Latest News

27th April 2012

The Write Factor in association with The Arvon Foundation will be publishing a book of essays on the Imagination, called The Gist. With contributions from Alice Oswald, Seamus Heaney, Adam Thorpe, Carol Ann Duffy and many more, the book is a foray into all aspects of the creative Imagination and how that impulse is captured in the written word. We are encouraging budding and experienced writers alike to tell their own stories of the creative process in ‘The Arvon Writing Room’. The Editor’s Selection from these contributions will then be published in The Gist. Please feel free to contribute: www.arvonwritingroom.org

1st March 2012

The Write Factor is pleased to announce the publication of the e-book ‘The 07.45 – Tales from the back of a bus’ by Lynn Batten on 1st May 2012. This book was winner of The Write Factor’s Special Award 2012, the prize being e-book publication. The 07.45 will be available on Kindle, via Amazon. For a pre-publication taster, here is a sample chapter to whet your appetite:

COLLETTE

Collette is going to be late again. It’s the third time this week and she’s already “on a warning” whatever that means. She suspects it means that if she’s late again she really will be in the shit. She is correct. Why can’t she just get up when the alarm goes off? Why can’t she just make herself get out of bed? She has tried setting the alarm earlier but the upshot of this tactic is that she just allows herself more time to lay there not wanting to get up.

It’s not as if she can even enjoy the lying there, so why doesn’t she just GET UP? But although she knows she is late as usual, as usual, she cannot will herself up and out of bed into the waiting day. She sighs and wishes she didn’t know that panicking about her immobility renders her immobile. She should never have read Catch 22; things have never been the same since.

Finally, as somehow it eventually did every morning, the impulse to lurch out of bed occurs and taking full advantage of the impetus before it disappears, she grabs the outfit that her long-time battle with her morning self has taught her to put together the night before, and stumbles blearily into the bathroom. Half an hour later, fully dressed if not fully functional, she has a mug of coffee in one hand whilst with the other she is digging about in the wrist-trapping lining of a jacket pocket, searching for her phone which never seems to be where she is sure she left it. This search is using vital minutes and her ineffectual rummaging in the jacket pocket is causing the coat stand to tilt alarmingly. Her distracted gulping of coffee from the mug in the other hand, renders both occupations singularly hazardous, a fact which makes itself unpleasantly obvious when she inattentively takes a particularly large gulp of coffee and tries to breathe at the same time. The Siamese twins of cause and effect become demonstratively and immediately apparent.

The effect of the choking sensation is so intense that, in order to go on living Colette has no choice but to open her mouth to let air in. This causes the coffee to exit explosively, some of which decides to defect from the main event and take an uncalled for detour through her nasal passages. This effects a violent coughing causing her eyes to water dramatically which in turn has a detrimental effect on her eye make-up, causing it to run horribly and her face to take on a peculiar melting quality. None of this has a beneficial effect on her general appearance or state of mind and only serves to cause yet more confusion: now not only does she still not know where her phone is, she has to get upstairs and wash her face, endure the living nightmare of finding something else to wear and redo her make-up. All whilst clutching her throat and breathing like a winded pony.

One positive effect of all this of this causality is that in dashing to the bathroom to wash coffee from her face and neck and carefully drink some cold water, she spies her phone on the windowsill beside the toilet, next to the incense burner. Incense she thinks, is better than air-fresheners and toilet flush blue things or green things, because, not only are all those chemicals environmental poisons, they, in her opinion, smell worse than that which they try to disguise.

Now she now remembers leaving the phone on the window-ledge after the call from Sarah, during which she was overtaken by a desperate need for a pee and finding it strangely comfortable to talk whilst sitting on the toilet, she had propped her elbow on the windowsill, her head in her hand, and settled-in. She begins to analyse why the toilet is a cosy place to conduct a telephone conversation and then remembers the bizarre nature of the call. This interesting recollection is however brought to an abrupt halt by the realisation of the time as she notices with a stab of dismay the frightening significance of the numbers the mobile’s digital clock is displaying; there is no time to think about the Freudian ramifications of phone, toiletries or Sarah. Thankfully, she grabs the phone.

There follows a frantic rifling through the laundry basket. The bathroom gradually takes on the appearance of post-cyclonic chaos. From the depths of the basket comes a muffled running commentary: “No, no too green; God that reeks; Come on, come on!” until finally a “This’ll have to do” enables her to emerge triumphant.

Now horribly behind even the pretence of a schedule, she forgoes the eye make-up (she can do it on the bus) flings on the top, hurtles back down stairs, wrenches a coat from beneath a jacket which is underneath a shawl, the unprincipled wrenching of which proves too much for the unsteady walnut coat stand, bought second hand in the covered market one lovely Saturday morning when she still believed she had a future. Now however, it falls reproachfully to the floor, in a clattering parody of a Victorian swoon where, swathed in the shawl, it lies deathly still, seemingly desperate for smelling salts.

With a furiously muttered “Oh for God’s sake!” she stuffs herself unceremoniously into the hard won coat, plucks-up bag and phone, hurls open the street door and herself out into the chill, grey, morning. She is flying down the road; if she misses the bus again her ass is grass.

Oh God, it’s already at the stop, no one is waiting to board, everyone’s already on, it must be about to leave… She runs faster, bag banging against her hip, phone clutched in hand, hair flying, heart pounding, legs pumping…

There, she has reached the back of the bus, now the side… She bangs loudly on the metal panel to alert the driver – a bad-tempered sod on the best of days, who is beginning to pull out into the road – to get him to please wait just one more second and let her on.

Dell who is also running late due to this morning’s moody peregrinations and who, in his mirrors has been watching her tumultuous passage down the street, pulls smoothly and spitefully away.

10th February 2012

After the success of The Write Factor’s first publication, A Fabrication of Gold, we are now in discussion with its author John Moat regarding the publication of a new novel, Blanche. Continuing Moat’s tradition of the exploration of the human condition, Blanche is the story of an enigmatic woman’s struggle to come to terms with the vagaries of friendship: of love, loss and rejection. Set in the 1960s when experimentation with relationships was rife and not always respectful, this novel pitches five characters together in a knot of friendship, that gently unravels and reveals the mysterious world of Blanche. John Moat is a master-craftsman of the art of storytelling and this new novel remains in the heart long after the last page is turned.

6th October 2011

The Write Factor ‘Special Award’ Winner Announced

It is with great pleasure that we announce the winner of this year’s Special Award as Lynn Batten with her short-fiction story: The 7.45 – Tales from the Back of a Bus. Lynn’s story impressed the judges with its acerbic wit, profound insights and delectable turns of phrase. The prize for this winning entry of the Special Award category, will be the publication of the story as an e-book, making it available on iBooks, Kindle and other e-book platforms. On becoming a published author, Lynn said, “I am absolutely thrilled at the news. As a Kindle user myself, it will be fantastic to be able to download and read one of my own books.” Another Special Award entry Songs of Bliss by Clive Gilson has been published by Dancing Pig Media and is also available to download as an e-book from Amazon.

22nd April 2011

A Fabrication of Gold by John Moat

As with all John Moat’s books, A Fabrication of Gold is expertly crafted: what the author has called “an alchemical Whitehall farce” succeeds in being by turn hilarious, lyrical and profound. The book runs with an episode of apparent small-town ‘male-menopause’ – and it really shouldn’t be this funny – only to discover that for all the derangement, and thanks to some seriously dodgy characters, the breakdown becomes a breakthrough and leads to clarity and ultimate integration. A feat of adroit story-telling, those who so far have ridden it’s white water have made it to the end in one compelling trip. The book is “unputdownable”!

Click here to listen to a podcast extract from the Prologue.

A Fabrication of Gold will be published by The Write Factor on 7th July 2011 at £8.99. Signed, pre-publication copies will be available shortly. If you would like to place an order please email us for more details

6th January 2011

JENNY LONG WINS TWF’S SHORT STORY COMPETITION!

The editorial team at The Write Factor are delighted to announce that ‘Retail Therapy’ by Jenny Long has been chosen as the winner of our inaugural Short Story competition 2010! Jenny’s entry was shortlisted and then selected as the winner by our judge, prize-winning poet and author, Alyson Hallett. The First Prize is a cheque for £250 plus publication of the story in our forthcoming e-zine Write!’

Alyson Hallett made the following comments on the story: “Retail Therapy, stood out because it possessed emotional integrity. There are some beautiful phrases in this work, and the observations of how a human being feels and acts strike me as wholly authentic. In other words, fiction is doing its work here because I am able, as a reader, to immerse in the world of the characters and be there, believing that it actually exists. The ending is superb, really moving, and also understated. This story is also very topical and I am sure that many other readers will be able to relate to it. In terms of the title of the competition, I felt that this story responded to ‘fortune’ in a complex and layered manner; [the protagonist’s] financial fortunes may be in trouble, but she is still able to appreciate the fortune of her children and the abundance of love that she feels. In addition to this there are glimpses of humour and genuine surprise that punctuate the story and give it an unusual rhythm. I felt that the author was brave in bringing such widely different elements together in one story.”

The Runner-up is Marvin Rabinovitch with his superb story ‘Providence’ and singled-out for Special Commendation is ‘Unmusical Bumps’ by Andrew Campbell-Kearsey. All three stories, together with our Judge Alyson Hallett’s own short story, ‘Apricots’, will be published in the Spring issue of our forthcoming e-zine, Write!

Details of the Short Story Competition 2011 will be announced later this year.

18th November 2010
There are only two weeks left before the deadline of The Write Factor’s Short Story Competition: Family Fortunes. Send in your short story on the theme of ‘Family Fortunes’ and you could win £250! Unlike most writing competitions, there is no entry fee. The winning entry will be announced on 1st January 2011 – what a great way to start the new year. For more details email: lorna@thewritefactor.co.uk

30th September 2010
“Whenever I’m asked for advice about starting to write, I always tell people to do a course. It’s an important step between just writing for yourself, and being prepared to expose your work to the scrutiny of others. A good course will give you both encouragement and criticism and it’s a way of proving to yourself that you’re really serious. I’d been writing for years without success and it was taking a course that changed my life.” – Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian

23rd September 2010

American author and novelist, Barbara Kingsolver has won this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction with her sixth novel, The Lacuna. Whilst some critics argue that such prizes should not go to established authors such as Kingsolver, the fact remains that this book is an astounding feat of story-telling and perhaps the best new book you are likely to read this year.

In any case, how could it not win, being as it is, such a fascinating tale? With a cast of real-life characters including feminist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and Communist leader, Leon Trotsky, seamlessly blending with the fictional protagonist and an array of true and imagined scenarios, The Lacuna captivates the imagination from the very start.

Kingsolver weaves such breadth and detail into a readable, humorous and immensely moving story, creating a book that is a veritable page-turner, with an ending that is at once unexpected yet entirely authentic. The conclusion must be that Kingsolver truly deserves this prize and us mere mortals who strive to write such a magnum opus can only aspire to the heights of erudition she has attained.

The Write Factor would like to publish a Top Ten list of books for 2010 – so please drop us an email telling us what your favourite book of this year has been and why.

12th August 2010
How’s this for marketing and promoting your new book: author Peter Riley is offering the opportunity to win up to CAN$3,000 in prize money by correctly answering questions that can only be resolved by reading a free online copy of his new science-fiction novel, Universes. To read the novel and register to respond to the current question, visit www.universes.ca/enter-contest.html

6th August 2010
ATTACK OF THE CYBERBOTS!
The Write Factor team are disappointed to report that we’ve had to disable our Forum page as it was being constantly attacked by ‘cyber-bots’ – web-based robots that comb the web looking for any portals that allow them to make spam emails and fake chats. Unfortunately, despite increasing our security on the Forum, this still happened and we had to take the decision to disable it until such time as we can find a bug-free Forum that allows for real dialogue without being hacked by these ‘bots.

In place of the Forum, we now have this News page, which, whilst not interactive, we will endeavour to keep up to date with all The Write Factor news and information.

Please Bookmark this page and visit it often. You can always keep in touch with us by email and we can upload any comments, ideas and suggestion from you that way. Apologies to all the genuine writers and contributors who have been using our Forum – hopefully, it won’t be too long before we can replace it with something more secure.

The Write Factor Team

30th June 2010
‘Acronymity’ the new flash-fiction story by Cherry Octave is shortlisted for the ‘TWF Special Award’. Check it out and vote now