Wirral Writers Online

This may be of interest to some members. I hope it is ok to post something like this. http://jonathangreenauthor.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/game-over-call-for-submissions.html  

Here's a grammar quiz to celebrate National Grammar Day (in the US, but we Brits can play, too) Thank you to the people at grammarly.com/grammar-check for sending this over to us.

The theme of this year's competition is: What did you see in the bottom of your cup/glass when you stirred your drink? The submission day is the meeting on 15th May. Admission is free. A pseudonym should be used. Your own name should not appear anywhere on your entry. Please submit a sealed envelope with both the title of the piece and your real name, so we can marry up the two after the result has been announced. Max word count: 1600 words. The limit is strict, but per your own word processor word count. (We accept there are sometimes small variations) Entries are to be double spaced using a conventional font such as Times New Roman or Courier. So there you have it. Get writing. Here's the list of the past winners: 2014  Mike Wood 2013  Mike Wood 2012  Cheryl Lang 2011  James Rhodes 2010  Mike Wood 2009  Mike Wood 2008  Mike Wood 2007  Mike Wood 2006  Gordon Thompson 2005  John Ralphson 2004  Barbara Trevor 20...

My short story, The Man in the Pillbox Hat is now up on Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show . Please follow the link for a snippet and to check out the artwork. You'll have to buy a subscription to read the whole thing, but it's a great magazine and you get six issues, a whole year's worth of fiction for your $15. This started out as a Wirral Writers' Maynah Lewis  in-house competition story. I got the idea during a caravan holiday in The Lakes, the one where we had no heater, no hot water, no cooker; the duvet got soaked because the caravan roof started to leak; and when we tried the microwave all the lights on the site went out. It was late October and we froze. But at least I had my laptop.

At Wirral Writers' recent AGM I asked to have a new rule introduced at our meetings, that of standing when we read our work. Okay, so I got half my wish - it isn't a rule as such, but instead we now strongly encourage members to stand when they read. Why do I feel this might be a benefit? First thing, we are all writing for reasons of our own. We might wish to become big name writers at some time soon, or we are happy enough to produce quality writing for local consumption. But at any time we may be asked to read our work aloud. It might be at one of the local library Friends nights; it might be an invitation to participate in another Vintage Radio broadcast; or it might be as Guest-of-Honour at a convention in a two-thousand seat auditorium. (We can all dream, can't we?) Excluding radio, we would more than likely be expected to stand at one of these events. People want to see us and they want to hear us. There are unexpected pitfalls that come from reading: The words...

It was great to have two new writers come along to our meeting last Friday. Mark Keech is a poet and has had work published in an anthology by Poetry Rivals. He treated us to The Sky's Gone Out , a dark and moody poem with an edge. Alex Peel is a writer of Steam Punk fiction. Her Life and Crimes of Lockhart and Doppler , by Penny Dreadful, is the featured story in the November issue of Go Steampunk , and from the excerpt we heard on Friday, well worth the cover price. I for one am looking forward to hearing more from both these new and exciting writing voices. Welcome to both!

Many thanks to everyone at Wirral Writers who helped knock my Accountant Fantasy story into shape. The story has been published on Sorcerous Signals and you can find it here.  http://www.sorceroussignals.com  Go to the current issue and look for Bring me my Broadsword and my Spreadsheets of Fire