Commonwealth Short Story Competition!

Yes, Singapore IS a commonwealth country. Anywho, details are up, look, look!

The Commonwealth Short Story Competition exists to increase
understanding between and appreciation of different Commonwealth
cultures – to showcase the rich diversity of the Commonwealth and to
support rising literary talents.

The Competition is an annual scheme to promote new creative writing.
Established in 1996, it is funded by the Commonwealth Foundation and
the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, who work together to
administer the scheme.

Each year, 26 winning and highly commended stories from the different
regions of the Commonwealth are recorded onto CDs and broadcast on
radio stations across the Commonwealth. The winner receives a prize of
£2,000 and there are regional prizes of £500.

How to enter

– The competition is open to all people who are citizens of a
Commonwealth member country.
– There is no age limit or requirement to write about a particular
theme. Entries may be made by both amateur and professional writers.
– The deadline for entries is May 11, 2009.

For rules of the competition and more details, visit HERE!

Question and answer about first rights in publishing!

Okay, I got this email from Tidesong that you guys might want to know too (I asked permission if I could blog on it). The question is about first rights according to publishing short stories or rather stories in general. Here it is (after edits cause I smooshed two email questions into one, for context this was regarding Sci-Fi short stories)!

What kind of markets are there in Singapore at all and do they often go after those first publishing rights thing? I noticed one magazine overseas only claim rights to
North America… How does this whole thing work out?
How would it work out if I then attempt to sell it in Singapore or vice versa. Would it be considered a reprint regardless of location?

And so, I got Rozen aka Rosemary to help answer that more accurately!

Continue reading Question and answer about first rights in publishing!

HSWG update! AND info on submitting work, finding literary agents and a writer’s seminar (ALL FREE!)

HSWG

First meeting shall be at Geek Terminal, 2pm on the 17th. You can come earlier if you want… We’ll be editing/blablaing about our WIP novels that we wrote during Nanowrimo 08 to scrub it up into publishable form.

Oh man, is my topic title long but the info on submitting work your work and getting a literary agent AND the young writers’ seminar is under the “more” cut! Got the info from Rozen who got it from NAC, I think.

COPY PASTING GALOOOOORE!

Italics in this font are just MY comments by the way, hur hur.

Continue reading HSWG update! AND info on submitting work, finding literary agents and a writer’s seminar (ALL FREE!)

A happy new yeaaaaaaaar

I hope! In any case, things have been slow around here since I’m doing my school work on a fake book cover I need to do. And yes, the story is as ridiculous as it sounds because it is full of references (try to catch them if you can!) and is NOT serious. Still doing the artwork obviously. MEANWHILE, I need to hang out more on the library or something or hope they bring in the new books cause the bookshops been stock some pretty interesting local books…

manweapon

Book trailers…

Sooo, this is the land of the internets. I’m kinda amused cause more and more books are getting trailers. I mean some are by fans and some are official ones done by the author’s or their companies.

I was checking out some and I went “OH MEIN GOTT” at this one. And, why yes, it is a romance book.

In any case, in the future, I DO have plans to have my own book trailer too somehow. Heh.

Wuaaargh!

I’m editing my story… In the meantime, no local books that I wanna read are out yet.

Well, okay maybe not.

I probably need to hit Times bookstore or something because the closest Popular I am at has a sad selection of local books.

With that said, their fiction range isn’t that hot either but meeeeh it’s understandable since Popular = Textbook land.

Neeeeeeed to continue my editing, darn it.

The Happy Smiley Writers Group

Hohoho, those who came from Nanowrimo should know what this is. I’ll be updating it under the tag happysmileygroup. Of course there’s a reason why we’re calling it that but if you wanna know, you’ll have to attend it.

Anywho for those who know of it, 3rd Saturday of every month at Geek Terminal around 2pm. Bring your nanovels and we’ll get set to edit and whatever them. Literary talk and stuff included but yesss.

So there we go. More info to be posted on it at Singapore Novelists when we’ve got confirmed details.

Undercover Tai Tai by Maya O. Calica

taitai1

Undercover Tai Tai by Maya O. Calica.

FINALLY after all my events I have time to review it. Yesss… you know in one sentence how to describe it? ABSOLUTELY FUNNY. Okay, that’s two words and not a sentence but whatever… It’s truly chic lit set around here-ish!

Why “here-ish”? Well, it’s obviously a tai-tai story. One can always jet set and sail away to other islands besides Singapore, non?

Continue reading Undercover Tai Tai by Maya O. Calica