IWSG July 2019

It is the first Wednesday of the month and of course that means it's time once again for the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Hosted as ever by the Ninja Cap'n himself Alex J. Cavanaugh, the purpose of the group is to offer writers a safe place to share insecurities without fear of being judged. Why not join us if you haven't already? This month's awesome co-hosts are Erika Beebe, Natalie Aguirre, Jennifer Lane, M J Fifield, Lisa Buie-Collard and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!

Each month we get an optional question to answer, but I'm going to skip it this month because I'm drawing a blank on it. Instead I'm going to talk about my writing progress, or lack of it. I'm still trying to achieve a decent work/writing balance - I've not really got anything done this year in terms of the latter but I'm trying to remain stoical about it. Basically, we've got a few big things we need to get paid and then things should settle down a bit. I don't really feel in a writing headspace at all but then I do have various ideas flitting around - they settle for a minute like butterflies and then drift off again so I try to catch them while I can! I don't think I'll be stuck for things to work on when I do get some time - I've got the ending of the last book in my trilogy to finish off, the continuation of the book I started in December, or one of these twinkly new ideas. Basically, I'm trying not to be insecure - I'd rather not be writing for a lack of time than a lack of inspiration.

The IWSG Anthology Contest 2019 is open for submissions!

Guidelines and rules: 

Word count: 3500-5000

Genre: Middle Grade Historical – Adventure/Fantasy

For those who are confused by the genre:

Middle grade – suitable for 9 – 14 year-old children.

Historical – it must have historical aspects and be set in a time before 2000 or earlier. It just needs to be set in the past.

Adventure/fantasy – the subgenre can be either adventure OR fantasy. The fantasy genre is acceptable as there are many ancient cultures and times that believed in supernatural occurrences.

Theme: Voyagers

Submissions accepted: May 1 - September 4, 2019

How to enter: Send your polished, formatted (double-spaced, no footers or headers), previously unpublished story to admin @ insecurewriterssupportgroup.com before the deadline passes. Please include your contact details, your social links, and if you are part of the Blogging, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter IWSG group. You MUST be part of at least one of those to enter.

Judging: The IWSG admins will create a shortlist of the best stories. The shortlist will then be sent to our official judges:

Finally, if you fancy pocketing a quick read for zero pennies, I've enrolled all my books as freebies in the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale for July. Check them out here!

And don't forget to check out more IWSG posts here.