Wirral Writers Online

Progression...         Remember way back to 2015 sometime around autumn? The idea of putting a Wirral Writers anthology together was mooted. The idea was received with a mixed response, but generally fairly positive. A rough timeline was agreed upon - the idea being to publish around Christmas 2016. So where are we up to? Everyone who wanted to be part of it has completed his or her submission, some have written more than one; the word count was equal for all. We have played 'Pass-the-Parcel' with each other's words, proof read, pencilled in corrections, added suggestions and so on and so forth. As far as I can tell, we are making good progress - I believe there are around 15 stories and a smattering of poetry to pull together now. The hard work is yet to begin as far as I can tell, from author blogs I have been visiting to gain some insight on how to publish an anthology. We have to agree on the order of the work, we need author bio's, we ...

Now on Sale for e-reader and in print.  What is especially cool about this issue of one of Britain's leading SciFi magazines is that there are two Wirral Writers on the ToC.  Two! Wirral Writers' were once a small provincial writers' group. No longer. Now we rock !

I signed up for the Early Bird Option for the London Screenwriters Festival. This year it starts 2nd September 2016. Right at the start of the school year. If my sabbatical dream comes true then this is the perfect kick start. It will be the third time I've been. First time I went was the first time it ran. I absolutely loved it. The energy was great. Hadn't got a clue about anything, but it made me appreciate how ignorant I was (no idea what a three act story line was!) and to do something about it. Second time was in 2014. I was in a grumpy place and had just seriously injured my ankle. Still gave me a lift though. This time I want to go there with a written, fully edited screenplay plus more and really go for it. Of course, if I haven't been granted my sabbatical I could be in for some interesting negotiations. But then, that's what makes life interesting.

Happy New Year to members of Wirral Writers and to followers/readers of this blog. Well there it was, gone. Another year. Right, let's get cracking. I think we will be rather busy this year what with an anthology to get together, the Maynah Lewis Competition to do and WW in-house competition, plus, all the writing we do for personal pleasure and submissions. There's some competition out there when you consider how many books get published in the UK alone; according to The Guardian newspaper in 2014 -  "UK publishers released more than 20 new titles every hour over the course of 2014, meaning that the country published more books per inhabitant than anywhere else in the world." When I worked at a well-known book store, I read an article that said around 2,000 new children's books were published every week. In terms of quantity only China and the United States publish more than us; and look at our geographical size in comparison too! We're not a ...

For the second year running Wirral Writers' Christmas Meal was held at the Celtic Arms in Northop. Excellent food, sparkling conversation and above all, excellent company.   It has been an especially good year for Wirral Writers', and I believe we have a great deal to celebrate. Our Maynah Lewis competition entered its 27th year, and our September competition was one of the closest results I can remember. I thought I'd just scribble down some of the accomplishments by members of the group this year. Apologies if I missed anything, but it makes impressive reading, even so: Five published short stories (one print magazine, three online mags, one anthology) Three acceptances for publication forthcoming in 2016. Three indy-published books One movie option One first place competition success One performed theatrical play Several performances of folk songs, lyrics first aired at Wirral Writers Two interviews (one blog, one radio) I for one am looking forward to...

Sticks & Stones now available from Amazon !  

Stephen King is running a short story competition in conjunction with The Guardian newspaper. Some may be interested in entering this so follow the links below... The master of horror fiction joins us in a search for the most original and gripping short stories. But how will you interpret Stephen King’s intriguing invitation? James Smythe: Ten things I learned about writing from Stephen King http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/oct/30/stephen-king-short-fiction-competition-send-us-your-stories