DIY Kitchen Chairs Renovation by Helen Hagemann

I have had my kitchen chairs for over 20 years. Not only do they look good, but also they have a sentimental value that you cannot put a price on. Therefore, when two of the chairs showed signs of wear, ie. most of the spindles in the chair back became separated, I decided to repair them myself. This video is a step by step instruction on the process. After researching many handymen's You Tube videos, I went with the product Gorilla epoxy resin as the strongest glue possible. Many videos suggested that the design of the chairs does not suit a normal wood glue; they move constantly with the sitter leaning on the back. I am very pleased with the result of my efforts and now when the family or friends arrive I am no longer worried about any breakage. They are as solid as a proverbial rock!

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Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest 2018

Fiction Contest

The 2018 Leapfrog Fiction Contest is open until June 15. Marie-Helene Bertino will be finalist judge.

Past Winners: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009

Click on the links above to read about our past winners.

Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novel 2 A.M. AT THE CAT’S PAJAMAS and the story collection SAFE AS HOUSES. Her work has received The O. Henry Prize, The Pushcart Prize, and The Iowa Award for Short Fiction. She is the current Frank O'Connor International Short Story Fellow in Cork, Ireland, and teaches at NYU and in the MFA program at Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. For more information, please visit: www.mariehelenebertino.com.

Read some interviews with Marie-Helene Bertino:

American Short Fiction

Read reviews and more interviews here

Read an interview with Leapfrog's Lisa Graziano in Ploughshares' Indie Spotlight. Click here.

What to Enter

Judging

Questions We Are Frequently Asked

How to Enter

We will accept all entries through our Submittable page, which you can find here

Upload your complete manuscript. Use the title as it appears on the manuscript as the file name (or as much as possible, if the title is very long). Please be sure there is no identifying information anywhere in the file (author name or address), including on the title page and in page headers.

What to Enter

Adult, young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG) novels, novellas, and short story collections are accepted. Minimum word count: 22,000. Individual stories in a collection may have been published in journals. Books that have been self-published will be considered "unpublished" if fewer than about 200 copies were printed.  

We look for literary fiction and mainstream fiction, including science fiction. Generally we are less interested in strict genre fiction, but if a manuscript is good and grabs our attention, we don't care what the genre is.

Judging

All manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two Leapfrog editors, and those that go to the second round of judging may be read by editors at other small presses as well.

Manuscripts are reviewed "blind": the judges do not know the authors' names or any other information about them. This is important to our judging process and the integrity of the contest.

Questions

1. May I submit more than one ms? Yes, you may submit as many as you choose. Each requires an entry fee, and they will be judged separately. The judges will not know they are from the same author. However, our advice is that you use your resources to explore several contests rather than entering more than a couple of mss into a single contest.

2. May I submit to other contests/agents/presses while waiting for the Leapfrog contest results? Yes. We ask that you let us know when you enter what other contests you have entered with the same manuscript, and inform us if your manuscript receives an award elsewhere. Winning another contest does not disqualify a manuscript from being named for an award by Leapfrog. If you receive a publication contract elsewhere, please let us know as that will disqualify the ms from our first prize.

3. What if I edit my manuscript after submitting and want to resend? That is usually fine until the last month of the contest. Just send the new version by email with a short explanation, and we will make sure all judges receive the new version.

4. What if I am unable to send the entry fee through Submittable? If you prefer to pay the reading fee by physical check, please contact us by email at fictioncontest@leapfrogpress.com so that we can direct you around the fee system.

5. What if I decide to withdraw manuscript? If you withdraw before your manuscript has been through several rounds of judging, we will refund your entry fee.

6. May I resubmit a manuscript that I submitted to this contest in the past? We do not encourage that. Even if you feel the ms has been through substantial editing, it is likely to be judged about the same as last time, even by quite different judges. If your ms was named for an award in the past, we cannot name it again. We are happy to take new manuscripts from past contest authors, however.

7. Do you ever publish more than one winner? Yes, we have done that several times. There may be two winners, especially if there are enough MG/YA manuscripts to make a separate category.

8. My computer went belly up and I have only a hard copy of my manuscript. May I send it by mail? In an emergency, we will accept a hard copy, but we need to know that it is coming or it will not be processed for the contest. Please email to discuss this with us before putting a hard copy in the postal mail.

9. Does my manuscript need to be formatted a certain way? No. We are not at all picky about that. Just make it readable. If it was a self-published book, be sure to eliminate title and copyright pages, and page headers, so there is no identifying information.

10. What if many of the stories in my collection were previously published in journals? That is fine, as long as much of the collection as a whole has not already been published as a book. A list of acknowledgments is also fine to include.

11. How many manuscripts do your usually receive? It varies between about 400 and 600.

12. What if I live outside the United States? About 10% of our entrants each year are not in the US. We are happy to read manuscripts from any and all countries. Our 2016 winner lives in the UK.

13. My manuscript has illustrations. Is that OK? Well.... if they are essential, it's OK. We do not take picture books, children's or otherwise, and we do not publish in color. B&W images that are crucial to the book may be included. Again, please keep the file size reasonable.

14. Is there a midnight deadline on May 1? We are not concerned about exactly when your manuscript arrives. If we see it when we log in on the morning of May 2, it has made the deadline. Sometimes there are unavoidable delays and submissions arrive after May 1. Please keep to the May 1 deadline unless there is an unavoidable issue.

Any other questions? Please email us at fictioncontest@leapfrogpress.com and we will be happy to help. You are doing us a favor by sending us your work to consider, and we'll do what we can to make the process easy.

Awards

First Prize: publication contract offer from Leapfrog Press, with an advance payment, plus the finalist awards (see below).

Finalists: $150 and one or two critiques of the manuscript from contest judges; permanent listing on the Leapfrog Press contest page as a contest finalist, along with short author bio and description of the book.

Semi-Finalist: Choice of a free Leapfrog book; permanent listing on the website.

Honorable Mention: listing on the Leapfrog Press website.

We encourage all contest awardees to inform us of any publicity/contracts/reviews of their entries. We will be happy to post that information on our website and in our newsletter.

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Arvon Writing Retreats, England.

Retreats

As well as our tutored courses, Arvon offers retreats designed to allow you the time and space to focus on your writing.
NEW: We have just launched a dedicated Writers Retreat at The Clockhouse, in the grounds of The Hurst, our Shropshire centre.

We now have three types of retreats: Lumb Bank, The Hurst and Totleigh Barton

The Hurst

Check out the website for all the
information you need!

The Arvon Foundation 2018

Lumb Banl

Totleigh Barton

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The Ozone Cafe, a novel

It appears that I have exhausted every avenue for publication for my novel The Ozone Cafe, baring of course vanity publishing which is costly. I intend to produce a .pdf version and make the work available for download + cost. I will be posting more details of this later!

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Manuscript Opportunity with Walker Books

Are you an Australian or New Zealand writer with a fiction manuscript ready for submission.

Welcome to Walker Wednesday!
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has submitted to the first Walker Wednesday! We will be accepting manuscripts again on 7th of December.
Walker Books, the leading children’s books publisher in Australia and New Zealand, is now accepting YA and middle-grade submissions from all published and unpublished writers on the first Wednesday of each month (AEST).
We are looking for YA/MG manuscripts with strong writing, engaging characters and well-developed world-building. We are open to YA/MG of all genres, but are particularly interested in submissions with diverse characters and/or written by diverse authors.
Submission Guidelines
Please email a 1-page cover letter and the first 50 pages of your manuscript as a Word document to WalkerWednesdays@walkerbooks.com.au
The subject line of your email should say “Walker Wednesdays Submission” and include the title of your manuscript.
Your cover letter must include:
• A few lines about yourself. Have you been published before? Why did you write this story?
• A synopsis of the manuscript.
• The word count of the full manuscript.
• Your thoughts on the manuscript’s position in the market. What are some similar books or authors?
If you follow the guidelines and your manuscript is successful, you will be contacted within 3 weeks with a request for the full manuscript for further consideration.
Due to the large amount of submissions, we are unable to respond if you have failed to follow the submission guidelines or if your manuscript is unsuccessful.

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Song: A Break in the Weather by Jenny Morris contributed irony to my story title!

Title of Jenny Morris's Break in the Weather used as ironic in my flash fiction piece. Just won a highly commended in the Out of the Asylum Writers Spilt Ink Competition - Prose section.  Also a break personally going from poetry to prose.

A Break in the Weather

He sighed into the dismal drama of his life and battled on. There were days when he had little strength, moving forward with stiffness. He had a new home with squared windows and a robust roof. Yet he felt imprisoned after the entirety of green, the forest and the open sky. Although he walked under the same clouds, his garden had shrunk to an allotment size.

   Sometimes he heard his dead wife’s laughter, but knew that was an illusion. He saw the same faces in the convoy of early morning walkers and only had the company of his shadow when circuiting the park. A few dog owners drifted past, nodding, others crooned about Pippa or Bluey, and most were less impassioned about the weather. When they were gone there was nothing more to add. It would have been easier just to ring an empty bell.

    At night he watched TV, its flashes of colour and noise livening up the room. One evening he watched a program that gave him an idea to visit his local tavern.

    The main bar was dark and musty, mostly men his age seated on stools. On his second Friday night visit, he was hoping to chat to one regular who had previously spoken to him, but the man leaned on the crook of his arm, crouched at the bar, his empty glass propping up the sadness in his face. 

    Come this Saturday, the bartender said. We get a good crowd and usually a country music band. You'll have fun.

    The night wasn’t what he expected, and it brought a change to his face. A younger crowd greeted him. Handshakes and shoulders touched like a bridge. In that crossing, he encountered the simplicity of conversation over a round of beers. He noticed, above the hubbub of music, laughter and voices, all the young men sported beards. They were impressive, neat and tidy, colourful and not at all housing breakfast crumbs, toothpaste or foreign bodies.

   It's the rage now, said one fellow. Why not grow one and join the club?

   He went along every Saturday night. Why hadn't he thought of growing a beard before? In all his eighty years he had lathered and shaved, rinsed and patted.

   Overnight the hairs inched forward beginning as little brown wisps. He looked like Benjamin Disraeli. When it had grown and bushed out he resembled Sir John Forrest. After several months of growing it long and unkempt, he was Gandalf.

   The young men invited him to car trials, quiz nights, beard contests, and to zero birthdays. Mostly, it was a thirtieth or fortieth and the talk revolved around shapes, styles and colour. There was the Johnny Depp, the David Beckham, the Santa Claus, the goatee, the short-boxed and the stubble. Words like 'soul patch, terminal and mouche' suited his sensibilities. The men told him about a city barber where he could have his beard trimmed and coloured, but if he couldn't afford that, there was the beard trimmer at K-Mart.

   Each morning he splashed water on his face, and gazed at himself in the bathroom mirror. He was not a bearded Anthony Hopkins or George Clooney, but it was easy to see what had taken place. His old look had gone in a different direction while his new existence stared back at him with a neatly trimmed moustache and a bristling, Silverfox beard.

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Award Mentorships

2017 Emerging Writers’ and Illustrators’ Mentorship Program supported by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund

The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Emerging Writers’ and Illustrators’ Mentorship Program provides the winners of these award mentorships with the opportunity to develop their early draft manuscript to a publishable standard through 13 free mentorships with professional mentors. Applications are assessed on literary and artistic merit and developmental potential.
Entries will be accepted in the seven genres of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, graphic novels, young adult literature, children’s writing and picture book illustration.
The 2017 program will support 12 mentorships from any eligible genre, funded by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, plus one additional mentorship – the Edel Wignell Mentorship – for children’s writers. This mentorship is funded by the income from the acclaimed children’s author, Edel Wignell.
Successful applicants will work closely with a mentor selected from the ASA Mentors’ list for 25 hours over one year, with an additional two-hour consultation available following completion of the mentorship. A further five highly commended applicants will receive a two-hour phone consultation with a mentor they have selected from the ASA Mentors’ list.

http://www.asauthors.org/award-mentorships

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