Short Stories that Help

Two points about short stories today. I wanted to draw your attention to an excellent comment on the previous post by Hayley who mentioned that when depression left her unable to focus for long enough to read novels, short stories were recommended to her by a counsellor (Alice Munro was the first) and she has read them ever since. Has anyone else had this experience?

The second is how short stories can help in another way - the wonderful Metazen online lit 'zine is having a short story & poetry contest which is raising money for Somalian Drought Relief Effort (via East Africa Drought Relief Fund).Here are the details:

We will accept submissions with an accompanying fee throughout the month of August. All submissions will be considered and a winner and 3 runners up will be selected by our judges. Winners and runners up will get prizes. Yes.

So…you get to write, you get to win stuff and you also get to help support a cause. There is really no downside. Even if you lose, your karma will increase.

Please submit either one piece of fiction (limit 2500 words) or poetry (limit 2 poems).
There is no theme, we’re looking for something you’re proud of. Nothing filthy, nothing milfy, nothing too pithy. A little pith is okay. Not too much. Pith-ish.
Timeline: All submissions sent between July 24th and August 31st with corresponding paypal entry fee will be considered.

And here's what you can win:

First Place:

Publication on metazen.ca with accompanying commentary on your piece
10% of entry fees from contest
1 Copy of Frank Hinton’s “I Don’t Respect Female Expression” print and digital
1 DVD “MDMA” by MDMA Films

Runner Up (3 winners):

Publication on metazen.ca
(1) of the following:

- Fog Gorgeous Stag by Sean Lovelace
- Grease Stains, Kistmet, And Maternal Wisdom by Mel Bosworth
- Download Helvetica For Free . Com by Steve Roggenbuck

Get to it! Full instructions here.

Charity short story anthologies - buy these books!

Just a quickie to direct you all over to The Short Review blog where I've compiled a list of short story anthologies that raise money for charities worldwide. When I started the list I thought it would be quite short... but no! What is it with me and lists? Go buy some books... And read the Feb issue of The Short Review too, of course.

Roller-coaster ride

It's all ups and downs, 2010, so far. The hugely exciting news is from a writer friend that I am not allowed to share yet.. but congratulations, you know who you are!

My good news is that my story, Mugs, has been accepted for the wonderful 100 Stories for Haiti charity anthology, alongside many writer friends and familiar names - Claudia Boers, Katy Darby, Lauri Kubuitsile, Sylvia Petter, Julia Bohanna, Dan Powell, Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Martin Reed, Joel Willans, Teresa Stenson, Vanessa Gebbie, Patti Jazanoski, Alex irvine, Steve Moran, Charlie Berridge and others. The full list is here, more information soon on how to get hold of a copy.

The bad news today is that my application for an Arts Council grant for my writer-in-residence position at the University's Science Faculty was rejected. I am pretty upset about that - I moved to England with some dream of readily available funding for all sorts of Arts - but that was a fantasy, I know. It's a recession, everyone's struggling. I will try not to be too down and think of new ways to fund my residency. I did go to an excellent event last night run by Spread the Word about writers-in-residence which was very inspiring - and made some great contacts, so will ask for advice.

To end on a more positive note, the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association asked me to contribute to their Top Tips for Writing a Story for Radio to help anyone thinking of entering their 600-word short story competition. There are some great ideas in there, click on the link to open the PDF, then enter the comp. Entries will be accepted between Feb 15th- March 31st. Good luck!

Two highly worthwhile writing-related endeavours - deadline 25th Jan!

I am in awe of people who don't just talk but DO. Greg McQueen and Frank Hinton are two of these people. Greg McQueen is rousing writers to help the people of Haiti through "100 Stories for Haiti":

... a collection of short stories sold to raise money for relief efforts in disaster-striken Haiti. All proceeds go to the Red Cross.

The deadline for submitting your short story is tomorrow, Jan 25th. What Greg wants:

• Do not exceed 1,000 words.
• No stories containing graphic violence, death or destruction.
• We want stories with a lot of HEART, a dash of COMPASSION, and unmeasurable amounts of HOPE. Stories that anyone can read. Stories that leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Stories that make you smile at strangers. Stories that … Okay, you get the idea.

 Read the full guidelines and send something to this fantastic project. 
Frank, editor of the excellent Metazen, gathered pieces of writing for his Metazen Charity Christmas Book and asked for donations which went to the Sun­rise Children’s Vil­lage Orphan­age in Siam Reap, Cam­bo­dia. As he said:

Authors can be so selfish. We sit and we write, pour things onto paper hop­ing to evoke, mull around in our minds and manip­u­late the lives of non-existent people. I would like to manip­u­late the life of a real per­son, in a pos­i­tive way.

And this he most certainly did. You can still donate - and read the Charity Christmas Book, which contains my story, Come Back Tomorrow, here.


Thank goodness for people like Frank and Greg. Thank you, Frank and Greg, for giving us the opportunity to do something.