Map Making Competition Results

Yes, it has been a while since we last posted anything, but that doesn't mean we’ve been idling around not doing anything. In fact, it’s been the opposite. We’ve been so snowed under with going places, doings things and generally being awesome that we’ve had no time for the internet and its many distractions. Some people may have been wondering whatever happened with that map making competition we were going on about at the end of summer. The results were announced back in September during Shaftesbury Arts Week, and then on Facebook. For those who were not at Shaftesbury Arts Week or Facebook, here are the results (drum roll please…):

Awarded a slip of paper that read Excellent: PETER JUMP. This map was colourful and gave us a good impression of the locale of one of his superb stories. 

Awarded a slip of paper that read Highly Commended: JAMES BROOMFIELD. His map wasn't finished. We implored him to finish it and re-submit next time, because it showed a lot of promise and good imaginative scope. We also liked that it comprised of two layers, one of normal paper, the other of tracing paper. We like this sort of inventiveness and use of different paper types.  

Awarded a bronze rosette: JOANNE PAUL: Jo’s map was a classical fantasy map that really sparked our imaginations. The place names were brilliant; a particular favourite was The Three Mages. It really intrigued us and made us want to see more of this world. This map displayed some wonderful colouring-in techniques, the likes of which have not been seen by me since GCSE graphic design class.

 

Awarded a silver rosette: DANNY MORISON. The scope and execution of Danny’s map was incredible. His map encompassed an entire fictional galaxy and was probably one of the most original approaches that we’ve seen. Danny is a professional illustrator, and this shows in how accomplished his drawing skills are. We liked the range of environments that were depicted and it certainly sparked our curiosity and imagination. Unique! Imaginative! Splendid! We loved this map.

 

Awarded a GOLD rosette: ROBBIE CUMMING. What we liked about this map was how detailed it was. The idea of the competition was to ignite our imaginations and make us want to find out more about new fictional worlds. Robbie’s map was so packed full of details that we couldn't tear ourselves away. We wanted to know what the places were, who lived there, what are they doing? This map could spark a whole volume of interesting stories.



We will be running another map making competition, most probably to coincide with our 2^nd Birthday party in May 2013. So there you have it, plenty of advance warning this time. We’ll do some more official marketing of the next competition from January 2013.

Shaftesbury Arts Festival was kind of good because we hung out together at a time when we were not at a writing event or group and we could appreciate each other as people rather than writers. This should be a more frequent occurrence  As for the handmade book stall: almost total failure. We sold a couple of things. I think someone stole one of my graphic novels. Generally people don't like to buy original hand made literature, they prefer to ignore it or steal it. 

Other things that we've been doing include: Jennifer K Oliver and I went to about half an hour of an Iain M Banks Book Launch/ talk/ signing in Toppings, Bath. We were meant to be there longer than half an hour, but massive trains delays caused us to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the train compared to time in Bath. We may or may not talk more of this in another blog post. 

Also: Mere Literary Festival. 
Also: Bridport Open Book festival Story Slam.
Also: Robbie's Twitter Cartoons. And probably some other stuff. 

All this to come in future posts. But for now, I have to go and do some work. 

Fiction, Poetry & Music night at Beggar's Banquet

Storyslingers and music cafe Beggar's Banquet teamed up last Thursday to put on a night of stories, poetry and groovy tunes. The gathering wasn't widely pimped, though we ended up with around 17 people in attendance, most of whom were writers, artists or musicians (and those in between who do a bit of everything!).

The venue was cosy and mellow-lit, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere. It was gently buzzing as people started turning up—a lot of readers had only met briefly before, so it was nice to reconnect. We also got to meet a few spouses; now they finally know what we get up to when we're all together. We hope they enjoyed themselves, too!

The universe must have been in balance that night, as we were able to set the playlist as writer-poet-writer-poet. Nine wonderful writers shared their work in the end, reading a varied and vibrant selection. As always with these events, we were excited by and extremely proud of the talent in our local area.

Tish Oakwood reading her superb collection of poems

Sue Ashby also sharing a selection of beautiful rural-themed poems

Me reading my short speculative piece "Ring-Ring" 

(which I posted to my personal blog the other day).

To close the event, our generous host Meru performed a nifty acoustic song about not having anything to sing about. His soft, gravelly tones went down a storm, and we hope he'll sing for us again at future gatherings.

Our line-up:

Peter Jump - who read two short stories.

Tish Oakwood - who read a collection of poems.

James Broomfield - who read a short story.

Elaine Cadogan - who read a collection of poems.

Jennifer Bell - who read a short story.

Sue Ashby - who also read a collection of poems.

Jennifer K. Oliver - who read two short stories.

Juliet Austen - who read a selection of her poems.

John Maynard - who read a short story.

Meru - who sang and played acoustic guitar.

We'd like to thank everyone for coming, especially those who brought material to read. We hope you'll join us again next time! :)

Shaftesbury Arts Festival Literary events

Shaftesbury Arts Festival Sept 5th-9th.
It's a busy week for Storyslingers. Check out the following exciting things that are happening:

I.

MAP MAKING COMPETITION DEADLINE EXTENSION NOTICE:

If you go back a few posts you will see an interesting competition for writers (and vagabonds, comedians, artists and the general public). Here's the link: http://storyslingers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/storyslingers-launches-its-first-open.html

PLEASE NOTE, THE EMAIL ADDRESS WAS WRONG IN SOME ADVERTS OF THIS COMPETITION. If you sent your map and didn't get an acknowledgement of receipt, please email it to the correct address, which can be found on this blog, here.  Resend by forwarding the original map and message you sent. You have until Thursday 6th at noon to resend. Apologies for this!

Winner(s) will be announced on Saturday, noon at the Arts Centre (see item III.)

Check out the facebook page for inspiration/ procrastination opportunity: http://www.facebook.com/events/341655955921155/

(this is a random map I found from the internet. Thanks internet!) 

II.

PROSE, POETRY, MUSIC EVENING AT BEGGAR'S BANQUET: 

Storyslingers have teamed up with Beggar's Banquet Music Cafe in Shaftesbury and will host an evening of good stories, funky tunes and slick poetry. There will be snacks of fine quality, there will delicious drinks, you can bring some wine of whatever quality you prefer (corkage fees apply!) 

Beggar's Banquet is an amazing place; provider of wholesome veggie foods, player of excellent music (check out all the vinyl for sale in there), host to exciting arts events. http://www.beggarsbanquetmusiccafe.co.uk/

Thursday 6th September, 7:30pm, Beggar's Banquet, Muston's Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset. Free entry. 

(writers take note of this amazing opportunity: we have one or two reading slots still available. If you're a prose writer or poet, please email Jennifer Bell or Jennifer Oliver to declare your interest. Time guideline of 5 mins/ 800 words.)

http://www.facebook.com/events/263686563750118/

III.

STORYSLINGERS CURIOUS STALL OF HANDMADE LITERATURE

Come to Shaftesbury Arts Centre at about 10am-4pm on Saturday the 8th of Sept, we will have a stall of handmade books, zines, comics, bookmarks, cards, origami, chapbooks and also published works and postcards. We're not sure which room we'll be in yet, but the mystery will only add to your experience as you wend your way around the labyrinth of SAC in search of wondrous treasure (ie: us). 

(a recycled image from last years' arts festival.)

Map making competition winner(s) will be announced on Saturday, at the stall/ display table in the Arts Centre, at noon. All the maps will be on display, along with a display of members' achievements, previous and forthcoming events, information and pictures. 

First Lines Challenge

At the last Storyslingers meeting, I set everyone a challenge to come up with up to five opening sentences to stories they've never written. These sentences are currently being compiled into a masterlist of first line prompts. You can find the list on our prompts page. Definitely worth checking out if you're looking for inspiration, or you just want to oil the writing hinges.

There are all sorts of opening sentences: fun, frightening, mysterious, serious, literary, tongue-in-cheek. Here are a few to wet your whistle:

• The suddenly ability of apples to fall upwards and for water to boil as it cooled should have perplexed me enormously, but instead it left me slightly aroused.

• Roland Boyle had been digging for spare change, but he didn't expect to find a razor blade hidden within his pocket lint.

• The floorboards creaked and the shutters flapped like trapped souls against the windows; the house had been waiting for me.

• The six members of the village committee stood staring at the bloodied carcass lying in front of them.

Feel free to send us your opening sentences (either post them in the comments to this entry, or email them to joliverdesigns(at)gmail(dot)com. There are two rules: the sentence is written by you, and it has not been used in a story already.

About Literary Agents

There have been a few misconceptions about agents--what they are, what they do, whether they cost or not, how it all works, etc--so I thought it would be good to briefly clarify a few points in case anyone is still unsure.

The number one factor you should be mindful of when searching for an agent is this:

You should not pay agents to represent you / look at your work.

If an agent asks you to pay them up front to read your manuscript or represent you,

run away. Quickly.

The agent gets paid when you sell your book to a publisher. An agent will take a cut out of your royalties that the publisher pays you. Usually this is around 15% - 20% (it can vary, depending where in the world you are and who you sign with).

Again, be extremely wary of agents that ask for payment up front. They could be frauds. If you're not sure, there are a number of excellent websites that list known fraud agencies. Writer Beware is probably the best.

So what are agents and what do they do? Jane Friedman says it clearly and concisely on her website:

In today's market, probably 80 percent of books that the New York publishing houses acquire are sold to them by agents. Agents are experts in the publishing industry. They have inside contacts with specific editors and know better than writers what editor or publisher would be most likely to buy a particular work. 

Perhaps most important, agents negotiate the best deal for you, ensure you are paid accurately and fairly, and run interference when necessary between you and the publisher.

It's also advisable to ask an agent who else they represent. Or, you can research this online. Agents unwilling to mention any of their authors by name or any recent sales could be dodgy.

Be wary of agents who refer you to an editing service you have to pay for. As sff.net says:

There is, however, a common scam where the agent recommends an editorial service. There's a good chance the service is paying the agent a kickback to make that recommendation.

Also be watchful for "vanity presses" who expect you to pay them to publish you.

It should be noted that you do not necessarily need an agent. It depends on what publishing route you prefer to take, as well as the type of work you're trying to sell. Not everybody wants an agent or a traditional publisher, and there are other options available, such as self-publishing and e-publishing.

Storyslingers launches its first open competition: Maps!

Map Making Competition

Every story is set somewhere and it’s the writer’s job to immerse their reader fully into that fictional world. How are we to write convincing worlds if we do not know our way around them? 

We challenge any budding writer*/ artist out there to draw a map of their fictional world. It doesn’t have to encompass the entire world, it can be a small part of it; a city/ borough/ street, an island, a country or county, a building-plan etc. 

Please email your map to us at zomzara@googlemail.com with Map Making Competition as the subject. Make sure the file isn’t massive, send it as a jpeg 72dpi. Keep a print-version at hand because we’d like to pin some of the best maps up at Shaftesbury Arts Centre (we’ll contact you about this). The winner will be featured on our blog and within Shaftesbury Arts Centre and Shaftesbury Arts Festival on 5th-9th Sept. 

We will be publishing the winning map online, so if your world is top-secret then maybe keep it under wraps for now and submit it next time. 

The world/ location must be your own. We don’t want to see lots of renditions of Hogwarts.

The closing date is Friday the 31st August, so get your colouring pencils out and start drafting! 

Further info:

We don’t take ourselves too seriously, so we don’t expect you to either. We’re not concerned about intricacies of scale or worried over the physics of your world. If it looks cool, we’ll be happy. Inspire us, excite us. 

*Wait, you’re not even a writer? But you like to dream up worlds and make maps? – okay, that’s cool, go for it and submit. Maybe one of us writers will like your world and want to team up with you and write a story set in your world. Our writers are always on the lookout for things that will spark the next story, so we’d love to find a new world to write about. 

More information and examples of already published maps can be found here http://www.facebook.com/events/341655955921155/ 

Storyslingers First Story Slam

After a rainy month of preparations and organisation, the sun finally shone on Shaftesbury for Storyslingers’ first ever Story Slam. Writers from all over Dorset came to Shaftesbury Arts Centre, some to compete, others to listen and network. The Rutter room was packed out, over spilling and babbling with excitement. We’d jazzed the room up with drapes of colourful fabric, projected Dan Morison’s mecha cowboys on a wall and set up our handmade bookstall, spread with the finest of local book art and writing.

We had Daniel Frisby as compere who slickly guided is through the evening. Our first reader was James Broomfield who read a quirky story set in rural Devon following a man seeking a brotherhood. He thinks he’s found it when he discovers a society of beard-trimming smokers. Yes, you read that right; beard smokers. James’ story was wonderfully crafted, sharply observed, original, funny and thought-provoking. The evening was most certainly off to a good start. The following readers didn’t let the quality drop. Each story was different, but all at an impressive professional standard.

I’m glad I didn’t have to judge these stories, they were all so unique and brilliant. Fortunately we had two exceptional judges, award-winning novelist Allie Spencer (four novels published with Arrow. http://www.alliespencer.com/) and flash fiction expert and columnist at What the Dickens Magazine, Gail Aldwin. (http://gailaldwin.wordpress.com) We enjoyed some amazing live music from the Wrongo Bongo Band while the judges got busy conferring. This four-piece band play an extraordinary variety of instruments, from a berimbau to a didgeridoo; “The Wrongo Bongo Band has to be the most entertaining group of whacky musicians we’ve ever heard” –Andy Hamilton. Mike’s didgeridoo solo comprised of him holding up signs with Australian animals inscribed upon them, and then ingeniously imitating their sounds through the didgeridoo. 

(this is a photo of the band taken from their facebook page, click here. 

While the band built an exotic vibe, we continued to sell our handmade books, met new writing friends and discussed all the amazing stories we’d heard so far. Then the judges returned and Gail Aldwin got up on stage to read her story Dusting Off the Memories (published in Dorset Voices anthology, Roving Press) , beautifully written and read. Next up was Jennifer K Oliver’s richly described Steampunk story, then my own reading of a story I’d read the week before at London’s Southbank Centre. Dan Frisby told a beautiful allegorical Hare and Tortoise style tale set in the foothills of a Japanese mountain. Mountains seemed to be the unofficial theme, with my story entitled Mount Analogue, and a quote from Rene Daumal’s novel of the same title featured in the programme. Finally, Hamish Sinclair was drawn from the Lucky Dip and read a beautifully lyrical story making wonderful use of language.

With the evening drawing in and all the stories told, the judges came up on stage and gave their feedback to the six competitors.  Both judges were impressed by the quality of writing and the diversity of subject matter. “Allie was a great person to deliberate with in finding the winner and runner-up, particularly as the standard of all the stories was very high. We finally agreed that James Broomfield’s story should win due to its extraordinary content (about a man trying to find his brotherhood in North Devon by experimenting with smoking beard trimmings).  Technically the writing was superb with a strong and unique voice.  Runner up came Andy Hamilton’s ‘Stage Fright’ a classic ugly duckling scenario told in a fresh way.” -  Gail Aldwin.

James won a beautiful set of correspondence cards printed by Bath-based fine stationers, Meticulous Ink. “Each card has been lovingly letterpress printed on an 1870 Model No.4 press using only the finest oil based inks. We use cotton papers from local paper mills here in Somerset and our hand lined deckle edge envelopes give these cards that extra special touch.” – Meticulous Ink. This prize was kindly donated by Meticulous Ink. You can buy their correspondence cards via etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MeticulousInk

Everyone was awarded with some amazing bookmarklets, made by our very own Jennifer K Oliver. The evening wrapped up with more music from the Wrongo Bongo Band, some networking and book buying.

Watch this space for the second slam, probably sometime in early 2013. 

Writing in Space (or, Creative Spaces), Part I

Where do you write? A while ago Book Chick City hosted a series of guest blogs called Where Stories Are Made, in which writers posted a short entry about their creative workspaces and their writing routines. These range from home offices to parks and coffee shops, and any other place writers feel inspired and comfortable, and most importantly—where they get stuff done.

Here at Storyslingers we thought we'd share a few of our own Creative Spaces on the blog.

Shaftesbury-based writer Becky Bye shares Old Wardour Castle:

Many people say that there is a time and a place for writing, and for me, no place is better than Old Wardour Castle, near Tisbury in Wiltshire. A romantic ruin set in the Wiltshire landscape, the castle is a serene and beautiful spot in which my notebook has been filled on numerous occasions.

There is something intriguing and mysterious about writing in a location where so much history has taken place, and that I myself become part of history in those few moments; scribbling profusely in my notepad under a tree, or sat at the bottom of a spiral staircase. The mood of the castle shifts from day to day, which has a significant impact on my writing; some days the castle reveals its secrets, most of which I was never expecting to find, and which weave their way into my stories. On other days, the castle looks less inviting than usual, blending into the grey backdrop of a dreary English afternoon, and on such occasions the grandeur of the castle simply adds a unique elegance to my thoughts and ideas. No matter how bad a particular bout of writers block may be, there is no level of inspiration which cannot be released after just a few moments at Wardour Castle.

Dorchester-based author Gail Aldwin shares her study desktop:

I like writing somewhere quiet but I'm not sure what the best writing environment is, as I haven't experimented with this. Normally I work in the family study, a small, untidy room with a window which has a fabulous view over the water meadows to the north of Dorchester.

 I share the space with everyone except my daughter who prefers doing homework in her bedroom.  My husband and son play games on the desktop and I write on a notebook.  Sometimes we sit alongside each other but that's only possible when the headphones are in use. If I can't stand the distraction, I relocate to the kitchen table and work there.

Writer-in-denial Stephen Pellow talks about inner creative spaces:

Writing about something that doesn’t exist is something people who write do all the time. Being asked to write about something that probably should exist but doesn’t is proving to be problematic, though.

I don’t have a writing space. No nooks, crannies or cubby holes. No ready room. No secret garden. No stark whites, or muted earth tones and certainly nothing airy and spacious overlooking sweeping vistas. I write in my head, and with all the useless trivia I have retained over the years there’s certainly no room for a desk in there.  Sometimes that’s all I need, but it mostly comes down to having pen and paper and me, and that’s it. If I were to sit in a room at a desk and try and surround myself with inspiration – when I’m put against a clock, pressured even slightly to produce something – nothing happens. If I have to do it, I rarely want to.

So I always make sure I have ready access to a notepad and pen (or pencil) because I never know when, or where, I’m going to be pinched by creativeness!

*

We will be posting more Creative Spaces over the coming weeks, so do check back for updates.

Storyslingers Summer Story Slam Poster

We're thrilled to reveal the Storyslingers Summer Story Slam poster, designed by the super talented Dan Morison.

 We also now have a Facebook event set up for the Slam. If you're on FB, please do join, and spread the word!

More details about the Slam, including booking info, are available at the SAC website here. But book soon, before the slots fill up!

Miracle Marvel at Old Wardour Castle

One of our members, the fabulous Becky Bye, recently wrote a parody article about Old Wardour Castle where she's lucky enough to work, and since it gave me a chuckle I thought it worth asking if we could link to it from the Storyslingers blog. Becky was happy to share, so here is the aforementioned link: Miracle Marvel at Old Wardour Castle.

And an excerpt:

Visitors will be pleased to know that Old Wardour now boasts a wide range of miracle merchandise, including bottled miracle water from the castle well, and pilgrim patches, guaranteed to cure any ailments that you may have (not subject to liability), as well as a range of miracle medicines, with current BOGOF offers on selected items, such as genuine and authentic signed portraits of The Blessed Lady Blanche. (Items mentioned may alter from items actually sold.)

Additionally, there is now a wide range of miracle inspired snacks to refresh you after your long pilgrimage, such as ‘Holy Hotcakes,’ Miracle Mochas’ and ‘Oh My Lord Hot Chocolate.’ (Please do not enquire instore.)

Definitely worth checking out if you like a bit of tongue-in-cheek!