HAPPY JUNE 16th – a special day
A bit of background (from a 2013 post I wrote on the subject) Bloomsday celebrates Leopold Bloom, the main character in James Joyce’s Ulysses. The story takes place takes place … Continue reading
OUT NOW! The latest edition of my Creative Writing Newsletter. Sign up and win a free paperback copy of Back to Creative Writing School
Edition number five of my creative writing newsletter has just gone out. It contains details of submission and competition opportunities (plays, poetry, short stories and novels) that haven’t yet appeared … Continue reading
Lady Gaga on making music, writing and creativity QUOTES FOR WRITING (and people who like quotes)
When you make music or write or create, it’s really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you’re writing about at the time. Lady … Continue reading
Happy Birthday to the great W.B
William Butler Yeats by John Singer Sargent 1908 William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and writer, senator and winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature is 150 years old today. … Continue reading
Three literary devices to add zing to your prose…
I’m a long time fan of Janice Hardy’s Fiction University. With over 1000 well-written and thought-provoking articles available for free online on such subjects as writing, editing and selling your … Continue reading
Write a Short Story for Radio
Carried in Waves is a short story competition for radio organised by University College Cork. The brief is wide: the story can be on any subject, written in any style, … Continue reading
Free International Travel Writing Competition
Writers anywhere can submit a travel essay to the Germany-based blog I Must Be Off! in its third annual travel writing competition. “If it’s about travel, we want to read … Continue reading
Leonard Cohen on Yeats and Shakespeare – Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
As a young man, Yeats spoke to me in a way I could understand. Shakespeare I couldn’t understand, but Yeats I could. It was his subject matter and also I … Continue reading
8 Tips for Editing a Manuscript
Originally posted on Black Lilac Kitty Book Reviews:
A writer/author should make the manuscript the best it can be before sending it to the publisher. This goes for both traditional…
Writers: don’t think of it as rejection – Barbara Kingsolver Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can … Continue reading
9 famous authors rejected by publishers (comfort for emerging writers)
I enjoyed reading the article published by The Writers Circle website about famous authors who were not only rejected (in one case 800 times), but also had to suffer crushing … Continue reading
Publisher looking for new crime thriller writers launches short story competition
To celebrate Oldcastle Books 30th birthday the publisher has set up a new short story competition for its crime fiction imprint, No Exit Press. It is open to any unpublished … Continue reading
The writer’s most natural style…Kurt Vonnegut Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes)
The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. English was Conrad’s third language, and much that seems piquant … Continue reading
A free writing competition with a BIG difference – they want you to show off your marketing skills as well
Neil Raphel, acquisitions editor of Brigantine Media, says: “… publishing success or failure depends on our authors’ commitment to marketing.” Brigantine Media, based in Vermont, started life 30 something years … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 