Our latest newsletter

Hi
Welcome to the latest newsletter from the team behind the Global Short Story Competition.

Honours go to writers from the United States and New Zealand
Judge Fiona Cooper selected her winners for the April Global Short Story Competition and writers from the United States and New Zealand have taken the honours.
The £100 first place prize goes to Martin McCaw, of Washington, United States, for Burly‘s Ride, of which Fiona says: “This is a well constructed story and a very enjoyable read. The writer creates scene and character with ease - and with echoes of John Steinbeck - and includes humour and pathos, while remaining pacey and, while the ending is happy ever after, it feels real and with a nice quirky twist. Well done. “
Our highly commended runner up is Jeff Taylor, of Hamilton, New Zealand, who wins £25 for Bad Skin Day. Fiona says: “Although any story including acne sounds quite yucky, somehow this story has an appeal and evokes both sympathy and humour. It’s a bit like going into the head of the stars of the television show Embarrassing Bodies and Ronnie is someone you can’t help but like. Neatly done while avoiding cliche, this writer shows great talent and skill.”
The writers on the shortlist were:
Paul Freeman, United Arab Emirates
Edward Sergeant
Dedwydd S H Jones, Bedford, England
Ananth Raghavalu, Trichy, Tamil Nadhu, India

Honours go to UK writers
Judge Fiona Cooper selected her winners for the March Global Short Story Competition and writers from Wales and England have taken the honours.
The £100 first place prize goes to Minute by Simon Mapp, of Wrexham, Wales, of which Fiona says: “This story grabbed me on first reading and stayed with me. It is haunting and quirky and the style absolutely reflects the content. It is hard to convey shock in a story and this writer goes beyond many in expressing the numbness after a tragedy coming completely out of the blue. Wonderful.”
Our highly commended £25 runner up is Alex Reece Abbott, of York, England, for Scratching the matchbox, of which Fiona says: “The imagery and emotion in this story run parallel, along the wildfire uncertainty of old age and love ripped apart by illness but managing to hand in there. The title is superb and apt, and this writer has managed to make the reader feel the helplessness of the situation while retaining a wonderfully dignified hope. Well done.”
The writers on the shortlist were:
Joao Cerqueria, Viana do Castelo, Minho, Portugal
Andy Charman, Woking, Surrey, England
Lynne King, Haywards Heath, England
Wayne Kelly
James McPherson, Glasgow, Scotland
Winning stories are posted on www.inscribemedia.co.uk Well done to our successful writers. You can enter the competition at the same address.

Free flash fiction competition result announced
The team behind The Global Short Story Competition has judged its recent free flash fiction competition. The challenge to writers for this one was to produce a story with a beginning, middle and end in no more than 100 words. The £50 prize has gone to Weedy Gonzalex for:
It was a dark and story might
Him.
Her.
Toothpaste cap left off.
Arguments.
Counter-arguments.
Recriminations.
Counter-recriminations.
Frosty words.
Icier silences.
Separation.
Lawyers
Divorce.
Coldplay CD: He wanted.
Madonna CD: She wanted.
Queen CD, Greatest Hits, slightly scratched: Neither wanted.
Fido the dog: Both wanted. What to do, what to do?
And they all lived unhappily ever after.
Even Fido.
(His bone had ended up in the bin along with the Queen CD, Greatest Hits, slightly scratched.)
Special mention to Yet Another by Jasdeep Kaur and The Perfection of Imperfection by Asharika Jaward

Free flash fiction competition launched
The team behind The Global Short Story Competition has launched its latest free flash fiction competition.
The challenge to writers is to produce a story capturing ‘one of the best things in life’ in no more than 100 words.
The deadline is September 1, 2014. Prize £50 and you can enter at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inscribemedia/183385438479538 The team at Inscribe Media, who run the competition, will judge it.

Free stuff
There’s loads of free hints on writing at our blog at www.inscribemedia.co.uk and you can also check out our free writers’ toolbox, which can be downloaded off the home page at http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/

Facebook
You can check out our Facebook page with its news, views and free competitions at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inscribemedia/183385438479538
Mentoring and courses
For information on our online writing courses and mentoring packages at http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/writing-courses---bespoke-mentoring.html
Nurturing new talent through our e-books
A reminder that, as part of our efforts to support and showcase new writing talent worldwide, we have published seven e-books
Lost Souls by Roger Barnes When young women start to go missing in Africa, an International Strike Force is assembled to rescue them.
Harry’s Torment by Michael Beck Set in the fictional east coast port of Thirlston and centred on investigators tackling the heroin trade.
Previously published were:
Cyber Rules by Myra King. The novel by Australian writer Myra tells the story of a farmer’s wife in isolated rural Australia. Caught up on the addictive side of the Internet, she holds a secret which may prove to be deadly.
Global Shorts - an anthology of short stories taken from the early years of the Global Short Competition.
Vegemite Whiskers - a selection of some of the finest writing from Australian authors who have entered the Global Short Story Competition.
White Gold by Roger Barnes A thriller by Roger Barnes taking the reader into a world of intrigue and danger set amid the poachers of Africa.
Haghir the Dragon Finder by John Dean, a comic fantasy for older children. Haghir
and his hopeless comrades are dragon slayers seeking a new challenge.
All the titles can be obtained by keying their titles into the search field of the Kindle shop at www.amazon.co.uk Australian readers will have to purchase via Amazon US at www.amazon.com
* If you don’t have a Kindle, there is a free Kindle reading app for your PC at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771
* You can find more about the books on our website. You can also check out our ebooks on Pinterest at http://gb.pinterest.com/inscribemedia/
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Contacting us
You can contact us as deangriss@btinternet.com
Thank you for all your support

John Dean