Hallo

"The Writing Contest Expert's Guide to Fiction Contests" is here! With more than 200 contests listed under categories as diverse as flash, short fiction, genre, novels, short fiction collections, and even humor and personal essays I think I've put my 5 years as Contest Correspondent for "Writer Online" to good use.

The remaining titles in the series "Poetry Contests", "Contests for Younger Writers" (which will be free to download), "Stage and Screen Contests", "Non-Fiction Contests" and "The Bumper Book of Contests" will arrive in 2008.

As always feel free to post comments or reviews on any of my writing. Details of the current contest are pasted below.

Happy Writing!
Grace

The "Fake Contest" Contest

To launch her new book "The Writing Contest Expert's Guide to Fiction Contests" (www.lulu.com/gracetierney), which lists more than 200 writing contests hand-picked for writers of fiction from flash to genre to short to novels, Grace Tierney is running a contest for the best "fake contest listing".

You need to write a description of a fake writing contest in no more than 200 words and include the contest's name, judge's name, prize details, entry fee. Humor is welcome - make your contest listing the silliest, most extravagant, or simply the most obvious fake in writing contest history.

Deadline - midnight October 31th 2007, GMT
All entrants will be e-mailed details of the winning entry by November 30th
2007
Entry fee - none
Winner's Prize - Grace's ebooks - "Positive Thoughts for Writers" and "The Writing Contest Expert's Guide to Fiction Contest", and a gift voucher for Amazon.com (25 US dollars) or Amazon.co.uk (20 Sterling)
Judge - Grace Tierney (www.gracetierney.com)
Word Count - 200 or less
Open to entrants writing in English from any country and of any age.
E-mail entries/queries to grace@gracetierney.com and include your full name and e-mail address as the winner will be informed by e-mail.

Posted on Thursday 20 of September, 2007 [11:23:45 UTC]

Lulu sorted out the cover art issue and "Positive Thoughts for Writers" is finally here and available for purchase It's just as exciting as I thought it would be and I'm delighted to have finished a project which began two years ago.

Now all I have to do is promote it - gulp Thankfully I've plenty of ideas on that front. I'll be launching first in the US, followed later by UK and Ireland (as I want to provide a UK-Ireland edition for the different spelling and printing requirements there). Hopefully, time permitting, I'll have a print US edition available before Christmas.

In the meantime, Happy Writing, and feel free to post reviews,
Grace

Posted on Wednesday 25 of October, 2006 [22:43:48 UTC]

Well, the saga continues with the cover art. Lulu appear to be having trouble with their cover wizard on many projects, mine included. I'd rather not publish with mangled cover art, so I'm holding fire and preparing for the launch in the meantime. Watch this space...

Grace

Posted on Sunday 22 of October, 2006 [21:43:03 UTC]

I feel like I've been "nearly there" with this book for way too long. Now the text and images are as perfect as I can make them, I've resolved some issues I encountered with converting to pdf cleanly, and tonight I published the first US edition of "Positive Thoughts for Writers" (privately).

Sadly the cover wizard mangled my vision of the cover so I need to resolve that and select my preview extracts before going public. But it's coming soon. Honest.

It has to be, as I want to giveaway the book at my talk "Writing for International Publications" at the Aghamore Literary Festival on Saturday 28th of October. A date which is fast approaching!

In other news, I'm going to be in the 2007 Bylines Writer's Calendar (a piece on maintaining a positive attitude in the writing game) and some of my non-fiction work is in Prima magazine's November issue. A good writing month, all things considered.

Hopefully I'll be posting the word "PUBLISHED" here very very very soon,
Grace

Posted on Thursday 19 of October, 2006 [01:03:40 UTC]

I had a few firsts today - created my first book cover (using an upbeat image of a sunflower I grew - photo by my husband), created my first writer's business card, created my storefront here at Lulu and created this blog which again is a first despite what often seems like a lifetime using the Internet (I began in 1993 - when did you begin?)

I can't wait now to upload "Positive Thoughts for Writers" for sale here, but I still need to finish correcting the galleys, and ink up and scan the illustrations I've created for each monthly section. Not to mention wade through the excellent publishing FAQs here.

In the meantime, ponder this...do you write? Do you face rejection daily from editors, publishers, reviewers, and readers? Does it ever get to you and make you think about quitting? If it does then you need "Positive Thoughts for Writers" - you can open the book at any day of the year and find an inspirational quotation from past and present writers, positive prompts for ways to keep up the proverbial chin, ideas for writing related adventures, and even bonus thoughts and lists of treats for writers (to leave around for loved-ones to find!). Where else can you get 60,000 words of uplifting prose designed to help you face writing life with a smile on your face?

happy writing,
Grace
www.gracetierney.com

Posted on Wednesday 20 of September, 2006 [23:35:30 UTC]