Below, in a month of Writing to Inspire firsts, are the details of our ‘First Line’ Short Story competition, as officially launch yesterday.
When I was designing this competition, I didn’t want it to be the same as everybody else’s; I wanted it to

The Writing to Inspire e-zine goes out tonight (so if you haven’t subscribed and would like to receive it click here), which means I’m sitting here at my desk updating everything, including the dates for the Writing to Inspire online writing courses.

It’s an exciting week here in my office. In fact there are so many fun things falling into place that I almost don’t know what to tell you about first.

I called into my friends at Collins Books in Whitfords City yesterday (who now stock my ‘I Want to Write …’ book and Autobiography Trigger Questions, by the way) and found out about a great competition being run by Text Publishing.

Great, that is, if your children’s or young adult book is over 25,000 words – mine isn’t, DARN!

If you’re looking for a local writing conference to go to next month I can recommend this one (if previous years are anything to go by).

However, if I ever needed proof that I was in the right business, I’ve been so eager to get back to work for the last week or so that I’ve been planning a stack of new and exciting changes/additions for this year. I’m just working on the final stages of competitions, online course dates, looking for workshop venues, and no end of other stuff.

There’s no doubt that entering writing competitions is a valid goal for writers; they can provide deadlines, credibility, experience, focus and so much more. But what makes a writer enter one competition and not another?

I’ve just made another discovery, not quite as good as Jane Austin writing Emma from my home village, but interesting none the less.

Iplayer is a website that allows …

I’ve just come back from visiting Jane Austin’s house in Chawton where she lived the last 8 years of her life. But, as is the case with places like this, it got me thinking…

How familiar are you with famous writers in your area?

One of the fun facts I have found out about Great Bookham, the village I was born in and am now visiting, is that