David Gemmell Legend Award 2009

On Friday 19 June, at the Magic Circle in London, the winner of the first David Gemmell Award was announced. This prize went to the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski for his novel Blood of Elves (published by Gollancz). On hand to accept the award was his British editor Jo Fletcher. The recipient received a replica of the axe Snaga, from the David Gemmell books.

Photo (c) Peter Coleborn
.

Future SToW meetings

The next meeting is on 4th July, at 10.00 a.m. at the Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre.

We do not have an August meeting. What with the Bentilee Open Day and so many people on holiday, we are taking a month out. The room at the Neighbourhood Centre has also been booked for the SToW meetings on the following dates:

5th September
3rd October
7th November
5th December
.

Giving away the trade secrets

Christopher Fowler writes exceptionally good short stories (novels, too). And he's prepared to tell you how to write them! Chris says: "In weekly parts, I’m helping you to write a story. This is a free tutorial with a specific aim; finding a practical way to write something that pleases you and readers."

Full details can be found on Chris' Blog.
.

Keele's short story winners

Taken from Keele University's magazine:

Budding authors who took part in a new short story competition organised by Keele were presented with their prizes this week. Prizes were up for grabs for short stories of up to 2,500 words and micro-stories of up to 250 words, as well as a school prize and a student prize. The competition was open to anyone living in Staffordshire, Cheshire or Shropshire and there were more than 300 entries.

The student prize went to by Christopher Prendergast, of Keele, for his story 'Sunset'; the winner of the overall first prize of £300 was Melissa Darlington, from Crewe, for her story 'Far from Us' and the schools' prize (young writers) went to Hannah Stubbs, of Stafford. The micro story winner was Rebecca Smith from Keele. The prizes were presented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, who praised the high standard of entries.
.

Pegasus flies high

The Pegasus Publications catalogue includes both fiction and non-fiction. If you want to submit anything, first check out their submission guidelines, here.
.