Tag Archives: Enchanted Conversations

Flying Ant Day, Savages and Dawn Thread

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Ant by Judy Darley

Disclaimer: This is not a flying ant.

Happy to say that my flash fiction tale Flying Ant Day has been published in A Box of Stars Beneath the Bed: 2016 National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology. Wonderful!

A Box of Stars Beneath the BedEven better, my tale is one of just 50 chosen from 500 entries. Woohoo! There are so many excellent writers on the list of those included. Definitely looking forward to reading the contributions from Jude Higgins, Diane Simmons, Jonathan Pinnock, KM Elkes and Jane Roberts.

I’ll be reading my tale as part of the National Flash Fiction Day celebrations in Bristol on Saturday, at At The Well on Cheltenham Road.

To get your copy, go to the Amazon page or visit the NFFD website, where you can also discover all kinds of events happening this National Flash Fiction Day (June 25th, in case you were wondering!).

My short tale Savages has been published in issue three of Ink In Thirds magazine.

This beautiful publication describes itself as ‘a magazine of poised prose, precarious poetry, and photography that makes us want to pilot our own realms again.’

Inspired by the wilderness of childhood, including glimpses from my own, I’m glad my tale has found a home here.

Read issue three of Ink in Thirds magazine here.

The opening line of Savages is:

The field has been scalped; sharp spikes are all that remain of the wheat that whispered here, green stems that leaned with the wind and hissed tickling promises as we drifted by on our way to school.

Happy Summer Solstice! Today began when most of us were still sleeping (at 4.06am, rumour has it) and the air was green and fragrant. Gorgeous.

Nicholas Oakwell red feather dressMy poem Dawn Thread has been selected for a special Midsummer issue of Enchanted Conversations: A Fairy Tale Magazine. In case you don’t know, Enchanted Conversations is a beautiful online journal of original fairytales, which has regular calls for submissions.

My poem came in a flurry after seeing an exquisite dress embellished by students and tutors at the Royal School of Needlework for designer Nicholas Oakwell (pictured left). The gown was hand sewn all over with more than 200,000 feathers, dyed in 18 shades of red, and made me think of the kind of tasks traditionally given to maidens in fairytales. The profusion of red made me think of the transition from girl to woman, and the feathers drew to mind several fairytales about men turned into swans, and their sister sewing them shirts to return them to their human forms.

My poetic tale offers a rather different ending, culminating at dawn on the longest day.

Read it here.

A call for fairytales about rain

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Scottish Trees cr Judy DarleyFairytale magazine Enchanted Conversations invites original fairytales for their March open submissions period.

The theme for this month is rain, which means that rain must be present in the foreground or background of your story or poem – the possibilities of this seem beautiful and bountiful, so why not let it drive the heart of your narrative?

The window for submissions closes at 11:59 p.m., EDT, Z on 30th March 2016.

Stories should be no shorter than 700 words and no longer than 3,000. Poems may be of any length.

The essence of classic fairy tales must be maintained when you write these stories. You are free to explore themes by retelling a classic tale, but it must be in your own way and in keeping with the theme.

It’s advisable to read past EC stories and poems to see what they publish. Also, Beyond the Glass Slipper, Krampusnacht and Frozen Fairy Tales give great insight into what I publish. You can find them at Amazon, B&N and other booksellers. All are available in ebook form.

Submit your entry to ecsub2016@gmail.com. Do not send attachments. They will not be opened or considered. Paste your work in the body of an email.

Your last name, the month and the year should be in the subject line of the email.

You must try to use American English word forms and punctuation.

No fancy spacing or characters, please. Do not indent for new paragraphs. Just do an extra return between them. Heavy dialogue is very hard to format. Resist the urge. Most classic tales are not heavy on dialogue.

Your submission must include how you follow EC. Methods include something Google related, Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest (the board called New Posts at Enchanted Conversation). You only need to follow in one way. But if you don’t follow, your work will not be considered.

Only first electronic rights are being bought. Once the story is published, you are free to shop it elsewhere. Authors of accepted stories receive $30, while poets receive $10, in US dollars made through PayPal only.

Find full details at www.fairytalemagazine.com/p/blog-page_22.html?m=1.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at Judy(at)socket creative(dot)com.