2018 List of Snippets
January. A good start to the New Year.
One of my looming deadlines has borne fruit. A flash piece is to be published in the online magazine Zeroflash. So thrilled. The story will be illustrated too, and I’m eager to see it. Here’s the link but it’s not up as I write this. Soon, though. https://zeroflash.org/
My short story called Outbreak is published in an anthology called Tales Irish, available on Amazon. Twenty stories from past to present.
Exciting to see it in print. A Facebook page has author bios and other information too.
https://www.facebook.com/Tales-Irish-Anthology-of-Short-Stories-141604739860803/
https://www.facebook.com/Tales-Irish-Anthology-of-Short-Stories-141604739860803/
Weekly
A few short stories have been published in the Ad Hoc eflashbook online. My latest flash is called Found and you can catch it and vote here. http://adhocfiction.com/read/#FlashEbook
Monthly
I intend to submit another piece to VisuarlVerse too, soon. https://visualverse.org/
Looming Deadlines
Several contests with deadline looming, so work in progress for them. Forty word prose for the Bangor Literary Journal – a new endeavour; a flash for January’s Zeroflash; a ghost story for Fiction Desk; chapbook for Frontier, to name but some. It’s all go.
Disappointments
No luck in the Into the Void poetry competition this year. But it was a very nice rejection email.
2017 List of Snippets
July
I sent query letters and attachments as per submission guidelines to five literary agencies. So far, I have one declined.
May
Into the Void won best magazine in the Sabateur Awards 2017. I mention this because I am proud to have been included in the inaugural edition with my drabble The Painting.
January
24th
My short story Letting Go read on Radio Dundalk on 5 October last year, is one of the top two entries for the Creative Flow Award. I will be at the studio next Wednesday for the live announcement. Very excited.
16th
My short Dancing with Fireflies was longlisted in Strands Publishing Contest. Okay, I was not shortlisted, but the story will be published in the anthology.
The theme for the next contest is water, and I am developing a story for it.
This year I have signed up for the story a month challenge. Four weeks to write, edit, revise, hone and polish a short story. At the end of this year, I will have twelve stories ready for submission. I may submit earlier because, after all, they are written.
2016 List of Snippets
24.11.16
Congratulations to me. My flash fiction The Painting, published in issue one of Into the Void a couple of months ago, is a nominee for the Best Short Fictions 2017. It is run and organised by Braddock Avenue Books. Amy Hempel is the guest editor.
The Best Small Fictions is the first contemporary anthology solely devoted to honouring the best short hybrid fiction published in a calendar year. With this annual, we seek to promote the seasoned writer as well as the emerging writer.
I will also have two poems and one short story published in the December issue (number two) of Tell Tale Inklings. It is available now on Amazon. com. https://www.amazon.com/Tell-Tale-Inklings-Mignon-Ariel-Editor/dp/1539655121/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480002271&sr=8-2&keywords=tell+tale+inklings
25.10.16
Whoo hoo. Just learned that a piece I submitted to Mslexia in the ‘life sentence’ section has been accepted for publication in the December issue.
Failed to keep to my new policy and it’s some time since I posted here. My bad. So the latest is:
Congratulations to Amanda J Evans whose poem All Hallow’s Eve is published in the fall issue of Stinkwaves Magazine. Congrats also to A L Hayes whose illustrations of the poem feature in the magazine too. The magazine is aimed at 9-18 year olds and can be bought from Amazon.
14.08.16
My new policy is to record here those of my friends whose work is published in some form. So, to start, I want to congratulate Caroline Connolly on her piece of creative non-fiction published in the online journal Grand Central Review. http://www.grandcentralreview.com/columns-and-reviews/the-prompt/
11.08.16
I have continued to meet my target of 1,000+ and my total word count is 11,075. I did an update blog on Day 4 and Day 8 which will give you the ups and downs and some of my thought processes.
Today, I have been going over the early pages, filling in, adding information. There are many contradictions. For example, a character is involved in an early scene and rather than make changes I chose to introduce her again in a later scene because it was the right place. I have to decide which to keep and which to remove. I haven’t done either yet because I have a feeling that there is a third option which will be revealed to me in due course.
04.08.16
Okay, so I’ve done my 1000+ words. Total 5,110.
03.08.16
August challenge Day 3 and 1,018 words written. Total 4,070.
02.08.16
August challenge Day 2 and I have 1,200 words written. Total 3,052.
01.08.16
Today is the start of the Page a day in August challenge. Total words 1,805.
27.07.16
Visual Verse is an online anthology of art and verse. Each month they present an image which prompts a piece of writing from 50 – 500 words. Type it on to the submission page within an hour or copy and paste. I put in a piece of poetry this month. http://visualverse.org/submissions/not-knowing/
I received my printed copy of the first issue of the Dublin-based magazine Into the Void with my drabble printed on page 38.
It is a great little magazine and I think it’s destined to go places. Well done to all the writers published in the first issue.
Into the Void is now accepting submissions for their second issue. Go on, have a go!
08.07.16
Very pleased with myself today. It’s a long time to midnight and I’ve completed the page a day in July challenge. I finished a short story I started a couple of days ago. While I know it needs work and I am unhappy with the ending, I’ll leave it to rest for a week or so. I also wrote a prequel for two of the characters in my radio drama Lady Invincible.
For the first time, I managed to organise my time so that I wrote in the morning instead of leaving it until a few hours short of midnight. I don’t mind writing late and part of me enjoys writing under pressure. But I like knowing that the work is done. If I also to choose to work later in the evening then I do twice as much work in the day. A win-win.
On a side note. One of the stories I started on 2 July has a photograph. I can now use that for the magical encounter writing competiton because it has a magical element. There is a £3.50 entry fee and a first prize of £500. Deadline is the end of the month with an upper word count of 1,500 words. https://www.writers-online.co.uk/news/latest-news/short-story-prize-magical-encounter-writing-competition-july-2016
07.07.16
I was out this evening but I organised my time better and made the effort to write towards my page a day challenge earlier. So, I have succeeded in completing the challenge for Day 7. It is a standalone story but unfinished. I had no idea where it was going but the end is clearer and I should have it finished tomorrow. Satisfied.
I knew I was going out yesterday night (6/7) and still didn’t organise my time so that I could write my page a day. That is why I’ve just completed Day 6 of the July challenge. But I’m still on track because it is one page for each of the six days of July. I will put the night’s events on my blog tomorrow or it should be today, in the morning. Unfortunately, I left my phone at home so will need to copy photos from my friends to put on the blog page. Just as a taster – it was a brilliant night.
06.07.16
I continued with the novella and wrote over 500 words. I admit that I didn’t start it yesterday but I am counting it as yesterday’s challenge. I started it after midnight and completed it before 1 am. I’ll do another one for today.
05.07.16
I wrote a couple of thousand words of a new novella some months ago and returned to it yesterday to put in my words for the page a day July challenge. This might be the one I choose to work on for the remainder of the month. Well pleased with myself.
03.07.16
Feeling very satisfied having completed my page for the page a day in July challenge. It’s set on a world without electricity. It is not a complete story but it is something I can develop. The idea was from a prompt I saw somewhere and noted. Amazing where inspiration comes from.
02.07.16
With fifteen minutes to spare, I wrote my page today. It is based on a tree I saw while on one route into town. I plan to take a photograph of it. I will post the image here when I do. It looks like jaws.
The tree changed shape since yesterday. Perhaps it has been cut down or fallen on its side but the image is different to the one in my memory.
I completed my pledge yesterday and wrote 500 words. I used a prompt from a magazine so it is a standalone piece. But I can develop it. Hmmm. Interesting. Now for the second day.
01.07.16
This is the start of the 5oo words a day in July challenge. See my blog. More tomorrow – will I complete the challenge?
Today, I received an acceptance for my flash fiction (drabble) in the new Dublin-based magazine Into The Void. It will be published on 25th July and I will be paid. Whoo hoo! Fancy submitting to issue 2, here’s a link with the guidelines https://intothevoidmagazine.com/
17.06.16
Another good feature from Amanda about Dolores Keaveney. http://amandajevans.com/dolores-keaveney-childrens-author-artist/
14.06.16
Check this out from a friend who came to one of my memoir courses. http://amandajevans.com/memoir-writing-course-lynda-kirby/
2019