I’d like to thank Kathleen Kelly from the USA for her non-fiction story submission “Because We’re Fancy”. A touching reflection of the special bond between mother and daughter.
Kathleen is a mother of three toddlers and lives with her husband and their children in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She teaches high school English, a course on social justice and professional development on equity. Her work has recently been published in In Parentheses,So to Speak,and Kitchen Sink Magazine. Along with reading and writing, she enjoys adventures with her family, libraries, the outdoors, history, good television, trying new foods, and exploring new hobbies with hopes they’ll stick. She is forever appreciative of her own mother and the lessons she continues to learn from her now that she is an adult who is friends with her mom.
Unfortunately, although we have received some great submissions for our first round of series 2 of the MLS micro fiction writing competition, it’s not quite enough to justify a fair competition. So we are extending the submission deadline for another 14 days. The new deadline will be September 14th at Midnight AEST. If you can help spread the word, that would be amazing and would help to get this competition through to completion and offer the writers the healthy competition they deserve.
I understand that the $2 entry fee may put people off and whilst I’d love to keep the entry FREE, I’m not sure my bank account will thank me for it. The entry fee helps pay for the prize money, but what’s left has to come from my own pocket, which I’m more than willing to do as it’s a pleasure to hear such excitement from writers when their stories are chosen for a prize and publication. Your very helpful contribution, of a small entry fee, will help me to keep these competitions running and if we get enough from one competition, we can make the next one FREE.
See the original post for details on how to enter HERE
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I’d like to thank Jeremy Merillat for his submission ‘The Cure For Pain’, a poetic and touching tribute to his wife, who’s kisses he says “are the cure for most of the maladies experienced by our boys and me alike.”
We’re Back! The time has finally come for series 2 of our micro fiction writing competition. The last series was pretty special, being not only our very first micro fiction writing competition, but our very first writing competition, period! I’m hoping this series will be even bigger and better than the first.
When I launched the competition back at the end of 2019, I wasn’t at all sure how it would work out. Mum Life Stories was still a relatively new blog (which has become more like an online magazine) and our reader base was not on the larger side of large, but after a bit of a rocky start, it took of like a toddler at the playground.
Series 2 marks the next chapter in the continuation of a competition trend that I hope will be a permanent part of MLS for years to come. It’s up to all of you to make it happen though. We need your brilliant stories…your creative prose…your inspiring words. All that and a bag of chips, or as most of us would prefer…a bar of chocolate. So spread the word, share this with your friends, your competition, even your enemies because the more entries we have, the greater the pressure to perform and we all know how diamonds are formed, right?
So let’s get cracking, all the details of how to enter and what you could win, are below.
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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 2022.
SERIES TWO
This competition will be the first of 6 micro fiction writing Competitions run over the next 6 -12 months, ending with an anthology publication sometime between March and June 2022 (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 2 weeks (unless extended), 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 AdverbiallyChallenged Vol6 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.
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 FictiveDream, 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 100neHundredwas 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
The first round of micro fiction writing competitions is themed ‘Pregnancy’ 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, 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 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: Tuesday 17th August 2021 – Tuesday 31st August 2021 (Extended to the 14th of September) @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on Wednesday the 1st of September 2021 (Extended to the 15th of September), with the shortlist announced on the 14th of September 2021 (Extended to the 29th of September) and the winners announced on the 15th of September 2021 (Extended to the 30th of September).
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.
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 entry fee must be paid through Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com before the competition closing date, for your story to qualify.
Click HERE to go 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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I’d like to thank MD Maurice from Mystic, Connecticut, for her very relatable, reflective essay submission ‘Riding with the Wind’, which looks at the frustrating phenomenon of expectation versus reality. The sentiments were reminiscent of my own experiences, and the lessons I’ve learned about parenting little humans.
MD Maurice has been writing and publishing mainstream fiction and erotica since early 2001. She has been previously published in several anthologies, Leucrotia Press’sAbaculus III, Rainstorm Press’s Nailed and most recently in the horror anthology, Once Upon a Scream by Horroraddicts.net. She has also had her work featured in the River Poet’s Journal, Scary Mommy.com and Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine. MD is an active blogger, full time working Mom and a modern day Alice in Wonderland. She can be found at www.mdmaurice.com, on twitter at www.twitter.com/MDmaurice2015 and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MDMaurice.
Laura Besley is one of the talented writers whose stories (4 of them to be exact) appear in our very first microfiction anthology Mum Life Stories: Micro-Fiction, Volume One. She 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 FictiveDream, 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.
When Laura’s new book 100neHundredwas released in May (2021) I decided it was time to find out the secrets behind her success and what inspired her. I asked her a few questions about her new book and the journey she took to get to the point of publication, and it surprised me that this book was actually several years in the making.
A bit of back story: 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.
This page contains affiliate links that may earn me a small commission (at no extra cost to you) should you click through and make a purchase. See our privacy policy for more information. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running. Thank you!
100ndHundred
100neHundred is a collection of 100 flash fiction stories, which are each exactly 100 words long. Equally divided into four seasons, the stories cover a number of themes such as poverty, loss, grief, parenting, and historical fiction, and are written in various different styles.
What inspired you to write a collection of flash fiction?
“I’ve been writing flash fiction for about 10 years and I absolutely love it. I love the challenge of being able to tell a complete story in as few words as possible.”
How long did it take?
“Years. I’m not joking. I started writing 100-word stories several years ago to enter into an online competition run by Morgen Bailey. Each month is themed and you can enter up to three for free, so each month for years, I wrote and entered three. Over time I amassed quite a few and the idea started forming about putting one hundred of them together in one book.”
Were there any obstacles in getting the book out?
“Lockdown was a major obstacle. My manuscript was accepted in March 2020 just as everything in the UK closed and of course, small retailers, including independent booksellers, were hit hard. Luckily Arachne Press was awarded an Arts Council grant which meant that the publication of my book 100neHundred, was able to go forward as well as several others.”
Can you share anything about the submission process and how you got the book published?
“I was extremely lucky because Cherry at Arachne Press contacted me, as well as several other authors she’d already published in various anthologies, to ask if we had manuscripts of either short fiction or poetry to submit. I had all these 100-word stories, some of which had been previously published, but most hadn’t and I spent a couple of weeks editing and ordering them and then sent them off.”
How did it feel when you found out it would be published?
“Absolutely amazing! I can’t imagine that the euphoria of getting a publishing deal ever wears off. “
Any words of advice to anyone who is thinking about publishing a book?
“My advice about writing is always read a lot and write a lot, but more recently I’ve learned that you also need to find “your people” and by that I mean the people who believe in you, really truly believe in you, as a person and a writer; people who will be in your corner no matter what. There are going to be fantastic moments and you want people to celebrate with you, but it’s not all going to be plain sailing. There are going to be disappointments and times you want to give up. In those moments you need people to listen to you, help you, pick you up and tell you it’s going to be ok.”
Laura’s new book 100neHundred is available on Amazon in the UK, USA and, AUSTRALIA. You can purchase Laura’s new book plus her previous publication by following the links in our book shop.
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