Nearly New Year… And a Giveaway!

Bonnie had a toy pheasant for Christmas

 Hello again, it’s me – and it’s not even the New Year yet, so please  consider yourselves ‘honoured’.

I hope you’ve all had a good Christmas, whatever that means in  your  world. I have eaten half my body weight in chocolates/turkey/pudding and I’m hoping I can still get into my outfit for the wedding this week.

I had a new phone for Christmas which, if it’s anything like the last one, will sit in its box for about a year before we work out how to download all the stuff from my old phone and all that palaver. This is the only time when I wish I had a tame teenager in the house!

And we actually forgot to get Bonnie any Christmas presents (!) so we wrapped up some of her old toys and she seemed quite happy (especially with the wrapping paper).

A few things to tell you about and then, a GIVEAWAY!

The Cheshire Novel Prize

A new novel competition (open to un-agented/unpublished – or self-published – writers) has just been launched and will be open for entries from 1st January 2022.

First prize is £1500 and all longlisted entrants ‘may be contacted by the judging agent’ – ie: it’s a good way of getting your work in front of an agent and if they like what they see, they may offer you representation. (And this applies to many novel competitions).

The entry fee is a hefty £25 but every entrant will receive at least a paragraph of feedback on why they weren’t long- or shortlisted (if indeed, they haven’t been) and the organisers are also offering some sponsored places for writers who can’t afford £25.

The judges are pretty impressive (it’s always worth checking who the judges are before you enter anything) and include literary agent Juliet Mushens. Have a look at the website which, even if you’re not considering entering, has some useful writing and submission tips and ‘what we’re looking for’ stuff from the judges.

For the poets:

1. Curtis Brown are running a FREE poetry competition on the theme of ‘New Beginnings’, to launch their new on-line poetry course.

All the details are here and the closing date is 21st January.

The prize is a rather tasty £500, a free place on their six-week online Writing Poetry course and publication of your poem on the Curtis Brown blog.

2. A message from Worcestershire Poet Laureate Ade Couper (from his Twitter feed. I can’t find out any more information than this but it may be of interest to some of you):

Happy #HumanRightsDay2021 everyone! (December 10th). To mark this, I’m delighted to announce that I’m now running an open competition for poets.

We want your poems on human rights for a new anthology, to be published in 2022, called “Human Writes”. I’m running this in association with @AmnestyWorceste and @LitWorcs.

You can submit poems (max 30 lines) on the theme of human rights to humanrightsdaypoetry@gmail.com between today and 31st January 2022 (late submissions will not be accepted).

Please send your poem as a word document or PDF; don’t put your name on the actual poem, but make sure your name & contact details are in the email. The poems will be read by a panel (me, a member of @AmnestyWorceste & former Worcs Poet Laureate @pixie_dragonfly).

Looking forward to reading your poems!

Rachel’s Holiday– 25th Anniversary Giveaway
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Ms Marian Keyes and I particularly like her novel Rachel’s Holiday (I’ve read it twice and listened to the audiobook recently and I’m thrilled that she’s finally – twenty-five years after the original – written a sequel, Again, Rachel – which is coming out in February 2022).

So, I couldn’t resist entering a recent competition to win one of several copies of the 25th Anniversary edition of Rachel’s Holiday (it’s bright PINK!) from the publisher but now I’ve got the book (which has EXTRAs in it), complete with snazzy badges and a bookmark, I feel a bit bad about sticking it on my shelf, so I’ve decided to give it away!

And it’s completely unread. I haven’t even sneaked a peek at the ‘extras’ and that’s the truth.

So, whether you want to win it for yourself or to give away to a funny-romance-with-dark/serious bits-loving friend (I know, it’s a bit late for Christmas, but you’ll think of something), everyone’s welcome to take part and all you have to do is leave a comment below this post, saying anything at all. (I am honestly so grateful to get comments, I’d be happy with ‘Count me in, please, thank you!’ or something like that. Or you might want to tell me if you like Marian Keyes too and which is your favourite of her novels).

This is going to be a quickie giveaway and it’s closing at 10am on Friday 31st December, when I will put everyone’s name into a virtual hat and draw one at random. UK only, (sorry!) due to postage costs.

UPDATE:

The winner of the book is SUE! (It was nearly Helen but if you look closely at the picture you’ll see that the arrow stopped at Sue!). Well done. I will message you now for your address.

If you’re not the lucky winner/you prefer e-books anyway or you literally cannot wait to see if you win, the Kindle version of Rachel’s Holiday is currently just 99p on you-know-where (the site that cannot be named).

Also, Marian is running a ‘readalong’ of Rachel’s Holiday on Facebook, for the next 4 weeks and it starts on Tuesday 28th December (yes, I know, that’s tomorrow).

I have mentioned Rachel’s Holiday before (it was one of my ‘best books of the year’ in 2019) and I agree with the publishers who describe it as “Deliciously dark and fantastically funny”.

Last giveaway: ‘The Smallest Man’ by Frances Quinn (October 2021) – Margaret has asked, quite rightly too, about the last giveaway I ran and I have updated that post now but to save you scrolling back, here’s the info and I will post the winner of ‘Rachel’s Holiday’ on this post in due course. Sorry, should always announce who the winners are, shouldn’t I?

So, my last giveaway (‘The Smallest Man’  – a signed copy) was won by Sarah from Stratford. But… horror upon horrors, when I sent the book to her it WENT MISSING! So, we waited and it still didn’t turn up, so in the end I ordered a new one to send to her (which of course, wouldn’t have been signed, but still…) and then, before I could send it, the original turned up! (Her neighbour, who had broken his leg, had taken in the parcel from the postman but hadn’t been able to give it to her – I suppose on account of his incapacity!). So, then I had a spare book, so I did another spin of the random name-picker wheel and the second winner was Fran Hill, so she’s had that book and enjoyed it. So there were actually 2 winners last time!

Happy New Year everyone (when it arrives). See you on the ‘other side’!