Bits ‘n’ bobs

“Grab a mentor today, you lucky writers!” That’s the slogan we apprentice writers should be chanting these days; well according to the Bookseller we should, as the role of the published mentor is being promoted again in the writing world. The problem is finding a mentor who has the time to look after you and give you advice – so thank god for writing sites/forums (well, some writing sites I suppose, some others have too many trolls which can do the opposite and cripple a writer’s confidence).

If you want some writerly advice without the trolls, you could do no worse than hopping over to the Macmillan New Writers blog. I’m adding a link to the toolbar over on the blog, called “Ask a Macmillan New Writer” – a chance to ask any of us a specific author-related question or a general question about writing.

And while I’m at it, I’ve added a similar link here on the right.

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Following the previous blog entry on the Willesden Herald, there’s a new short story competition on the go courtesy of the Literary Trust. Author v Author was promoted via the local paper here, but it appears to be a national thing too. As I understand it, it’s open to all writers (published or not) on any genre. The only restrictions are the length – 5,000 words (which rules out The Problem with Rats).
And if you don’t care to write, then you might care to judge – you could be the “Zadie Smith” of Author v Author, if you wish. Though I don’t think you have as much say over whether the winner gets a prize or not.

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Still lamenting the loss of the brilliant Charkin Blog, I’ve been told that Pan Macmillan have made their in-house blog a public affair. Originally aimed at discussing the whole digital-reading thang, the Digitalist has branched out into discussing other literary issues and books as a whole. Not sure if they’ll be indulging in the kind of hijinks that Richard Charkin was involved in (i.e. the Google-laptop heist) but it’s always handy for writers to keep abreast of industry views.

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And finally, everyone’s talkin’ about Eliza Graham’s Playing with the Moon, or at least we hope they are. Eliza is one of the great writers who found their way to Macmillan New Writing, and has been nominated as one of the top ten books of note and discussion by the World Book Day site. The winning title will go on to win a cash prize and a lot of publicity so we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for Eliza.

Sheepishly, I haven’t read her book yet, but in my defence I’m snowed under with research for my third book that starts next March.

There really aren’t enough hours in the day, are there?