2011 ASIS Student Writing Competition

An interesting writing opportunity for students - From the ASIS website: "the ASIS International Student Writing Competition rewards students who conduct research, engage in thoughtful deliberation, and write an academic paper between 3,000 and 6,000 words on an issue relevant to the security and assets protection profession.

Students may select to report on one of these six topics:

·         The most promising technologies to meet tomorrow's security challenges

·         Improving the image and reputation of the security profession

·         Protecting information and intangible assets in the 21st Century

·         The challenge of securing cyberspace: man or machine?

·         Leveraging low-cost/low-tech solutions for contemporary security challenges

·         The impact of globalization on security, assets protection and organizational resilience

The undergraduate winner will receive $1,000, and the graduate winner $1,500. Each winner also receives complimentary registration to one of ASIS' annual events. Two students will win Honorable Mention awards of $500 each."

There are full details, including expanded topic descriptions, submission requirements and material on how the winning entries will be selected on ths ASIS Foundation website. Closing date is 9th December 2011.  Entrants should be, as the website says "full or part-time, pursuing an associate, bachelor, or masters degree studying at an accredited institution. 2011 graduates may participate in the competition".

The Caspian Gates, by Harry Sidebottom

Sidebottom, Harry, Warrior of Rome, Part IV: The Caspian Gates (London: Michael Joseph, 2011), 432 pages, 978-0718155919

The Roman Empire, 262AD.  Series protagonist Ballista is in Ephesus, fearful for his family and wary of his own safety after the events in the previous novel, Lion Of The Sun, which saw him, albeit temporarily, wear the Imperial purple.  He knows he’s a target for possible assassination to prevent either others acclaiming him as a pretender to the throne, or him advancing a claim of his own.   Ephesus is struck by an earthquake, leaving the city vulnerable to coastal attack from raiding Goth pirates.  Ballista is able to command forces to first escape then repel the raiders; his reward is to be despatched further into the hinterlands of the Empire to hold the still-threatening Persians at bay.

Though there’s an at-times episodic feel to this, the fourth novel charting the adventures of Marcus Clodius Ballista, the classically-educated Germanic barbarian with a knack for drawing blood-feuds towards him.  That really doesn’t matter though; as the series develops, the individual volumes are building into an expansive fictional biography of the protagonist and a convincing portrait of the Roman empire in the third century AD.  As in previous books, Ballista’s an engaging mix of savage and thinker, conflicted family man and warrior, Northerner and Southerner, able to call on brute strength and fighting prowess, military strategy and/or Greco-Roman legends and history as the occasion demands.  

The detail is equally convincing; Sidebottom gives us a running commentary in asides on terminology, foodstuffs, battle tactics, dress codes, manners and social conventions; the reader feels the history sneaking in along with the story and characters.   The whole experience of reading the books is of a supreme confidence in both knowledge of the contexts of Ballista’s adventures and in relaying that through fiction.  This is an impressive series that works equally well as character study, action-adventure and as insight into a specific past.

The Caspian Gates is bookended with a series of maps and a useful glossary.  Particularly handy is an historical afterword which summarises Sidebottom’s approach to his material and gives additional information about the known facts of the era and how he’s made his choices in developing the books.         

A Very Short Story writing competition

There's a couple of days left in order to enter the current A Very Short Story competition for fiction under 1,000 words. There's no restriction on theme or genre.  You can see previous winning work here.  There's a new competition every month, and you'll find more information on the A Very Short Story website.     

Bureau of Investigative Journalism internship competition 2011

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as its website says "is a not-for-profit organisation that bolsters original journalism by producing high-quality investigations for press and broadcast media".  As part of their commitment to fostering new journalistic talent, their internship competition offers recent graduates and young journalists a chance to win a three-month paid internship with the Bureau.  


The challenge set is "to write an article of up to 1,000 words by August 12 on any issue that fits into the Bureau’s four main areas of focus: Corporate Watch, Health, Human Rights and Open Society. Entries will be judged on the originality of the story, clarity of the argument and the strength of the supporting evidence".


The winner will work for three months (September to December 2011) in London and be paid £16,200pa pro rata.


There are full details on the competition page of the Bureau's website.   

Whitechapel Society Short Story Competition

Now in its third year, the Whitechapel Society Short Story Competition is open to entries.  The society is devoted to study of the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888, and stories should reflect this. 


Short stories should be no more than 3,000 words long and begin with the opening line "Pushing aside a plethora of witness statements, Abberline took up his pen and sighed as he wrote: 'I beg to report'".  


The closing date for the competition is 6th August 2011 and there's a first prize of £100 for the winning short story.  Full details may be found on the Whitechapel Society website here. 

Circalit / Gabriel Bisset-Smith short film competition

From Circalit's website: "Submit a 5-6 page short film script and get it produced by the award winning-director, Gabriel Bisset-Smith. One extremely lucky writer will have the amazing opportunity to get his short film taken all the way from the page to the screen by the UK's most up-and-coming director for free. 

Romance, relationships, voyeurism: your task is to write a five minute short film script inspired by these and other themes from Gabriel's short film, Thrush."  You can find the short film here.  

Full details, including information on about how to submit and on the mid-September closing date, are on Circalit's website.    

BBC Writersroom rapid response call re #hackgate

From the BBC Writersroom website: 


"Do you have an urgent response to the phonehacking scandal?

"As the events surrounding the News of the World revelations gathered speed and hit the headlines, have you felt inspired, do you have something to say about it all?  Could you put the law makers and law breakers on trial? Navigate the global empire? Make us believe what is beyond belief? Now is your chance to think big in a short form:

"We are looking for 5-10 minute scripts for film, TV, radio or online; dramatic or comic but most definitely bold and imaginative responses to the phone hacking scandal that we can publish on our website. We’re not looking for scripts to make – we’re looking for exciting rapid responses to post online.

"The script can be in any genre but it must be drama or a comedy with a different angle on a narrative that has gripped the country. We want an original response. We want a unique perspective, compelling characters, contained stories that pack a punch.

Up to five of the best scripts will be posted on the writersroom website as the fastest possible response to the rapidly unfolding events surrounding #Hackgate. The deadline is 5pm on Monday 1st August."

Fulll details over at the BBC Writersroom website.  

BBC Radio 4 Alfred Bradley Bursary 2011

From the BBC Writersroom website: "BBC Radio Drama North are looking for talented writers based in the North of England, with compelling stories to tell.  

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award aims to encourage and develop new writing in the North. It is a unique opportunity to win a bursary of £5000, have work produced on BBC Radio 4, secure a twelve month mentorship with a Radio Drama Producer and the opportunity to develop future commissions.

The award is only open to people who live in the North of England and who have not had a previous network radio drama commission (The North of England includes the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humber).

To enter, submit a full length script in any format alongside a separate one-page radio drama proposal suitable for the Radio 4 afternoon play slot.  The proposal should be an entirely separate idea to your submitted script. In essence, it should be the story outline of a drama which you would like to write, and should preferably include a story breakdown, a section on the style you wish to write the drama in and how you will utilise the audio medium."

Full details are on the BBC Writersroom website.  The closing date for entries is 10am on 15th September 2011.   

Gemini Magazine Flash Fiction competition

Gemini Magazine has its annual flash fiction competition open for entries.  Fiction of up to 1,000 words on any theme may be submitted.  There's a $1,000 first prize with a runner-up prize of $100.  The competition closing date is 31st August 2011.  You can find more details of this competition, plus examples of previous winning entries, over at Gemini's website.  

Win a copy of "The Doomsday Testament" by James Douglas

Douglas Jackson writes historical fiction set in the Roman Empire under his own name (his titles include "Caligula", "Claudius" and "Hero of Rome"), but writing as James Douglas, he's got his first contemporary thriller that's due to hit bookstores on 18th August.  "The Doomsday Treatment", as Doug says, "is a desperate race against time to find the deadliest lost secret of the Second World War". There's five chances to win copies of this new book over at Doug's blog which you can find here.  

Raspberry and Vine short story competition

Australia-based Raspberry and Vine run two short story competitions a year.  The current competition, for short fiction in any genre of up to 4,000 words, closes 28th October 2011.  Full competition details and further information (including past winning entries, which are available on the website) can be found here.   First prize is AUD 300.  

Killer Move, by Michael Marshall

Marshall, Michael, Killer Move (London: Orion, 2011), 368 pages, 978-1409133247

Florida, present day.  Bill Moore is an ambitious real-estate salesman, keen to impress the local business community and maybe, just maybe, get enough backing together to set himself up on his own.  But little things star going awry; a mysterious Amazon purchase, a hacked email account, Facebook messages for starters, each accompanied by a one-word note: modified.  At the same time John Hunter is released from 16 years’ imprisonment for a murder he didn’t commit.  His sole objective; to get himself across the US to Florida and to revenge himself on the cabal who set him up.  

Marshall’s sixth thriller plays well with our reliance on modern technology (mobile phones, automated banking, Facebook) and cranks up slowly and effectively as Moore’s initial cocky swagger is chipped away at in the first half of the book.  The action is a long time coming, but when it does, the paranoia and viscera flying in equal amounts, it’s clear that all bets are off and anything can happen to anyone.  The central mystery is well-handled and there are a couple of very neat twists played, some linking to recurring aspects of other Marshall books.  As such this may not be the place to start if you haven’t read his thriller fiction before (as Michael Marshall Smith he deals in SF, as MM Smith in children’s fiction) because at least one reveal feels designed to horrify the reader more than the character, but again Marshall proves he’s about the best in the business at the kind of fiction where the self-assured though naive get a violent peek behind the curtain and can thus understand how the world really operates.         

Revenger, by Rory Clements

Clements, Rory, Revenger (London: John Murray, 2011), 436 pages, 978-1848540859


England, 1592. Courtiers are jockeying for position as the elderly Queen Elizabeth’s succession is not settled. Crown intelligencer John Shakespeare is instructed to locate documents that threaten the stability of the monarchy. At the same time he’s separately involved in solving the murder of a young pair of lovers, crimes which the parents seem to want nothing done.


As with last year’s first John Shakespeare novel Martyr, Revenger is an artful blend of historical conjecture, political intrigue, early-modern forensics and full-on action piece. A lively set of supporting characters and an interestingly conceived central investigator with a set of challenges to him (his Catholic wife, the antics of his playwright brother), plus an enjoyably detailed and at times bawdy sense of late Tudor England propel the narrative along; a classy entertainment. Useful historical notes, some character sketches on the real-life minor characters and a glossary are handy additions and underline the confidence on display here.

Empire: Wounds of Honour, by Anthony Riches

Riches, Anthony, Empire: Wounds of Honour (London: Hodder, 2010), 389 pages, 978-0340920329

Britannia, under Commodus (what we’ll come to know as late second century AD). Young officer Marcus Valerius Aquila is despatched by his father from Rome with an urgent message, but it soon becomes clear that political turmoil has overtaken the elder Aquila, and the massage is a ruse to get his son away from both Rome and certain death. Hidden among friends, Aquila escapes assassination and takes a new name. Thus disguised, he takes up soldiering on Hadrian’s Wall while pondering how to get his name back and to obtain his revenge. Aquila soon establishes himself as a brave and forward-thinking centurion, but his true identity becomes suspected and he’s put into mortal danger in a series of increasingly-dangerous sorties into Hibernia beyond the wall.

This first novel (there are three in the series to date) from Anthony Riches is a brisk, punchy yarn with plenty to recommend it. Aquila is a likeable protagonist and his status, youth and bearing are well balanced by the supporting characters around him. The battle lines, both in terms of the military action (of which there’s plenty) and the assorted plots and schemes, are clear and straightforward and promise much as the series develops.

Bill Naughton Short Story Competition

The Bill Naughton Short Story competition is interested in, as the website says, in stories that will "appeal to a very broad spectrum of readers in a manner and style that can be easily understood" in the manner of Naughton's own work. Stories of up to 2,500 words on any topic may be entered. The competition closing date is 7th September 2011. There's a €200 first prize and the top ten entries may be published. You can find more details on the Bill Naughton competition website.

Ilkley Literature Festival short story and poetry competitions

Ilkley Literature Festival (from 30th September to 16th October this year) is running a range of short story and poetry competitions, including these two for writers aged 18 and over. The short story competition is for original and previously unpublished fiction on any theme up to 3,000 words. The poetry competition is for new poetry of up to 30 lines. The closing date for both competitions is 1st August 2011; winners will be notified at the end of September. Both competitions have a £200 first prize. You can find more details at the festival website.

CheerReader quarterly comic fiction short story competition

Entries are now being accepted for CheerReader's quarterly short story competitions. Stories should be no more than 1,500 words and must be humorous/witty/funny. The winning story receives €100 against a €5 entry fee. The next competition deadline is 31st August 2011, with subsequent deadlines at the end of November 2011, February 2012 and May 2012. There are full details here.

Zoetrope All-Story Short Fiction Contest

Entries of literary short fiction in any genre are requested for Zoetrope All-Story's fifteen annual short story competition. Stories should be no more than 5,000 words. Three prizewinners (with cash prizes of US$1,000, $500 and $250) and seven others gaining honourable mentions will have their writing considered for representation by a range of publishers. The winning story will be published in the magazine. The competition closing date is 3rd October 2011 and winners will be announced in December. Full details can be found here.

Win Win (2011, directed by Thomas McCarthy)

So Mike's (Paul Giamatti) world is in lo-fi crisis; his legal business is struggling, he's stressed, the loo in his office is blocked and the wrestling team he coaches in his spare time is on a losing streak.  An opportunity presents itself when he's appointed to represent Leo (Burt Young).  The state wants to take him into care, but Mike offers to take guardianship of Leo himself, except he pockets the $1500/month fee to prop himself up with and sends Leo to the care home anyway.  Then Kyle, Leo's 16-year-old grandson turns up unannounced, having run away from his mother's home.  And Mike's life starts to get really complicated...



"Win Win", the third film (after "The Station Agent" and "The Visitor") from writer/director McCarthy is a little gem.  Though nothing really climactic happens, the ending's well telegraphed and perhaps there's a hint of over-reliance on Giamatti's hangdog everyman persona, there's a lot to enjoy here.  The film works a neat balance between comedy and drama, there's some lovely supporting work from the likes of Young and Jeffrey Tambor, and there's a solid sense of observation running through the work.  "Win Win" might not be a life-changer, but it again marks out McCarthy as someone to keep an eye out for.  Here's hoping he continues making these small, slightly ramshackle, independent-feeling movies. 

London Culture Festival "City Through My Eyes" short story competition

This year's London Culture Festival is running a short story competition for stories of up to 2,000 words on the theme "The City Through My Eyes".  Entrants are free to interpret that however they wish, and within any genre.  Entrants ahould be able to define themselves as "Londoners".  There's a first prize of £300 and a runners-up prize of £100.  entries should be original and previously unpublished.  The closing date was the end of July but has recently been extended to Friday 5th August 2011.  You can find full details here.      

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 (2011, directed by David Yates)

In short (and about as spoiler-free as I can make it): Harry, Hermoine and Ron are racing against time to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes, the talismans containing parts of Voldemort's fractured soul.  To do this they've got to first raid Gringott's Bank, then break back into Hogwarts Academy, where the Dark Lord's forces are massing for a final battle against the remnants of Harry's followers, and where Harry will face his nemesis in magical combat.



Comment almost seems superfluous on this, the eighth, last and already biggest-opening of the Harry Potter adaptations, and the first to get a release in 3D, so I'll keep the notes brief.  Where the film differs to the novel is the focus, retained from the first half released a few months back, on the three principals.  To some extent this may feel a little disappointing as actors/characters who underpinned whole plots in earlier movies are reduced to namecheck-style momentary glimpses.  The only standouts here are Ciaran Hinds, almost unrecognisable under a fake nose, as Dumbledore's brother, and series stalwart Warwick Davis, who gets two roles here and is pretty darn good as the goblin banker who gets the heroes into Gringotts.   


On the other hand, director David Yates' and screenwriter Steve Kloves' attention on the central conflicts is unwavering and ultimately rather rewarding.  These are films built to last and to be rewatched, and by downplaying CG spectacle and action sequences and by privileging the leads and their conflicts, this last film delivers some surprisingly emotional climaxes.  Even at two-and-a-bit hours, it still feels a bit rushed and there's a whiff of novel precis about the whole endeavour (the story is so complicated that it is useful to have both read the books in advance and have re-watched the first part), but the saga is rounded off in a thoroughly satisfying and narratively consistent manner.  


The 3D (it's post-converted, but done rather better than, say, last year's "Clash of the Titans") is used with a neat sense of symmetry and design, but this isn't a story that is reliant on jawdropping effects for the sell; this'll work just as well in 2D and on television.  And to have made eight films in a decade with the same core cast throughout (the exception being Michael Gambon's standing in for the deceased Richard Harris after the first two films), with such a level of both continuity and consistency throughout is a remarkable thing, and perhaps even an achievement, the financial imperatives underpinning such big event movies notwithstanding.    

The Script Readers

The Script Readers encourage new writers to submit stage, screen and radio scripts for consideration to them for scheduling for their monthly reading events.  


As their website says: "Our members are a diverse mix of professional actors, writers and directors. We are based in North East London and hold our readings at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.


The readings are cast in advance in consultation with the writer from our pool of professional actors. The readings are not only attended by the actors who have been cast, but by also other members who are available and any industry contacts the writer wishes to invite.


After the reading, we have an open discussion of the work which is always a constructive and creative part of the process. The writer has the opportunity to ask for detailed feedback and to discuss our responses to their work."


You can find more information about The Script Readers here. 

Jordan Reyne/Anarchy Books short story competition

Here's a short story competition with a bit of a difference.  To mark the release of Jordan Reyne's new album "Children of a Factory Nation", a short story competition's been announced, the challenge being to take character/s from the album as a start point for a story of up to 3,000 words.  Closing date for the competition is 14th August 2011.  


Full details can be found at Jordan Reyne's website and also at SFX magazine.  Good luck!

Longworth Editors 2011 short story competition

UK-based manuscript consultant/editorial advisors Longworth Editors have opened a short story competition to promote their site and business.   Short stories of up to 3,000 words are invited on the theme of 'journey'.  There's a £250 first prize and two runners-up prizes of £100.  Entry costs £10.  The competition closes on 31st December 2011.  The 2010 winning stories are hosted at the website, which may give an idea of how to approach the competition.  You can find more details here. 

The Short Story short story competition

The Short Story is a new website devoted to, er, short stories.  As part of their startup, they've announced details for a new short story competition.  Original and unpublished short fiction of between 1,000 and 5,000 words; no SF, fantasy or children's fiction, please.  An indication of the site preferences are given on their "Our Favourite Reads" page.  There's a £300 first prize (no entry fee this year) and the closing date for submissions is 15th September 2011, with winners announced in December.  You'll find more details at The Short Story website.  Good luck!     

Justin Cronin: The Passage

Cronin, Justin, The Passage (London: Orion Books, 2011), 963 pages, 978-0752883304

America, the near future.  FBI agents are detailed to recruit and transfer a dozen death-row inmates to a military facility where they’ll be used in a top-secret supersoldier drug-testing program.  The prisoners are promised commutation of their sentences if they participate.  Two agents are instructed to pick up a six-year-old girl, the daughter of a woman working as a street prostitute.  The pick-up is bungled, and becomes a manhunt, the agents depicted as kidnappers.  The child is delivered, but the experiments throw up some anomalies; a new virus is born.  One agent, Wolgast, snatches the child, Amy, and escapes with her as the facility is overrun by the infected.   One hundred years later.  America has fallen to the vampire-like “virals”; a last band of humans stockade themselves against viral attacks, but there’s a ticking clock – their power source is fading.  Search missions for alternatives recommence, spurred on by a mysterious radio signal indicating that they’re not alone.        

The Passage is a huge and expansive book, with dozens of characters and an unfolding and complex series of stories being told.  Cronin’s writing is both immediate and affecting throughout; this is perhaps the best-written post-apocalypse novel of recent years and there are some neat stylistic innovations (use of diaries to speed up some travel passages, for example).  The lead characters, and there are many, are well-sketched and distinct, and a plausible array of reactions to their situations are deployed.  It’s clear also that Cronin knows his genre, dropping in sequences that are reminiscent of several Stephen King novels (the brief nod to The Shining is particularly delicious), at least two Mad Max movies and the ur-text Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend.    

In part, that’s the main issue some will have with The Passage; that we don’t really get anything new here.  There are plenty of ideas present, though many have been done before, if not always in as well-crafted a fashion.   Cronin’s vamps, for example are the uber-Gollums familiar from much of the last decade’s vampire cinema, and one plot kink seems derived too directly from the third Terminator movie of all things.   Peripheral characters have an annoying knack of turning up alive after being left for dead/assumed to be taken over and there are some sections where potentially thrilling material is glossed over rather than developed, or else deus ex machina pop up in handy places.   

As an immersive experience, a world, The Passage works rather better.  Cronin’s intent is not satirical; he plays the material straight and avoids easy laughs, gratuitous splatter or jibes at the contemporary West.   To some extent the reading experience is a little like watching the first series of a show like Lost – great characters and lots of mystery, drama and action, but no ending in sight.  Be warned that this is the first in a projected series of books (the opening chapter of the second, The Twelve, is included in the UK paperback edition).  If narrative closure is your bag, take that into consideration.  However, if you want to be lost in a future-past desolate America, The Passage will take you there in some style.    

Fish International Short Story Competition 2011/12

The 2011/12 Fish Publishing International Short Story Competition will open soon for entries.  This year's competition, one of the most prestigious in the short story calendar, will be open between 1st August 2011 and 30th November 2011 for stories on any theme of up to 5,000 words.  


First prize is €2,000 plus €1,000 to cover travel expenses in attending the launch of the annual anthology of writing deriving from the competition.  There's a range of runners-up prizes also.  Winning and placed entries will be collected into the anthology and will receive five contributor copies each.  Results will be announced in March 2012.   


Full competition details are available from the Fish Publishing website. 

Bad Teacher (directed by Jake Kasdan, 2011)

Back in 1998, Jake Kasdan made the great Sherlock Holmes updating Zero Effect.  Since then he's made a TV pilot remake of that film (it didn't go to series), the okay-ish Orange County and the Apatow-produced Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (one of those films where the best gag is in the title).  Now he's back, with a movie whose title at least promises something as scabrous as Bad Santa or the shabby charm of School of Rock.  That's not quite what we get though.  



Cameron Diaz stars as Elizabeth Halsey, a gold-digging and just-dumped teacher who gives education one more chance when new, handsome, rich substitute Scott Delacote (Justin Timberlake) comes to work.  Thinking that he's breast-obsessed, she sets her mind to raising to the $10,000 needed for a boobjob so she can marry him.    This puts her into conflict with love rival and eager-beaver schoolmarm Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch) while a sarcastic gym teacher (Jason Segal) looks on. 


Cue assorted sweariness and crudity, drinking, bit-part nudity, soft drug use and so on.  Plus tropes such as the stealing of the test results, the trip that goes wrong, and other  elements that will be familiar from other school-set movies, the twist being that it's a teacher being, you know, bad rather than the students.  Kasdan sets himself up for a fall be integrating clips from other, better, school movies in the early scenes, and there are a couple of neat sight gags that play off these references there are very few surprises.  There is a small handful of good lines, but not enough to justify 92 minutes of anyone's time.  Of course there's a redemption of sorts and of course Diaz gets together with someone she didn't intend to, but the film is content with making easy jokes and/or inserting a rude word into a comeback to make the film seem edgy.  Which it isn't.  


The most dispiriting moment is a momentary cameo from David Paymer; this is a film that could benefit from more of his deadpan genius.  Much of the rest is a game cast making the most of an underweight script, including Diaz, who uses what comic talent she's got and has the screen decency to let the supporting players do their thing around her.  The script avoids the issue of why she's a teacher in the first place which is probably wise, as any rationale it could come up with would be inadequate.    

Inktears Short Story Competition 2011

The Inktears 2011 short story competition is now open for entries – the winner’s prize increased this year to £1,000.  Deadline: 30 November 2011.

 Prizes: £1,000, £100, £25 x 4, plus all prize-winners get their story published and consideration for a short story collection/anthology publication.   Full results will be announced by 30 March 2012.  Fee: £4.50.   Length:1000-3000 words, any theme.

Stories may have been previously published (prior to 30 April 2011) or unpublished.  See www.inktears.com for full details.  

Follow Inktears on Twitter / Join them on Facebook http://www.twitter.com/inktears and/or http://www.facebook.com/InkTearsWall

Short story / flash fiction competitions and opportunities

A round-up of currently-open short story and flash fiction competitions:


Arthritis Care is running a short story competition with the theme "If I were an Olympian".  Stories of up to 750 words are invited from arthritis sufferers, the entries focusing on mobility issues in some way.  There's a first prize on offer of £500 in Open University vouchers.  Closing date is 29th July 2011.  There's more information here. 


Every Day Fiction is looking for fresh flash fiction.  The site posts a new story of up to 1,000 words each day; no themes are mandated, though stories should not exclude general adult readers through overuse of swearing, violence and/or gratuitous sex.  A token payment is made for submissions that are used.  There's more details here.   


Nanoism focuses on nanofiction (really short stories, here up to 140 characters, or the length of a tweet); literary fiction is preferred.  Token payments for published stories are made via Paypal.  Follow Nanoism on Twitter @nanoism - the website is here.   


Vintage Script magazine is a new quarterly interested in the historical, and is looking for nonfiction and short story submissions.  Short story submissions should be 2,000 words maximum.  There's no payment at present, though contributors will receive free copies of the magazine.  More details are available at the website. 

Channel 4 "Random" spoken word competition

From the BBC Writers' Room website:


If, within 220 words, you can mesmerise on the theme 'random e.g. a random event, good or bad, that changed your life, you could see your words made into a short film and broadcast on Channel4. It's a 'spoken word' competition so make your few words count and give them energy and purpose to make them stand out from the rest.

To enter the competition, write up to 220 words and email your entry to: random@channel4.co.uk

Your entry must include the following information in your email (failure to include this information may result in your entry not being considered by the judges:

1. Full name
2. Email address
3. Date of birth
4. Primary contact number

Prize:
The winning entry will be illustrated with a film produced by 4Creative and Film 4 and broadcast on Channel 4. The winner has the option to recite their entry and for their voice to be used in the film.

Judging:
The judges are looking for one piece of writing that imaginatively explores the theme 'random' by using language in a rhythmically original and engaging way.

Deadline: 27 July 2011

For full terms and conditions and further information, visit the Channel 4 website - there's a video to give you some ideas. 

Litro / IGGY International Young Person's Short Story Award

There's a couple of weeks left to enter this opportunity for young writers.  From their website: "The “Young Person’s International Short Story Award”, is funded by alumni from the University of Warwick, and is open to young people from around the world aged 11-19. In addition to a cash prize of £2,500 the winner will be published in the free short story and poetry magazine Litro Magazine and will see parts of their work displayed on a poster in a London Underground station. The winner and two runners-up will also have their story published on Litro Online (www.litro.co.uk) and on the IGGY website (www.warwick.ac.uk/go/iggy). 

The competition starts in March 2011. The deadline for entries is 25th July 2011. A shortlist of six entrants will be announced on 5^th September 2011, with the winner being announced at the Award Ceremony at the end of October 2011. The final word count for entries should be no more than 2,500 words."

Full details can be found here: 
http://www.litro.co.uk/index.php/category/competitions/

Jeffrey Deaver: Carte Blanche - A James Bond Novel

Deaver, Jeffrey, Carte Blanche: A James Bond Novel (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 2011), 432 pages, 978-1444716474

Present day.  James Bond, three years into a career in the ODG (Overseas Development Group), a clandestine offshoot of the Foreign Office, is tasked with following up on electronic surveillance indicating that a major terrorist attack targeting British interests is imminent.  Bond travels to Serbia, the Middle East and South Africa, his focus being environmental waste contractor Severan Hydt, who appears to be at the centre of a larger conspiracy.

Where the 1960s-set Sebastian Faulks-authored (‘writing as Ian Fleming’, as the book coyly put it) “Devil May Care” from a couple of years ago was a straight pastiche of the original novels, Deaver’s here-and-now revision of the character is at pains to put Bond firmly in the modern world, and as such feels quite like the last movie, “Quantum of Solace”.  The plot references the first decade of the 21^st century throughout, and the ultimate plan that the villains are working towards plays very much on contemporary concerns.  Bond’s the usual mix of bon-viveur, snob, ladies’ man and thug though he’s oddly muted – part is in his newfound discretion, his non-smoker status and a penchant for some terrible puns, part is in the way he’s written.  More on that below.    

Plenty of familiar faces are shoehorned in (Rene Mathis, Felix Leiter, Mary Goodnight) and, like the recent movies, Bond’s handler Bill Tanner has an enhanced role.  Q branch is updated, Major Boothroyd being replaced by Sanu Hirani, equipping Bond with a souped-up iPhone and the ability to summon impeccably-forged documents at a moment’s notice. 

Deaver’s done his research, with plenty of little asides about spycraft added and with a liberal handful of slightly awkward references to British life used by the narrator.  Where the novel falters (outside of Bond, who’s just not enough of a bastard to make him an authentic recreation) is in the plotting and in some of the execution.  The stakes don’t feel quite grand enough and the villains perhaps aren’t quite evil enough to justify Bond’s attention.  Too often we’re led a false trail by Deaver, who pulls reversals several times in the novel.  We’re denied the thrill of having Bond work out what’s going on (and thus being able to pit our own wits against the secret service) by having, repeatedly, information denied to the reader.  The effect is stalling; by the time the end of the book comes and a further set of reveals are played out, we’re used to the conceit and can see it for what it is; an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery dressed up as an espionage thriller, rather than the real thing. 

“Carte Blanche” is a better book than its predecessor, but perhaps Bond, in novel form at least, is too hard a nut for a name-brand novelist to crack.  Then again, I’d love to see what someone like Iain Banks could do with the material.       

Stephen King: Full Dark, No Stars

King, Stephen, Full Dark, No Stars (London: Hodder, 2011), 453 pages, 978-1444712568

This latest collection of four novellas (plus a bonus short story in the UK paperback edition) from the prolific King share a loose theme of madness/breaks with reality.  In “1922” a librarian and former farmer in Depression Chicago recounts how and why he’d ended up in a hotel room surrounded with rats; in “Big Driver” a mystery writer puts her fictional characters’ skills to use in gaining revenge on the man who raped her; in “Fair Extension” a cancer sufferer thinks he does a deal with the devil; in “A Good Marriage”, a woman accidentally uncovers an unsettling secret concerning her husband’s coin-collecting business.

King throughout plays with the possibilities of what he can do in the horror/thriller overlap by concentrating on what happens to ordinary people in fantastic circumstances.   Many of the stories deal with either genre tropes (serial killers, a murderer driven insane by guilt, the ill-effects of a granted wish) or by recurring elements in King’s own fictional universe (references to  other King novels, stories focusing on an author under assault by malign forces); this is perhaps a collection for converts rather than for first-time visitors.

Some might be annoyed in reading these stories back-to-back in the ways they seem to rely on similar structures and/or on authorial tics such as King’s fascination with vomiting – there’s a lot of protagonist sick in each stories.  That said, the writing is brisk and pacy throughout (King, to me at least, often seems a much better writer and more controlled writer over shorter than longer distances), the lead characterisations are well-maintained (King’s great at getting in people’s heads, and in depicting how pop culture both infects and informs the lives of us all) and can even throw in the occasional narrative and verbal surprise.      

Ovation Theatre Awards for short plays and monologues

From the Ovation Theatre Awards website: "This national competition invites writers to submit short plays and monologues, each lasting approximately 7 minutes long. 12 pieces are chosen and these selected finalists stage their plays at the Ovation Theatre Awards event in a bid to win one of the 3 awards up for grabs. Awards presented are Best New Writing, Best Actor, and Best Production. Two awards are selected by a panel of judges and one award chosen by the audience. For writers this is an ideal opportunity to showcase new writing and to meet with writers, actors, directors and judges at the event."


Plays/monologues should be submitted by 26th August 2011, and winners will be notified by the end of September.   Full details can be found on the Ovation website.  Plays will be performed on Saturday 12th November 2011 at Halifax's Square Chapel arts centre. 

2011 poetry competitions update

Details below for two poetry competitions with closing dates in the next couple of months:


Buzzwords Open Poetry Competition
Previously unpublished poetry of up to 70 lines is requested for this competition, which has a closing date of 31st July 2011.  There's a first prize of £600 and a range of runners-up awards.  More information is available here. 


ScotsCare/A London Scot poetry competition
Original poems of up to 40 lines on the theme of "A Scot in London" are requested.  The poetry competition is free to enter and there is a £1,000 first prize.   Entries should be received by 31st August 2011.  Further details can be found here.   

James Sharpe: Dick Turpin - The Myth of the English Highwayman

Sharpe, James, Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English Highwayman (London: Profile, 2005), 258 pages, 978-1861974181

Sharpe’s book is less of a biography of the celebrated/legendary highwayman, though those elements are present, and more of a social history of the phenomenon of the roadway bandit, and an examination of the processes by which such characters have been romanticised over the years.  Sharpe has Turpin, at least in his fictionalised and folk-memory forms as an avatar of the kinds of English heroes like Robin Hood; gentleman, folk hero and ladies’ man, arbiter of a form of redistributive social justice, rather than the sometime horse-thief, sometime butcher he was in reality.  Other highwaymen of the era such as Claude Duval (the source for several of the attributes and legends later associated to Turpin) and Jack Sheppard are also invoked, and much time is devoted to a comprehensive detailing of depictions of Turpin as a character, from Harrison Ainsworth’s popular and influential Newgate novels Rookwood and Jack Sheppard, through to modern-day TV, film and stage reworkings.  A coda comments on the relationship between truth and fiction, story and actuality, and that discussion in itself is an interesting one.

The book is slight in places, tends to repeat some of its points (it reads rather like a transcription of a series of lectures, though there’s no acknowledgement of any inception as scripts for talks), but is well-researched (copious endnotes) and engaging, and even if some of the chattier asides give off a whiff of fogeyishness, the author’s at pains to show that violent crime and its perpetrators was presented as scandalous and as thrilling in the 17^th and 18^th centuries as it remains in many quarters of the media today.        

Unknown (2011, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra)

This review contains some minor spoilers. 


Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife (January Jones) arrive in Berlin, where Harris is due to attend an international biotechnology conference.  On arrival at the hotel though, Harris finds he's left his briefcase at the airport, so he nips off to recover it.  On the journey back across Berlin, the cab he's in is involved in an accident, causing him to lose four days in a coma and on coming round, Harris has selective amnesia.  More than that, he can't prove his identity and no-one  - not his wife, the hotel staff - believes he is who he says he is.  Harris tracks down the taxi driver who saved his life in the accident (Diane Kruger) and together they try to piece together what's going on.  



Unknown is a bit of a mixed bag, and, like the lead character, has trouble at times asserting its own identity.  Part of this is the amnesiac/paranoid thriller plot, which casts shadows from the Bourne movies and a range of offerings from Tom Twyker's The International to Polanski's Frantic.  On top of this is recent success of Neeson's own Taken, which also features Big Liam stomping around a major Euro-city getting increasingly tetchy.   Oddly enough, one of Unknown's biggest borrowings is from SF; particularly in the second half, where the movie lifts phildickian ideas from both Blade Runner and Total Recall. 


There are a couple of neat reversals in the script towards the end (a villain racing against time to defuse a bomb) and an appropriation of the 1980s IRA Brighton assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher in a subplot, which is something I can't remember coming across before.  Too much, though, is American-abroad-thriller-by-numbers (scenes in the last nightclub in Europe still playing New Order AND an art gallery confrontation, a poorly-edited and CG-enhanced Remy Julienne car chase, Kruger stuck with a variant of the tart-with-a-heart cliche) and though there is depth in casting and some decent playing throughout, especially from Bruno Ganz as a Bernie Gunther-like ex-Stasi private investigator, there's not too much that's new here.  Jaume Collet-Serra holds things together behind the camera and Neeson proves again that he's convincing as both a sensitive and troubled victim as well as a leather-jacketed badass, but there's not much here to inspire either a second viewing or a sequel.   

The Way (2010, directed by Emilio Estevez)

Tom (Martin Sheen) is a widowed optician estranged from his PhD drop-out son Daniel (Emilio Estevez).   Tom is called to France after Daniel dies in a walking accident.  Tom discovers that Daniel was beginning walking the pilgrimage route to Santiago del Compostela.  Tom makes a snap decision, arranges for Daniel's cremation, intending to complete the 'way' in memory of his son.  Along the path, the grieving though emotionally distant Tom is joined by other pilgrims, each of whom have their own private reasons for making the journey.  



Part road movie, part Spanish travelogue, part Catholic church publicity project, part character study, The Way attempts, in a generally low-key and modestly effective manner, to create a range of effects.  The structure is perhaps inevitably episodic and not all the characters (a bitter divorcee, an overweight party-loving Dutchman, a blocked Irish writer being most prominent) are necessarily well-drawn, but the film is honest in its intentions and gets away with a lot through a direct approach.  Some may baulk at the unquestioning attitude paid towards Catholicism, though directer Estevez plays this along the lines of personal character affiliation rather than an overarching statement to the audience.  The writing throughout is less confident than the direction, but there's a lot of pleasure to be gained from the location shooting and some of the ideas on display.  


Most of all, this works as another showcase for Martin Sheen who, particularly in the first half of the movie, displays his command of screen underplaying.  The film loses sight of his character a little in the middle third, and never quite establishes what his character is looking for, but Sheen throughout reminds of his ability to play a principled, motivated man.  


The Way perhaps isn't for everyone, relying too often on some well-worn road movie sight gags, a handful of  European cultural stereotypes and some slightly-too-quirky story asides which at times feel disjointed from the rather more serious film at its centre, but there's plenty to appreciate as well.     

Writers' and Artists' Yearbook Writing Competition 2012

A & C Black, publishers of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, have announced details for their 2012 short story competition, being run in conjunction with The Arvon Foundation.  Stories of up to 2,000 words are required.  This year's theme is "identity".  Entries should be for an adult audience, so no children's fiction please.  The closing date for competition entries is 14th February 2012.  You can find full details here and here.

The 2013 competition details are here.

Angels and Devils Poetry Competition

In support of the UK publication of "Angel", an English-language translation of Arnold Jansen op de Haar's poetry collection "Engel", Holland Park Press has announced a poetry competition. 

As their website says, you are asked to write a poem of no more than 30 lines about family relationships. You can write in English or Dutch.

They are looking for poems that look at one’s relatives in an original way; they are especially interested in poems that use a personal experience to create general empathy.


Poems should be 30 lines or under, and may be composed either in Dutch or English.  Full details and some examples are here.  The competition closes on 31st December 2011. 

Big Issue in the North "Night" Short Story Competition

Details from NAWE's Young Writers' Hub: The Big Issue in the North Trust is running a short story competition in association with The Night Light, an online magazine based in Manchester

Short stories, up to 2000 words, based on the theme of ‘Night’ are requested.  All stories will automatically
be entered for The Big Issue in the North Short Story Award which will be judged by The Night Light; you may also nominate yourself for any of the number of the separate categories such as the Young Writer’s Award or the Genre Fiction Award.

The winning story from The Big Issue in the North short story award will be published in The Big Issue in the North and the runners up stories will appear on www.bigissueinthenorth.com.

The competition is open to everyone and people can submit as many stories as they like. In addition to the main prize, there are several sub-prizes that individuals can apply to, each sponsored by one of the North West’s leading independent literary organisations.

Full details are available here. Closing date for submissions is 12th August 2011. 

Fiction Garden Ghost Story competition

The good people over at Fiction Garden are running their first international short fiction competition.  As there's a near-Halloween closing date (30th October 2011), the call is for original ghost stories of up to 2,500 words each.  There's no other restriction, so feel free to interpret that how you will.  

There's a range of prizes on offer including publication in 2012 on the Fiction Garden website and a first cash prize of £100.  Full details can be found here.  

Camp NaNoWriMo

From the good people at the Office of Letters and Light (the folks behind National Novel Writing Month in November and Script Frenzy in April); their latest endeavour to get as many as possible writing as much as possible: Camp NaNoWriMo. 

From their website: 

"Based on November's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo provides the online support, tracking tools, and hard deadline to help you write the rough draft of your novel in a month... other than November!

"2011 Camp NaNoWriMo sessions will take place in July and August.

• What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
• Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
• Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
• When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster. Writing begins 12:00:01 AM on July 1, and again on August 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by 11:59:59 PM on the last day of the month. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins."