Donna Collins' Blog

This weeks competitions that have caught my eye:

Mills and Boon New Voices 2011 
Category: Fiction
Closes: 10th October 2011
Fees: £0 for one entry.
Prizes: £0 for first place. Book publication; iPad; hamper.
Details: For romance novels. Submit online.
Website: http://www.romanceisnotdead.com

Dorothy and Wedel Nilsen Literary Prize 
Category: Fiction
Closes: 1st November 2011
Fees: $25 for one entry.
Prizes: $1,000 for first place. Also publication.
Details: For previously unpublished novels, novellas, and collections of closely linked short stories, by unpublished novelists who are US residents writing in English.
Contact: Southeast Missouri State University Press, One University Plaza, MS 2650, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701
Website: http://www6.semo.edu/universitypress/nilsennovel.htm

Five Stop Story
Category: Fiction
Closes: 30th September 2011
Fees: £0 for one entry.
Prizes: £0 for first place. Publication on iphone and ipad app; Book of short stories.
Details: Winners and runners up published on our IPHONE and IPAD app as well as our website, winner also receives a book of short stories, 1,500-2,500 words,
Theme: Autumn/Fall.
Website: http://www.fivestopstory.com/write

First Novel/Novella
Category: Fiction
Closes: 30th November 2011
Fees: £16 for one entry.
Prizes: £400 for first place. Also publication.
Details: Submit the first ten thousand words of your novel/novella or 10 poems up to 40 lines or story of 2,000-4,000 words.
Contact: Jan Fortune-Wood Meirion House Glan yr afon Tanygrisiau Blaenau Ffestiniog Gwynedd LL41 3SU
Email: jan@cinnamonpress.com
Website: http://www.cinnamonpress.com

Wurdzl.com Writing Competition
Category: Fiction
Closes: 4th December 2011
Fees: £0 for one entry. free
Prizes: £0 for first place. Amazon Kindle
Details: Write up to 300 words on anything at all. The highest rated 1 week after the final submission wins an Amazon Kindle.
Website: http://wurdzl.com/competition2011

Running Late Writing Competition
Category: Fiction
Closes: 1st December 2011
Fees: £3.50 for one entry. Free to Premier1 Members.
Prizes: £200 for first place. 2nd Prize: £150 3rd Prize: £100 4th Prize: £75 5th Prize: The Busy Writer Course 6th Prize: Subscrip
Details: All you have to do to win any of our fantastic writing competition prizes is to write a story relating to our theme: Running Late. How you interpret the theme is entirely up to you but we are looking for well-written, creative entries where the story is bought to life by your story-telling skills.
Contact: Creative1 Publishing 15 Canigounenc Ceret 66400, France
Email: info@creative-competitor.co.uk
Website: http://creativecompetitor.com/competitions/new-competitions/running-late-writing-competition/

Aber Valley Arts Fiction Competition

Category: Fiction
Closes: 24th September 2011
Fees: £1.50 for one entry. Three for £3.
Prizes: £80 for first place. £45; £30.
Details: For short stories up to 3,500 words on the theme: Action.
Contact: Undercurrents, 15 Graig y Fedw, Abertridwr, Caerffili, CF83 4AQ. United Kingdom
Email:abervalleyarts@aol.com
Website: http://www.abervalleyarts.co.uk/competition

Danahy Fiction Prize

Category: Fiction
Closes: 1st November 2011
Fees: $15 for one entry.
Prizes: $1,000 for first place. Also magazine publication.
Details: For short stories roughly 500-5,000 words.
Contact: Tampa Review, Danahy Fiction Prize, The University of Tampa, 401 West Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33606-1490. United States
Website: http://www.ut.edu/TampaReview/TRDetail.aspx?id=12481

Flash Fiction-300 Word Challenge

Category: Fiction
Closes: 25th November 2011
Fees: £2 for one entry.
Prizes: £100 for first place. 2nd Prize: 50.
Details: Write a story around the woman in the photo (on website). You can be as creative as you like with your interpretation of the image but you only have 300 words (excluding the title) to impress us. So do make every word count. Your entry must be original and previously unpublished. We welcome submissions from writers worldwide.
Contact: Creative1 Publishing, 15 Rue Canigounenc 66400. France
Email: info@creative-competitor.co.uk
Website: http://creativecompetitor.com/competitions/new-competitions/flash-fiction-300-word-challenge/

RWA

2011 Suzannah Contest
Sponsor: NOLA STARS
Deadline: October 1, 2011
Entry: limited to 7,200 words (approximately 25 pages) and must include a one-page synopsis. All entries submitted electronically.
Final Judges: panel consists of six editors and agents.
FMI, visit nolastars.com.

First Kiss Contest
Sponsor: New England Chapter (NECRWA)
Fee: $25.00 for each entry, $20.00 for NEC members, Outside U.S. $28.00
Deadline: October 1, 2011
Eligibility: Entrants must be unpublished in book-length fiction.
Entry: Send us the scene from your book where your couple first kisses. The scene should convey the emotion and romantic conflict between the characters, sparkle with creative dialogue, description, and characterization, and move the story forward. As one of our authors said, “Good kiss scenes are essentially emotional discoveries. The first kiss brings a new closeness…but also a new set of complications.” Entry should be 10 pages maximum plus 1 set-up page. Use standard manuscript format, double-spaced, 1-inch margins top and bottom.
Categories: All
Judges: Both unpublished and published judges will review each entry.
Final Judge: Patience Smith, Senior Editor, Silhouette Romantic Suspense at Harlequin.
Top Prize: $50.00 or FREE registration to the New England Chapter’s “Let Your Imagination Take Flight” Conference (2011 value: $209.00), to be held in April 2012. (Not including hotel, transportation, or conference extras.)
FMI, visit our website http://necrwa.org/kisscontest.html or email the contest coordinator at firstkiss@necrwa.org.  

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

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