The New Writer (magazine) is back

The New Writer is back. Now under new management it is available online and they are calling for your flash fiction. It's early days but do take a look at their website and sign up for their weekly e-newsletter.

The stress of online submissions and the decline of a good magazine

I think the world and his wife are online today - the internet is slow - well it is a wet, dismal Bank Holiday Monday. I've been spending the day catching up with my online courses, including the Start Writing Fiction course which is now into the fifth week. Our assignment was to write a scene about a stereotype who had a non-stereotypical attribute. Mine was about contract killer who rescued a dog from the building he'd set fire to with his victim tied to a chair and left for dead!

There are a couple of poetry competitions coming up, well deadlines looming actually, that I want to enter and I was in the middle of an online submission to the Bridport Prize, already frustrated because the site wouldn't recognise my previous login details and I was having to set up a new account. I'd just changed the password when WHAM the internet crashed. Cue my son after a day working and none to pleased because he said it was the wireless not the internet (of course I should have known!!). He sorts it out and I don't know where I am in my application. Both of us are getting a little heated, he's tired and I'm...well, me! Sorted it in the end and I'm plugged directly into the wireless now and I managed to complete my submissions....and breathe!

I'm wondering whether I can face another online submission today to Mslexia. Why do I get so uptight about it? Perhaps because I've had so much trouble with passwords and submitting online in the past. These poems are my babies and I've nurtured them and hope they are the best edit I can do, so letting them go is stressful enough without the hassle of finding my way around different online procedures. Am I the only one who feels like this?

On a very positive note I came back from holiday to find my copy of The New Writer waiting for me with a cheque for my second prize poem. Think I might frame it! The comments by poet and judge Helen Mort meant a lot to me. She claimed my poem yields more with every reading both in terms of its subject and style. On a sadder note this was the last issue of The New Writer owing to a decline in membership and the cost of producing the magazine. I am gutted as this is my favourite writing magazine and the re-vamp really made it stand out. The articles, news and tips are informative and I always follow things up. The competitions were numerous within the magazine and there was always something to' have a go at'.
I shall miss the magazine so much as it seemed unique to the market covering many areas of writing. It's such a shame. I don't understand why membership was so low - the magazine was a shot in the arm for me and I'm sure many others.

And the results are announced.....

It's been hell sitting on this one but finally I can reveal that I am the second prize winner in the single poem category of New Writer's 17th Annual Prose & Poetry Competition 2013. I was over the moon with this. My winning poem was one of those that wrote itself. I sat down with the intention of writing a long poem and it just flowed. There wasn't weeks of agonsing edits. It came fully formed and when I read it out at a poetry class my tutor said 'you are going to submit this somewhere aren't you?' Well, I did. It had previously been turned down and unlike me I did no further edit as I was please with it as it was. It just goes to show that poems have to be in the right place at the right time.  I'm now looking forward to seeing it printed in The New Writer magazine soon.

New Writer Magazine relaunches

The New Writer magazine has just been relaunched and my copy arrived today.  It has joined its sister magazine New Books and now looks slick and professional and is also in colour.  There are writer's prompts for writing groups/individuals, poetry in focus, an article about blogging, Katie Fford writes about five books that have helped her to write and there are competitions for stories, poetry and a photographic competition.  The magazine features some short stories and poetry and writer's gifts to buy.  In have only had a chance to glance through it but I really like what I see.  There are lots of opportunities to to get your work into print.  The magazine retails at £5 but look at their website as there may be subscription offers.