Category: Writing

2021- Thanks for your support

Thanks to everyone who came to the events I organised in 2021. I was just checking through and found I have been pretty busy! To summarise, I ran a regular international weekly generative with feedback, flash fiction group (with breaks) most of the year, a series for flash fiction based on dreams, free weekly sessions on writing Hermit Crab flash fiction stories, a workshop called Flash Fiction Fireworks on November 5th, for the US based Culturama event organised by John Brantingham, a workshop entitled Happy and Hopeful, for the Crow Collective organised by Sage Tyrtle. I also devised and hosted the full programmes for the eight online flash fiction festival days sponsored by Bath Flash Fiction Award and Ad Hoc Fiction.

With the help of co-director, Diane Simmons, I have been organising an in-person flash fiction festival in Bristol for the weekend of 8-10th July. We’ve a fantastic line up, a brilliant caterer. And other details are nearly ready for booking to be open by the end of January.

And think of this tree pictured as a metaphor. If you want to grow some spring leaves on the bare branches of your writing, come to my on-going Tuesday flash fiction group in 2022, it begins again on Tuesday 11th January, from 1.30 pm – 3.30 pm GMT. £15 for a two hour sessions. Pay as you go.

And I’ve organised three more flash fiction festival days in January, February and March. The first is on Saturday 8th January with workshops, talks, two contests with cash and other prizes and readings. Only £30 for the whole day with videos sent afterwards. Free places for those for whom cost is a barrier. Book now at flashfictionfestival.com

Other things I have been involved in are the Bath Flash Fiction Award I founded, the short short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction, I direct and the Novella in Flash Award for Bath Flash Fiction. It was a privilege also, to be asked to judge the Mslexia Flash Fiction Prize, this year and have the opportunity to read more great flash fiction.

I’ve also been writing. Lots of rejections but fifteen flash fiction pieces published and a couple forthcoming. Listed here. Plus my first nomination for Best Micro Fictions.

Looking forward to meeting you again in the New Year at one of my 2022 events

Dreams into Fiction, a workshop for Culturama

Culturama, a weekend arts festival at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California is all online this year. Organiser and professor at the College, John Brantingham, prolific writer of amazing poetry and flashfiction, who was a runner up in the 2019 Bath Novella in Flash Award, with his novella Inland Empire Afternoon and who, with poet, Grant Hier gave a fantastic workshop at our 2018 Flash Fiction Festival, has asked me to run a workshop. I’m very happy to be running another version of my popular Dreams Into Fiction workshops, on Friday November 20th from 9.00 am – 10.30 am PST, which is 4.00 pm – 5.30 pm GMT. All welcome from around the world and it’s FREE. You just need to register on the site. The arts festival actually runs over three weekends in November and many great workshops are on offer.
My workshop will be a fun and interactive and you’ll come away with three drafts based on your dreams and new ideas to write more.
To get you thinking in advance, why not look at this photograph I took from the garden of my house as if it were an image from a dream you had last night. What’s the story?

Dreams Into Fiction, workshop for National Flash Fiction Day, UK

Picture by Royston Hunt.
www.earthnotes.co.uk

Join my free workshop for National Flash Fiction Day UK on Zoom from 3.30 pm – 6.00 pm, Saturday June 6th. It’s for up to 50 people. Lots of prompts and ideas to turn your dreams into fictions. I’ve run versions of this workshop before at three Flash Fiction Festivals. There will be new ideas and some old ones. But you are sure to produce at least four new drafts from your one dream. All you need is to do is to bring a tiny dream or dream fragment and be prepared to play. There’ll be small groups in between the large groups sessions, for you to share some of your drafts (only if you want) and chat with flashy friends or make new ones.

The beautiful dream-like photograph here was taken in Arizona last year by photographer Royston Hunt who is selling this picture and many other landscape shots as greeting cards or notelets from his website. Do have a look, they are all amazing pictures. If you haven’t got a dream ready to bring, you can also use this picture in the workshop for inspiration, as if were your dream.
Contact me on this email by Thursday 4th June if you want to come and I will send you a Zoom link.

Notebook Writes. May 2nd

It’s the second day of my Notebook writing prompts series where I colour co-ordinate an outfit to match one of my stash of unfinished notebooks. A purple/mustard combo here with my banana paper journal.

Why not dig out one of your notebooks and write some flashfiction in longhand? Today’s challenge is to write a 100 word micro, using my prompt, for the National Flash Fiction Day New Zealand Micromadness contest, which ends on May 15th.There are two contests actually. One is for ‘Lockdown’ micros, the other is on any theme. It’s free, so give it a go. Include one word or more from the list pictured and also include an item on the table. National Flash Fiction Day New Zealand publishes a story a day from the beginning of June up until June 22nd. If you get a micro published using this prompt, let me know, and I will send you a free entry (for another story) for Bath Flash Fiction Award

The notebook I am featuring today is made from banana fibre. I have hardly written in it but the paper is lovely and smooth, just right for longhand in fountain pen ink. It’s fun trying to match outfits to books of any kind, because it makes you consider different colour combinations you wouldn’t normally wear. I really like the mustard and purple mix.

I am running a trial Zoom session on Tuesday 5th May 10.30 am – 12.30 pm following the structure of the classes I have run face-to-face in Bath. Flash fiction prompts for in-class writing, feedback on stories from a couple of participants submitted in advance, a focus. Next week that will be on very short flashes. What works. Alison Woodhouse who won National Flash Fiction Day UK, micro competition in 2019 was commended this year and has been successful in several other contests since, is popping in for a guest spot to talk about writing to a very short word length. It’s all fun. Contact me asap if you want to join.

Notebook Writes, May 1st

As a distraction during the last weeks, I have been having fun colour coordinating outfits to flash fiction books published by Ad Hoc Fiction,the small press I direct, which focuses entirely on publishing short fiction. Check out the gallery of pictures I posted on the Bath Flash Fiction Site of Series One: The Older Writer/publisher Dressing Up To Go Nowhere

Series Three, which I have just begun today, will continue all May, and I will colour coordinate outfits to some of my large stash of unfinished notebooks. I will also offer a daily prompt. I know others like me who are enticed by the lure of a new notebook but never fill up the pages. Today’s notebook is one I bought in 1995 to record dreams. Plenty of blank pages in that one and some interesting dreams, many still on the same themes as today!

As it is May 1st, a day steeped in ritual and tradition, the prompt is to write a flash fiction story based on a superstition. Include some or all of the words on the list pictured below and any of the items on the table. If you are interested in taking up this writing challenge and you complete the story and get it published, I will send you a free entry (for a different story) for any round of the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Just send me the link to the story or your email with the offer of publication. It could be from any online or print magazine, or a flash fiction competition.
For anyone wanting more prompts and story feedback, I am shortly beginning a two-hour Zoom class following the structure of the popular face-to-face classes I ran in Bath before lockdown began. Two writing prompts and in-class fast writes. Feedback by the group on two or three first drafts of flashes submitted in advance. A story example to study. Fun. We’ll have a trial go at this, and then subsequently it will be £15 a session. Maximum ten people. Contact me via my email asap if you are interested.

Flash Fiction Fridays

Your chance to sow some seeds for a longer piece of fiction this year. I am running a series of four flash fiction sessions from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm in Bath Central Library on February 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th. The focus is on writing a longer piece in flash (the flash fiction novella or memoir). But it is suitable for anyone who wants a New Year boost and to learn more about flash fiction. Exercises and ideas to get you going, plus feedback. Additional input from Diane Simmons, whose novella-in-flash ‘The Inheritance’ is published by V. Press this February and also from multi award-winning short story and flash fiction writer, Alison Woodhouse, whose novella-in-flash was longlisted in the 2019 Bath Flash Fiction novella-in-flash Award. Fun and friendly.
For more information and for me to send you details to pay via bank transfer, contact me on my email asap

Celebratory Flash Fiction Readings and Book launch, 28th September, Bath

I’m hosting hosting a celebratory evening of flash fiction readings on 28th September from 7.30-10.00 pm at St James Wine Vaults, Bath where we will be launching ‘All That Is Between Us’ the stunning new collection of Flash Fiction by Bristol based author and writing tutor Ken Elkes.
I’ll be reading here too, along with Flash Fiction Festival team members, presenters and volunteers Diane Simmons, Santino Prinzi, Alison Woodhouse, John Wheway, Grace Palmer and Carrie Etter who are all widely published flash fiction writers. Free entry, free glass of wine, nibbles, late bar, Ken’s book and other books published by Ad Hoc Fiction for sale with cash or card. Do come! There’ll be a great variety of flash fictions to listen to and you never know, you might just get hooked!

Adventures in short-short fiction

Reading my flash fiction at Christopher Fielden’s charity anthology launch in London.

The Autumn series of flash fiction sessions is up and running at The Ram, Widcombe Bath 12.00 pm – 2.00 pm on Wednesdays. Contact me at my email address below, if you want to drop in. There’s sometimes room. You’ll learn about writing fiction under 1000 words. We’ll read different examples of the form, I’ll  prompt you to write, you’ll get feedback on your drafts and learn ways to hone your pieces ready for submission to magazines or contests.  Continue reading “Adventures in short-short fiction”

My Birthday Month

It’s raining today at the beginning of my  birthday weekend — the day itself is on Monday, but the whole month has been particularly sunny with successes and fun events.  I was delighted that my flash fiction ‘Winter Spider’ won the Flash 500 quarterly competition and now, encouraged by people’s comments, I plan to write a longer sequence around the characters. Less organising and more writing is the mantra for June. Could this happen, I wonder, with the Flash Fiction Festival coming up in July?

In other writing news, my story ‘The Ways of the Flesh’ was selected for the National Flash Fiction Anthology, 2018. I’m very, very  happy to be included in this with a great line up of writing friends. Also, my tiny micro, ‘Wings of Desire’ — which does, yes, reference the film directed by Wim Wenders, received a  highly commended in a new micro contest judged by write and editor Jayne Martin in Bending Genres magazine. And was fun to write.

The evening of readings of Ad Hoc Fiction winners for Ad Hoc’s third birthday earlier this month in Bath went brilliantly with great readings and a birthday cake with a sparkler made by Diane Simmons. This length of micro (150 words) works very well read out loud when there are a lot of readers.  Eleven came from around the country and Louise Mangos came from Switzerland. The pace and the energy was perfect. And many people said how much they liked the variety of fictions and how much could be said in so few words.

Last week, I  had the privilege of going to the Saboteur Festival Day last week and was stunned and so thrilled that Charmaine Wilkerson won the novella category for her novella-in-flash ‘How to Make a Window Snake’.  And I am very pleased for Ad Hoc Fiction who published this beautiful collection of  novellas-in-flash last June and has had this acknowledgement.

This month, I also went to the reception for Creative Bath finalists where Bath Flash Fiction is a short-listed  in the publishing category. Results in June at a party in Queen’s Square, Bath.  Fingers crossed.

Finally, if you like —  check out my mini-interview with  Tommy Dean where I brave a messy desk picture — not the tidied up version seen on another post on this site.