I've moved the blog to here.

Seem easier to manage.

Odds and Ends for the coming month..

So I figure what I need here is a plan of action.
I seemed to have missed a few of the February Deadlines in my absence from Melbourne, whilst drinking mulled wine in big bad England.

But the Christmas weight is gone, I'm a week away from home, and gagging to rev up my bike again and spend a day at The Victorian Writers' Centre adding to my ever growing submissions list.

March is looking to be a bit more fruitful with the Bristol Short Story Prize deadline on the 31st, The Literary Prescription on the 19th, and am also going to use March to pore over some more copies of Wet Ink to get a feel for the sort of stuff they print. Would like to have submitted to them by the end of March as well as they seem to promote new writing, which is exactly what I happen to be!

The Perth Writers Festival starts on the 28th of Feb, but as I couldn't change my flight to get back sooner, unfortunately this will not be my first festival of the year.

I'm also going to round up some guts and head on down to the launch of the fourth issue of Muse, to get myself a copy and to see what these Melbourne Literary types are all about.
It's from 4-6pm at the Garage Cafe & Bar, 221 Berkeley St. Carlton on the fourth of March, if anyone wants to come help me take off my training wheels.

Narrative Magazine are also taking submissions by the end of March with a $3000 prize for their Winter Short Story comp. Details are here: http://narrativemagazine.com/node/7668
Only thing to consider is the $20US Submission fee.

I think I might drag out an old piece and take some spanners to it, see if I can waste me the money I won on this week, at least that way I'm breaking even.

All of these magazines are really hot on whether you've read their stuff before or now, so if you're thinking of applying leave yourself some time for research as well as preparing your submission.

That's what I'magonnado anyway.

Till Then,

Sophie. Xx

All bodes well..

The results of the January Global Short Stories Competition are in and to my surprise I managed a high commendation and a wee £25 cheque in the mail. This is the first competition I have entered and am amazed to find myself in the top three for my story entitled Michael. The competition is run by author and journalist John Dean and has ties to British author Bill Bryson. My feedback went as follows;

Michael, by Sophie Moon, was our other highly commended story. Fiona said: “To write a completely new story about abuse is some achievement, and to include the elements of innocence and experience from a fresh angle - well, I take my hat off to you. You hit all the five senses with this one, as well as the sixth with that awful frisson of imminent disaster. And the ending was very satisfying, too."

The story will go up in the next couple of weeks at www.globalshortstories.net, and is also in my personal blog.

Let’s hope this bodes well for the barrage of rejection letters I was preparing myself for throughout the coming year,

Champagne for everybody daaahling…

Or maybe Cava..

Xx

So you want to be a writer?

That annoying catch phrase employed by so many writing websites designed to lure us unsuspecting, or less technologically sound, budding authors into advert loaded paid websites, competitions involving 'just one small credit card payment', and confusing submission lists completely adverse to your writing career.

Phew. Jaded or what?

So here I am, tired of bandying about my loose definition of a writer, so useful for parties or something to compliment the fact I'm 25 and still working in hospitality. I'm ready to submit my work. I'm prepared to lay my bleeding heart on the table for editors to skim and stab with their letter openers.

This Blog, will act as a documentation of this process.

Cross your fingers and your toes for me folks.

So what are we taught in high school on career day when Lucy's dad the doctor, Jake's mum the lawyer, and Rick's dad the successful Property Manager come to talk to us about deciding what to do for the rest of our lives?

There is no money in writing.
Prepare yourself for constant rejection.
Isn't that really better as just a bit of a hobby Soph?

And so we looked forward to the day when our favourite author would come to school to speak about their latest novel. We'd pile up every book of theirs they'd ever written and hope they would recognise that underneath the face glitter we were raw talent waiting to be discovered. We'd imagine their lives, wistful of sea views and old typewriters that pleasantly clacked as they typed the words we had spent hours devouring. We'd use them as validation when Craig went off to study Economics and Kate went to work for her fathers company.

So what is the truth for an emerging Australian writer?
Is the industry as hard to break as they say?
What resources do we have available to us and how useful are they?

This is what I'm planning to find out.

Last year I began a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Latrobe University. This year, while studying, I'm planning to go submission crazy schlepping my short stories here there and everywhere, in a crazed attempt to see where finally following my passion will lead me.

If ASIMO can conduct a freakin orchestra there's got to be hope for me eh?

Resigned to potential poverty.

Avoiding the nine-to-five.

Stay tuned,

Sophie. Xx