September Submissions
On the first of each month, look out for the image on Visual Verse. You then have an hour to produce between 50-500 words inspired by it. Submissions close on the 15th of each month.
Inspiration doesn't always immediately strike. Quite often the images are peculiar; September's prompt easily fitted this category! (The image on the right is not the actual image given. It was far stranger...)
Still, the varied offerings poured in. Just look at the array produced by a host of individual personalities!
My poem, 'Cadence' appears there, but you can also see it on the poetry page of this website.
I wrote a story especially for The Caterpillar Short Story Competition. The Caterpillar is a fabulous magazine for children packed with stories and poetry. Although I write short stories for adult readers, writing tiny tales for children wasn't an area I had much dabbled in; I write books for them instead. However, a recent stint of writing texts for a SATs revision booklet refreshed that part of my brain. Writing to order each week within a limited word count is just the thing to get the creative juices flowing.
The closing date was 30th September.
I had a go at the TSS Flash 400 competition. 400 words is out of my comfort zone, but working to a different word count is just a matter of practice. I wasn't placed, but I'll certainly try again.
I came across a call for submissions by Cast Iron Theatre who were looking for 'Bitter Sweets - Ugly Tales for Beautiful Souls'. I like writing 'ugly' so wrote a story which had been sitting like a wet toad in the dark part of my writing brain for some time. Winning entries will be read at the Brighton Horrorfest on Friday 26th October.
I was approached by fellow poet Paul Brookes who asked if he could interview me as part of his Wombwell Rainbow Interviews. I was delighted to repsond. You can read my interview here.
