A Short Story Competition

I must admit that I’m rather thrilled to be named judge of Tonto Book’s latest short story competition. The competition is now open and the winning entries will be published in a collection named Even More Tonto Short Stories. Tonto Books has a proven track record in publishing short story collections and believes that:

‘Appearing in short story collections has long been a ‘calling card’ for writers on their way to their first novel or to create a buzz about their work in general.’

Even More Tonto Short Stories is all about establishing Tonto’s commitment to supporting new writing, as well as experienced authors. All entry details can be found here, but (in brief) the deadline is 27th July 2009 (midnight GMT), with the word count being a maximum of 5000 words with no minimum. Flash fiction is very much welcomed.

I’ll be both judging and helping to pull the collection together and I really am rather excited.

As a judge, I’ll be looking for strong voice, edgy and original writing, but mainly I’ll be searching out skilled storytellers. There are to be 30 winners and I’m hoping to find a variety of both flash and longer short stories. As the cover suggests, this is a project to have fun with and I’m looking for writers who have clearly enjoyed creating their stories. Stu from Tonto is also talking about arranging UK signings and possibly even a quirky little something extra for each of the 30 winners (and now that I’ve blogged that, it’s official!).

And I’ve just read Tonto’s blog:

‘There’s been a fair amount of entries so far and loads of enquiries. I think this is going to be the most successful Tonto anthology yet! We’re currently in talks over launching the book and setting up signing sessions UK-wide.’

I really am looking forward to reading entries (which will all be anonymous, so clearly I can’t be bribed, not even with chocolate) (although if Simon Cowell enters…)

If you can help spread the word, please do. And, finally, again, all entry details can be found here.