Hint Fiction contest

hintfictionIn a brazen effort to garner myself a third submission slot for this contest, I am spreading the word about Hint Fiction!

What the heck is Hint Fiction? Well, according to Robert Swartwood’s blog post that explains it all, it’s “a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story.” Kind of like micro-fiction, or Twitter fiction, but even smaller. If you’re a writer looking for a new challenge, this could be it. Say more with less. 25 words or less, to be exact. If you’re really good, your work could be included in a book published by W.W. Norton, and you’ll get $25 per story. That’s $1 a word, people!

And they say publishing fiction doesn’t pay.

Anyway, if you’re interested in contributing, the deadline is August 31, 2009, so grab your pen and give ‘er!

P.S. The submission guidelines and all necessary info on how to contribute are in the blog post, linked above.

Some new writing

notebook1As mentioned in my last post, I’m going to have some of my erotic short stories appearing monthly at Oysters & Chocolate, which is awesome. Since it’s been a while since I updated my list of writing credits, here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

  • I’m the new Montréal Maven over at GiftedTravel.com, and have been writing weekly articles for this site on one of my favourite subjects: Montréal! My first post (“Budget style in Montréal”) was about eco-friendly shopping in the city, while my second (“The Best Coffee in Montréal”) was a round-up of some of my favourite cafés, by neighbourhood. Coming up this week: Used Bookstores in Montréal.
  • A piece I submitted to The Writer Within newsletter, entitled “From a Writing Degree to a Writing Career,” is currently available online, for those who may be wondering how to get started on their writing careers after finishing university. I think I would like to write more articles on the subject, since I do get questions from people wondering how to get started freelancing, but since I am still fairly new to freelancing myself, I always wonder if I have enough helpful advice to share! After all, a lot of the time, I find it’s just a matter of luck, or being in the right place at the right time. You need to do your homework, too, but it can be hard to tell why something works in one place and not in another.
  • I’m also still chipping away at my book proposal for my sexy Montréal guidebook, and hope to put that in the mail by the end of this week. I’ve got some good stuff written, but I want to be sure to send the stuff that’ll really wow an editor, so I’m trying to make sure it’s all gold.
  • Finally, I’m hoping to finish up a short story today that I’ve been wrestling with for the past few months. I’d like to get that off my hard drive and into some editors’ laps, and if I can manage to get that ready to go to the post office (or virtual inboxes) by tomorrow, that’d be great. I’ve had a lot of help and great feedback on it from my writing buddy, Jimmy Callaway, so I thought I’d give him a shout-out and link to his blog so you can enjoy a bit of his writing as well. Maybe it’ll encourage him to actually update it a little more often! ;)

So that’s the round-up for me. What have you been up to? Any joys, successes or news from your own writing desks?