http://www.
wbcompetition.
comChristopher
Mackie has won
the Kelpies Book
Prize which is
given by Floris
book for new
Scottish Writing
for Children.
Christopher’s prize
is a publication
deal, mentoring,
£1,000 and a
writing retreat at
Moniack Mhor.The Voice
newspaper is to
go monthly after
37 years as a
weekly.The National
Creative Writing
Industry Day
will take place
at Manchester
Metropolitan
University on
1 November,
including panel
events, workshops
and opportunities
to pitch to literary
agents and
editors. A standard
tickets is £45.
Website: https://
ncwindustryday.
weebly.com/’The story must
strike a nerve
in me. My heart
should start
pounding when I
hear the first line
in my head. I start
trembling at the
risk.’
Susan SontagFLASHES
Cinestate is an edgy indie film
production company, specialising
in the horror, mystery, thriller or
related genre films and perhaps
best known for the horror western
Bone Tomahawk. The team now
want to ‘apply the page-turning
attraction of indie genre films
to high-quality literature’. Theywant accomplished authors
of ‘riveting gems exemplify
cinema-scope stories that are
richly visual, utterly unique,
and eminently shareable.’
Cinestate is ‘hungry for unique
voices that push boundaries in
the horror, mystery, thriller or
related genres.’ Stories should
be cinematic in scope with a
great hook.
Check out the website and
present work professionally in a
well-edited finished product. Make
sure to have the work professionally
edited and be clear about your
copyright. Response time is ‘slow tovery slow.’ Rights and royalties area
discussed with a contract.
Details: Cinestate, email subs
to: [email protected]; website:
http://cinestate.com/booksEdgy tales for Cinestate
GLOBAL FICTION MARKET
PDR Lindsay-SalmonEditor-in-chief CD Watson is reading for a special
themed issue of the quarterly US speculative fiction
magazine Alternate Realms. Future Watch 20/20 will
be released in 2020, and feature original, never before
published short stories addressing the question ‘what
does the future look like?’ bringing the clarity of
hindsight to potential futures.
Focus should be on the human aspect of the story,
even if the narrator is a non-human character, eg
a robot or AI. Any genre of science fiction is okay
so long as it is based in our reality and set in therelatively near future. Preference is for unpretentious,
well-written stories combining strong ideas and good
characterisation. Any violence, profanity, or sexual
elements should be integral to the story. Romantic
subplots are fine, but keep actual sex discreet.
Submit only one, standalone, story, 1,500-7,500
words, by 31 March, 2020. Payment is royalty-based
for 180 days’ exclusive online rights. Follow the full
guidelines online, then send it to submissions@
alternaterealmsmagazine.com
Website: http://alternaterealmsmagazine.comWho will watch
The Watchmen?
Loosely based on, rather than a
direct adaptation of, Alan Moore’s
now iconic 1980s graphic novel
Watchmen, comes HBO’s new series,
The Watchmen. Showrunner and
writer Damon Lindelof (Lost) says,
‘Set in an alternate [sic] history
where “superheroes” are treated
as outlaws, Watchmen embraces
the nostalgia of the original
groundbreaking graphic novel while
attempting to break new ground of
its own.’
The cast includes Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson and Louis
Gossett Jr. Coming at the end of a decade in which every
other film and TV show seems to be a rebooted, franchised
remake, the tag line is, without apparent irony, ‘nothing
ever ends’.Take this competition
Littorally
The Littoral Press Nature Poetry
Collection Competition 2019 has
a first prize of publication of the
winning collection by Littoral Press.
At least half the poems in the
submitted collection should be
directly or indirectly concerned with nature,
spirituality or the environment. Individual poems
may have been previously published but the
poems should be unpublished as a collection.
Littoral Press will publish sixty copies of the
winning collection, and the poet will receive
fifty copies.
The finished book will be A5 and have
between 50 and 100 pages.
The entry fee is £20.
The closing date is 30 November.
Website: http://www.southendpoetry.co.uk/
littoral/Competition.htmlSic mundus creatus est
GLOBAL SPECFIC MARKET
Gary Dalkin