This is it! The final round of this series of micro fiction writing competitions. The last round before production begins on the second Mum Life Stories Anthology, and your final chance to be a part of this beautiful book.
I’m sad to say that this will probably be the last series of competitions I will be able to run, at least for a while. My family and business commitments have meant that I cannot spend the time that I need to on getting the competitions advertised and judged etc in reasonable time frames. I don’t know if I will be able to run them again in the future but I’m hopeful that I will.
So let’s make this last round the best one yet. Please help spread the word on social media etc, and tell all your writer friends so that we can finish this anthology with a bang!
Round 6 is themed ‘Empty Nest’, probably the most bitter sweet time in a mothers life, when all the hard work sees it’s reward in an independent child going off to live their own life but at the same time leaving a child-sized hole in our hearts that will never truly be filled again. It’s a new season, filled with new experiences and choices about our own lives that we didn’t have the option for, for so many years, but now we are not sure if we want. Confusing, yet exciting at the same time.
I’m really looking forward to reading all the submissions in a months time.
Submission opens at 12AM this Sunday morning AEST, the 16th of October and closes 4 weeks later on Sunday the 6th of November at midnight AEST.
Check out the competition information below!
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this micro fiction writing competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 shortlisted stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published early to mid 2023.
SERIES TWO
This writing competition is the last of 6 micro fiction writing Competitions run over 6 -12 months, ending with an anthology publication sometime between March and June 2023 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of ‘The Stages of Motherhood’. They can be interpreted any way you like, from any perspective as long as they include a mother of some kind.
Themes
The 6 different themes are:
- Pregnancy
- Infancy (birth to 2 years old)
- Early childhood (3 to 8 years)
- Middle childhood (9 to 11 years)
- Adolescence (12 to 18 years)
- Empty Nest
The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 4 weeks, judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!
Meet the Judges
So once again I will be a judge, along with an amazingly talented writer who had not one, but 4 stories published in the first MLS Micro Fiction Anthology, as a result of being shortlisted in 4 rounds of series one. Here’s a quick bio for the both of us.
Jo Caddy
An aspiring writer/author/blogger residing in Townsville, Australia. Jo is a single mother to 5 children aged 18, 18, 16, 5 and 3, and has been a stay-at-home mum, a business woman (4 business in total) a videographer, photographer & decor creator. She has in the last few years completed a Diploma at Bible College, and is currently studying business and social media management, thinking about whether or not to continue a degree in creative writing. She recently decided to return to her childhood passion of writing, and has written and produced a short film, a documentary, and won a flash fiction competition on the writing and publishing platform sweek.com (you can read her winning story here). Her stories have been published in anthologies like Sweek Flash Fiction Book – Part 3 & Adverbially Challenged Vol 5, and will appear in the upcoming Adverbially Challenged Vol 6 and Sensorially Challenged Vol 4.
She has a passion for storytelling and supporting mums in the career of Motherhood. Her strengths and weaknesses make her the writer that she is and her adventures and trials through life and motherhood are the inspiration that has driven her to write and to create this platform for Mothers around the world to share their stories and share ‘in’ the stories of others.
You can follow Jo through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Laura Besley
Laura Besley is a talented writer/author who has recently been listed by TSS Publishing as one of the top 50 British and Irish Flash Fiction writers with her story ‘On Repeat’ (Reflex Fiction) and her talent with the 21st-century pen has been noted in many online publications, including Fictive Dream, Spelk and EllipsisZine, as well as in print (Flash: The International Short Story Magazine), and in various anthologies like Adverbially Challenged, Another Hong Kong, and Story Cities. Her debut flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020, and her new book 100neHundred was released in May (2021). You can read our interview with her HERE.
Laura is a full-time mum to two young boys and squeezes her writing time into the bookends of her day. Having lived in Holland, Germany, and Hong Kong, she now lives in landlocked central England and misses the sea. Laura writes short (and very short) fiction in the precious moments that her children are asleep
You can follow Laura on:
Twitter: @laurabesley
Instagram: @besley_laura
ROUND 6: Empty Nest
The sixth round of the micro fiction writing competition is themed ‘Empty Nest’ and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the word ‘Mother’ but it must be clear your story is about a Mother (biological, adoptive or otherwise). It can be written from any perspective, i.e. first person, the mother (of the mother), the partner, the friend, the child, etc.
We didn’t receive quite as many sales on the first micro fiction anthology as I’d hoped so we will have to continue with the $2 entry fee (per story) to try and subsidise the prize money a little. Hopefully after the second anthology is published and we have 2 books in the marketplace, we will be able to do away with the entry fee.
Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!
Prizes
1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of anthology.
2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of anthology.
3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of anthology
Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of anthology
Micro Fiction Writing Competition Rules and Guidelines
Competition Dates: Sunday 16th October 2022 – Sunday 6th November 2022 @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on Monday the 7th of November 2022, with the shortlist announced on or near to the 21st of November 2022 and the winners announced within 5 days of that time.
Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.
Rules:
- 500 words or less.
- Narrative Fiction (no poetry please), any genre (except horror and erotica)
- Must be about a Mother (biological, adoptive, Foster, etc).
- No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
- Must agree to the T & C’s.
- Your story must not already be published anywhere else.
Submission:
- Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
- 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
- Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
- Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
- Your $2 entry fee (per story) must be paid through Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com before the competition closing date, for your story to qualify.
- Scroll down to the form where you can attach your story file, make sure you’ve read the T & C’s page first.
Judging:
There will be 2 judges, myself and Laura Besley
- Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
- We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
- While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
- We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
- All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.
Submit
Ready to submit your story to our micro fiction writing competition? Fill in the entry form below and attach your story.
Please make sure you have read the T & C’s before you submit!
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