It’s official – the creative industries earn £146,000 every single minute for the UK economy
New figures published yesterday – January 13th – reveal that the Creative Industries are now worth £76.9 billlion per year to the UK economy – an all-time high. That figure … Continue reading
Write for BBC Radio
Once a year a window opens for new writers with no experience of radio to submit a short story to Opening Lines – BBC Radio 4’s showcase for short stories. … Continue reading
Time away from the workaday world for Scottish writers….
The Scottish Book Trust want Scotland-based novelists, poets, children’s writers, dramatists and screen writers to apply for the Robert Louis Stephenson fellowship. It provides residencies for four fellows for one … Continue reading
Creative Writing Newsletter – December issue going out today
From time to time I send out a newsletter about competitions, publishing opportunities and other writerly things that take my fancy. The third edition is going out later today and … Continue reading
There’s a time for everything including posting on Facebook…
I retweeted a post about social media from Carly Watters’ very interesting blog back in October. She is vice president and senior literary agent for a Canadian literary agency, but … Continue reading
Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was no such thing as books for boys…or princesses…or pink
I recently wrote about a Barbie book that should never have seen the light of day and now I’ve heard about a young girl in California who has managed to … Continue reading
Christmas tension mounting? Here’s a book that will help without mentioning turkeys or stuffing (although family does crop up quite often))
Think of Making Friends with Anxiety as an early Christmas present to yourself. Written by international bestselling author Sarah Rayner, it oozes compassion without a hint of patronising superiority or … Continue reading
Win a copy of my creative writing guide in time for Christmas
Hurray! I’ve made it past the 200 ‘likes’ milestone on my creative writing facebook page. As promised I’m going to give away a paperback copy of BACK TO CREATIVE WRITING … Continue reading
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before…
…but I have a facebook page dedicated to writing. I use it for quick bits of information that seem funny or useful or both. I don’t put the same material … Continue reading
A book that shouldn’t be on your Christmas list
The publishers of Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer have been forced to apologise because of its sexist content. Although I haven’t seen a copy myself, I gather that … Continue reading
A special one-off event for Sussex Sci Fi fans
THEY is a Science Fiction novel set on the South Downs and published in 1977. ‘They’ are an unnamed group who roam the countryside and remove all books, musical instruments and artworks … Continue reading
You’ve got 24 hours to tweet a scary story
To enter this international writing competition run by the literary magazine The Penny Dreadful all you have to do is tweet a one line horror story with the hashtag #PDHorror. … Continue reading
The Laureate for Irish Fiction just gets better and better…
Originally posted on Irish Writing Blog:
Anne Enright, one of 34 authors on the longlist for the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction (Image: The Guardian) A longlist of 34 authors…
An inspirational workshop for apprentice performance poets
If you’ve always wanted to write and perform your own poetry there’s a chance to attend a masterclass next Saturday afternoon October 25th 2014 with Dean Atta . Rhyme and … Continue reading
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 