Hello. Didn't entirely mean to ignore you for two months there. It's not so much that we've had masses to do as that we've actually managed to pull Leaf Books back to such a shockingly managable level - that'll seem potently amusing when I'm buried under a mountain of micro-fiction entries next week - that we haven't really had anything much to communicate. We actually took a couple of days out to send our own novels to publishers and, er, write a sitcom and that sort of thing. But there is a smidge of news.
- The Someday Supplement is out and about and available for purchase. Have a squint at the website. I'm not entirely sure the Supplement's gone up on the website to be honest, but it most certainly will do in the next few days. It's quite amusing really. It contains the contents of the Mostly Life website and oodles more besides, and there's a slightly racy picture on the front. (There isn't really. It's just a renaissance willy.)
- The micro-fiction competition closed a couple of days ago. Thank you for your flurry of entries. I'm just done sending acknowledgements of receipts, in fact, and soon there'll be the databasing and the judging and we'll be outrageously busy people again. To be fair, we have a lovely work experience person in at the moment and she's going to do quite a lot of databasing for us and we're really very grateful.
(We had, incidentally, a bit of a problem with people who sent two entries and paid for them together being charged erroneously for p&p. We've only just become aware of the issue and have refunded all those that PayPal will allow us to refund - and if you sent an e-cheque, we'll be able to refund you once it's cleared. Sorry about that. We can't seem to fix it, but to avoid the problem in the future, pay for each entry seperately - unless you're doing the 4 for £10 thing, in which case it's fine to pay all at once.)
- Someone sent us cash instead of a cheque with their micro-fiction entries, so we're going to have an unusually exciting lunch. Cheers for that.
Sam.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Leaf Books Poetry 2008 Competition – Winners
We’re well pleased to announce the results of the Poetry 2008 Competition.
Winner:
‘Standing on the Cast-Iron Shore’ by Kathy Miles
Runners up:
‘Caliban’s Dream’ by Clare McCotter
‘The Wall Menders’ by Kate Noakes
Commended:
‘Dragons’ by Kathy Miles
‘Sledging’ by Chloe Balcomb
‘Olivetti’ by Liz Cashdan
‘Sunday’ by Sara Ridgley
‘Homes’ by Joan Michelson
‘Hierarchies of Art’ by Leah Armstead
‘Relaxation CD’ by Leah Armstead
‘Cabin Fever’ by Leah Armstead
‘Escape’ by Leah Armstead
‘Waiting for a Friend’ by Leah Armstead
‘The Future’ by Emily Hinshelwood
‘Swimming Lesson’ by Keith Shaw
‘About the House’ by Anthony Watts
‘Last Day of the Holidays’ by Pat Borthwick
‘Whale Watch’ by Pat Borthwick
‘My Neighbour’s Myna’ by Pat Borthwick
‘Serving Abroad’ by Sue Anderson
‘Our First Day’ by Sarah L. Dixon
‘Reined-In’ by Jenny Morris
‘Father’ by Susan Groom
‘Son of the Soil’ by Margaret Eddershaw
‘New Town’ by Sarah Smith
‘The Night Boatman’ by Oz Hardwick
‘The Coming on the First Caliph (July, 1941)’ by Owen Lowery
‘Mapped Out’ by Sally James
‘Flight of Imagination’ by Aileen Lobban
‘Morning Milk’ by David Underdown
‘Macadamia Nut Steamers’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee
‘Uncle Albert’ by Tracey S. Rosenberg
***
Congratulations to all of the above, and better luck next time to those who were not successful. The competition anthology, Standing on the Cast-Iron Shore and Other Poems, will go into production very shortly.
A note to the featured poets: you’ve all been contacted individually by now, but if for some reason this is the first you’ve heard of it, please check the inbox of whatever email address you gave us when you entered the competition. If you don’t find an email notifying you of your success, please get in touch with us at contact@leafbooks.co.uk.
Sam.
Winner:
‘Standing on the Cast-Iron Shore’ by Kathy Miles
Runners up:
‘Caliban’s Dream’ by Clare McCotter
‘The Wall Menders’ by Kate Noakes
Commended:
‘Dragons’ by Kathy Miles
‘Sledging’ by Chloe Balcomb
‘Olivetti’ by Liz Cashdan
‘Sunday’ by Sara Ridgley
‘Homes’ by Joan Michelson
‘Hierarchies of Art’ by Leah Armstead
‘Relaxation CD’ by Leah Armstead
‘Cabin Fever’ by Leah Armstead
‘Escape’ by Leah Armstead
‘Waiting for a Friend’ by Leah Armstead
‘The Future’ by Emily Hinshelwood
‘Swimming Lesson’ by Keith Shaw
‘About the House’ by Anthony Watts
‘Last Day of the Holidays’ by Pat Borthwick
‘Whale Watch’ by Pat Borthwick
‘My Neighbour’s Myna’ by Pat Borthwick
‘Serving Abroad’ by Sue Anderson
‘Our First Day’ by Sarah L. Dixon
‘Reined-In’ by Jenny Morris
‘Father’ by Susan Groom
‘Son of the Soil’ by Margaret Eddershaw
‘New Town’ by Sarah Smith
‘The Night Boatman’ by Oz Hardwick
‘The Coming on the First Caliph (July, 1941)’ by Owen Lowery
‘Mapped Out’ by Sally James
‘Flight of Imagination’ by Aileen Lobban
‘Morning Milk’ by David Underdown
‘Macadamia Nut Steamers’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee
‘Uncle Albert’ by Tracey S. Rosenberg
***
Congratulations to all of the above, and better luck next time to those who were not successful. The competition anthology, Standing on the Cast-Iron Shore and Other Poems, will go into production very shortly.
A note to the featured poets: you’ve all been contacted individually by now, but if for some reason this is the first you’ve heard of it, please check the inbox of whatever email address you gave us when you entered the competition. If you don’t find an email notifying you of your success, please get in touch with us at contact@leafbooks.co.uk.
Sam.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Just so as you know type thing ...
... the Poetry 2008 Competition has been judged and all the winners barring two who didn't provide email addresses were informed this morning. If you're a poet who did provide an email address and you haven't received notification of success, better luck next time. If you're a poet who didn't provide an email address, you may perhaps get an exciting letter in the post. But then again, if you don't have an email address, you're unlikely to be reading this blog.
We'll give the winning poets the next couple of days to check their emails and go 'ooh' and the like, and then we'll release the results on Monday. Hurrah.
It really is upsettingly windy out there.
Sam.
We'll give the winning poets the next couple of days to check their emails and go 'ooh' and the like, and then we'll release the results on Monday. Hurrah.
It really is upsettingly windy out there.
Sam.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Imagine Coal/Mostly Life
O Readers,
Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction came back from the printers this morning. The book will shortly be on sale via our website - it costs £9.99 per copy, plus £1 p&p, or £7 if you're one of its authors (though still with the £1 p&p). Please note that free copies have already been despatched to the authors (with the exception of two for whom we didn't seem to have postal addresses: check your email), so hopefully those should be with you in the next few days. Or after Easter at any rate.
Also www.mostlylife.com is live.
Sam.
Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction came back from the printers this morning. The book will shortly be on sale via our website - it costs £9.99 per copy, plus £1 p&p, or £7 if you're one of its authors (though still with the £1 p&p). Please note that free copies have already been despatched to the authors (with the exception of two for whom we didn't seem to have postal addresses: check your email), so hopefully those should be with you in the next few days. Or after Easter at any rate.
Also www.mostlylife.com is live.
Sam.
Monday, March 10, 2008
To Do.
Mondays generally kick off with the composition of a 'Things to Do' list. Here are some select highlights, as I suppose highlights by definition have to be, of what the Leaf Team expects to be doing during the week commencing March 10th:
- add more charming and brilliantly patient Leaf Authors to the authors page on the website;
- photocopy some forms with numbers on them for some people or other;
- answer the accountant's unkind and unduly inquisitive email;
- continue work on the typesetting of The Someday Supplement;
- finish putting up the Mostly Life website;
- judge the poetry competition;
- unhook the cat from the noticeboard;
- consume a banana;
- write a blog post.
I'm going to put a tick next to that last one.
Probably the blog post is supposed to have more profound content therein than the information that a blog post was due to be written. Which it undeniably was. And I suppose our most interesting news is that the Mostly Life website, as featured in the middle of our 'To Do' list, is in the process of going online. The entire text site is live and functioning and housing the winners of our Spoof and Humour competition, which will also be published in the hardcopy anthology, The Someday Supplement, and the graphical site is sort of partially there. It's a sizeable job and a work of genius, mostly, but yes. It's properly on its way. You can access both versions from the landing page, which is at www.mostlylife.com. You can enter the Mostly Life Competition from there as well, whereby we invite you to submit funny stuff of all descriptions. Full details on the competition page. It's the most predictable thing about that website.
Ceci's currently felling the accountant and I'm halfway through the banana.
In other news, there's a bit of storm on its way, and we're slightly in a forest, so if you fail to hear from us in a month or two, send rescue. It's actually just monsooning at present. We can cope with that. Leaf's getting along very nicely, thank you. We're typesetting The Someday Supplement, as we say, and we have some private printing jobs in the offing and the poetry's going to be judged and announced by the end of the month and the cat hasn't actually eaten any drawing pins at all this morning. It's t'riffic.
Also today we have a work experience person with us, experiencing work. Please give him a wave. And write to tell us you've done so. We don't much hallucinate here.
Sam.
- add more charming and brilliantly patient Leaf Authors to the authors page on the website;
- photocopy some forms with numbers on them for some people or other;
- answer the accountant's unkind and unduly inquisitive email;
- continue work on the typesetting of The Someday Supplement;
- finish putting up the Mostly Life website;
- judge the poetry competition;
- unhook the cat from the noticeboard;
- consume a banana;
- write a blog post.
I'm going to put a tick next to that last one.
Probably the blog post is supposed to have more profound content therein than the information that a blog post was due to be written. Which it undeniably was. And I suppose our most interesting news is that the Mostly Life website, as featured in the middle of our 'To Do' list, is in the process of going online. The entire text site is live and functioning and housing the winners of our Spoof and Humour competition, which will also be published in the hardcopy anthology, The Someday Supplement, and the graphical site is sort of partially there. It's a sizeable job and a work of genius, mostly, but yes. It's properly on its way. You can access both versions from the landing page, which is at www.mostlylife.com. You can enter the Mostly Life Competition from there as well, whereby we invite you to submit funny stuff of all descriptions. Full details on the competition page. It's the most predictable thing about that website.
Ceci's currently felling the accountant and I'm halfway through the banana.
In other news, there's a bit of storm on its way, and we're slightly in a forest, so if you fail to hear from us in a month or two, send rescue. It's actually just monsooning at present. We can cope with that. Leaf's getting along very nicely, thank you. We're typesetting The Someday Supplement, as we say, and we have some private printing jobs in the offing and the poetry's going to be judged and announced by the end of the month and the cat hasn't actually eaten any drawing pins at all this morning. It's t'riffic.
Also today we have a work experience person with us, experiencing work. Please give him a wave. And write to tell us you've done so. We don't much hallucinate here.
Sam.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Massive Great Update.
Greetings, folks. We decided it was about time for a massive great update on pretty much everything we've been doing. Here it is.
Current Competitions
We’d like, first off, to give our hearty thanks to the entrants of Leaf Books’ first poetry competition of 2008. It closed at the end of January and we received an impressive great wadge of verses. Judging will be taking place over the next couple of months and we hope to make an announcement about winners and the like at the end of March. We shall, as ever, keep you informed.
Until then, you might’ve noticed that the Leaf Books Micro-Fiction Competition 2008 or whatever we’ve called it has leapt selflessly and seamlessly into the gap left by the late poetry comp, or opened on February the 1st if you want to be staid about it. We’ve already had a few entries in and we’re hoping for a fair few more. We invite you to send micro-fiction of up to 300 words on any subject whatsoever. You can enter online or by post. It’ll cost you £3 per single submission or £10 for four submissions. The winner receives £200; the runner-up receives ten free pocket-sized Leaf books. All selected entries will be published in a competition anthology. The competition closes on 31st May 2008. We think that’s more or less it. Please check the website for full details and guidelines and entry forms and things along those lines.
In Production
Ooh, lots of things. Well, two. First and foremost, or first at any rate, is Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction, our latest micro-fiction anthology with a revealing and suspense-ruining title. It’s enthrallingly close to completion: basically it’s just undergoing a final proofing and decorous touching-up before being booted off to the printer. Meaning you ought to be able to buy it in March. And you bally well should, because, you know, it’s great. Have an extract and some blurb:
The Woman with a Coffee Pot opposite me is so ugly with her work-a-day blue dress. Without rest I have to stare into her large, thick, round face, so like my own mother: the stern gaze, the bulbous nose. She is admired. Cezanne kept her. I am a working girl fresh from the fields, so blotted out.
‘You are the invisible form of my composition,’ he said.
– Extract from ‘Imagine Coal’ by Mary Cookson
Imagine Coal contains the winning entries from Leaf Books’ second micro-fiction competition of 2007. The thirty-one tiny fragments of wonderfulness within very concisely discourse on a fantastic variety of subjects, from artists’ models to attempted matricide via alien invasions, dancing GIs and elderly men with aphasia.
The competition was judged by the Leaf Team. Our thanks to all who entered.
*
There. You’re all excited now.
The other piece of work in the pipeline is the very exciting anthology of the winners from our recent Spoof and Humour Competition. It’s exciting for two reasons, mostly: first off for its content, obviously, which is funny and witty and talks quite a bit about soup, and second … off … because it’s getting a dual release – in print as the punningly titled anthology The Someday Supplement and online as part of the content of the newest and bestest iteration of our comedy website Mostly Life.
Mostly Life, that erstwhile and erudite if slightly under-construction repository for all things mirthful, is in an inordinately exciting phase at present. You can see the holding page at http://www.mostlylife.com/ and the even more enthralling blog at http://www.mostlylifeblog.blogspot.com/, which explains more or less what we’ve been up to and what we’re likely to be up to and in what sense we’ve been deflating the moon. We’re more in the habit of confusing and intriguing you than we are of giving the game away, but basically the website progression’s gone from funny words hidden under clipart images of bicycles and umbrellas through a cluttered office desk housing an knicker-clad aspidistra (no, really though) to a ship’s cabin with a resident platypus, and I think there was a brief diversion via an Escher print at one stage as well. Anyway, this version’s going to be spiffing. Properly spiffing. It’ll be going live in the next few weeks or so. There’ll be fanfares and things. It’s wholly exciting. Mostly.
Other Stuff
Other stuff, yes. Well, in between all our making books and designing websites and generally scouring Google images for comical 1950s-style underwear, we’ve been doing Other Stuff. That includes populating the authors’ page on the Leaf Books website, which is slow but significant work. If you're a Leaf Author (that does include the poets and micro-ficcers) and you've not send us a biography (up to 500 words) or a photograph and would like so to do, please get in touch with us. Also feel free to get in touch with us if, in our confusion, we've put up an out-of-date biography for you, and we'll wallop the correct one into place forthwith. Or as soon as we have a moment.
We’re also still very much in the habit of compiling anthologies for writers’ groups, should you happen to be a writers’ group with an anthology that wants compiling (or an individual writer with a novel or a collection of poems or anything along those lines). We’ve recently done All Roads Lead to Bute for the Bute Writers’ Group and Against the Clock for The Grail, and seemingly the links to those are misbehaving something chronic at present, but you can find them yourselves via the Writers' Groups page on our website. Anyway. Have a look at the ‘Printing Service’ page for further information about getting your own work printed. You nab a page on our website into the bargain.
And that's more or less it for the time being.
Sam.
Current Competitions
We’d like, first off, to give our hearty thanks to the entrants of Leaf Books’ first poetry competition of 2008. It closed at the end of January and we received an impressive great wadge of verses. Judging will be taking place over the next couple of months and we hope to make an announcement about winners and the like at the end of March. We shall, as ever, keep you informed.
Until then, you might’ve noticed that the Leaf Books Micro-Fiction Competition 2008 or whatever we’ve called it has leapt selflessly and seamlessly into the gap left by the late poetry comp, or opened on February the 1st if you want to be staid about it. We’ve already had a few entries in and we’re hoping for a fair few more. We invite you to send micro-fiction of up to 300 words on any subject whatsoever. You can enter online or by post. It’ll cost you £3 per single submission or £10 for four submissions. The winner receives £200; the runner-up receives ten free pocket-sized Leaf books. All selected entries will be published in a competition anthology. The competition closes on 31st May 2008. We think that’s more or less it. Please check the website for full details and guidelines and entry forms and things along those lines.
In Production
Ooh, lots of things. Well, two. First and foremost, or first at any rate, is Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction, our latest micro-fiction anthology with a revealing and suspense-ruining title. It’s enthrallingly close to completion: basically it’s just undergoing a final proofing and decorous touching-up before being booted off to the printer. Meaning you ought to be able to buy it in March. And you bally well should, because, you know, it’s great. Have an extract and some blurb:
The Woman with a Coffee Pot opposite me is so ugly with her work-a-day blue dress. Without rest I have to stare into her large, thick, round face, so like my own mother: the stern gaze, the bulbous nose. She is admired. Cezanne kept her. I am a working girl fresh from the fields, so blotted out.
‘You are the invisible form of my composition,’ he said.
– Extract from ‘Imagine Coal’ by Mary Cookson
Imagine Coal contains the winning entries from Leaf Books’ second micro-fiction competition of 2007. The thirty-one tiny fragments of wonderfulness within very concisely discourse on a fantastic variety of subjects, from artists’ models to attempted matricide via alien invasions, dancing GIs and elderly men with aphasia.
The competition was judged by the Leaf Team. Our thanks to all who entered.
*
There. You’re all excited now.
The other piece of work in the pipeline is the very exciting anthology of the winners from our recent Spoof and Humour Competition. It’s exciting for two reasons, mostly: first off for its content, obviously, which is funny and witty and talks quite a bit about soup, and second … off … because it’s getting a dual release – in print as the punningly titled anthology The Someday Supplement and online as part of the content of the newest and bestest iteration of our comedy website Mostly Life.
Mostly Life, that erstwhile and erudite if slightly under-construction repository for all things mirthful, is in an inordinately exciting phase at present. You can see the holding page at http://www.mostlylife.com/ and the even more enthralling blog at http://www.mostlylifeblog.blogspot.com/, which explains more or less what we’ve been up to and what we’re likely to be up to and in what sense we’ve been deflating the moon. We’re more in the habit of confusing and intriguing you than we are of giving the game away, but basically the website progression’s gone from funny words hidden under clipart images of bicycles and umbrellas through a cluttered office desk housing an knicker-clad aspidistra (no, really though) to a ship’s cabin with a resident platypus, and I think there was a brief diversion via an Escher print at one stage as well. Anyway, this version’s going to be spiffing. Properly spiffing. It’ll be going live in the next few weeks or so. There’ll be fanfares and things. It’s wholly exciting. Mostly.
Other Stuff
Other stuff, yes. Well, in between all our making books and designing websites and generally scouring Google images for comical 1950s-style underwear, we’ve been doing Other Stuff. That includes populating the authors’ page on the Leaf Books website, which is slow but significant work. If you're a Leaf Author (that does include the poets and micro-ficcers) and you've not send us a biography (up to 500 words) or a photograph and would like so to do, please get in touch with us. Also feel free to get in touch with us if, in our confusion, we've put up an out-of-date biography for you, and we'll wallop the correct one into place forthwith. Or as soon as we have a moment.
We’re also still very much in the habit of compiling anthologies for writers’ groups, should you happen to be a writers’ group with an anthology that wants compiling (or an individual writer with a novel or a collection of poems or anything along those lines). We’ve recently done All Roads Lead to Bute for the Bute Writers’ Group and Against the Clock for The Grail, and seemingly the links to those are misbehaving something chronic at present, but you can find them yourselves via the Writers' Groups page on our website. Anyway. Have a look at the ‘Printing Service’ page for further information about getting your own work printed. You nab a page on our website into the bargain.
And that's more or less it for the time being.
Sam.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Cardiff Chinese New Year Celebrations
In our capacity as the Mostly Websites website developers (we fit it in between publishing and sitcom-writing and tree surgery or whatever the other one is), we, being almost wholly Ceci, has made a lovely website for the Cardiff Chinese New Year Celebrations. The event is being run by Cardiff Chinese Community Services and is taking place at the Red Dragon Centre (where the daleks live) on Hemingway Road in Cardiff Bay. On Sunday February 10th. From 1.30pm - 3.30pm. 'A unique celebration of Welsh and Chinese culture,' it's going to feature a lion dance, martial arts demonstations, short plays, all manner of stalls and exhibitions and much more besides. Basically, it all sounds very exciting. Pop over to the website to see what precisely will be going on and to, you know, generally marvel at the website.
In other news, we've just started (at long last) putting together the authors' page for the Leaf website. It's going to be a long job, because frankly there are billions of you, or two-hundred at the very least, but yes. It's coming along. If you're a Leaf Author and you've not send us a biography (up to 500 words) or a photograph and would like so to do, please get in touch with us. Also feel free to get in touch with us if, in our confusion, we've put up an out-of-date biography for you, and we'll wallop the correct one into place forthwith. Or as soon as we have a moment.
Sam.
In other news, we've just started (at long last) putting together the authors' page for the Leaf website. It's going to be a long job, because frankly there are billions of you, or two-hundred at the very least, but yes. It's coming along. If you're a Leaf Author and you've not send us a biography (up to 500 words) or a photograph and would like so to do, please get in touch with us. Also feel free to get in touch with us if, in our confusion, we've put up an out-of-date biography for you, and we'll wallop the correct one into place forthwith. Or as soon as we have a moment.
Sam.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Spoof and Humour Competition - Provisional Results
Happy New Year to you all. We're highly pleased to announce the provisional winners of our 2007 Micro-Fiction Competition. They’re provisional because some of them have yet to get in touch with us after our informing them of their jolly good fortune – not because we’re fickle and might go ‘pah’ and change our minds at any given moment. If you’re one of the authors named below and this comes as a delightful surprise, do check your inbox and get in touch with us as soon as possible.
Many thanks.
Winner
‘Note Bene’ by Gearalt MacAodha
Commended
‘Letter from a Lotus Eater’ by Gearalt MacAodha
‘The Jedi Guide to Clubbing’ by Ben Langley
‘Horoscopes’ by Robert Wilton
‘Dead Duck’ by Robert Wilton
‘Diary of a Data Entry Clerk’ by Tracey A Gilbert
‘USA Holiday Solutions’ by Sally Wild
‘No Relative Values’ by India Farquharson-Smithers
‘Nanny Knows Best’ by Vicki Jarrett
‘Out and About With Julian’ by Vicki Jarrett
‘Hyperbolitics’ by Nigel Macarthur
‘Letters Page’ by Nigel Macarthur
‘Corrections and Clarifications’ by Sally Quilford
‘Local News’ by Kevin Wilson
***
Congratulations to the above and our thanks to all who entered. The anthology, to be named The Someday Supplement, will go into production very shortly – it will feature all of the above (or at least all of the above who are happy to be featured) with additional material from the Leaf Team. We shall keep you up to date on its progress.
Sam.
Many thanks.
Winner
‘Note Bene’ by Gearalt MacAodha
Commended
‘Letter from a Lotus Eater’ by Gearalt MacAodha
‘The Jedi Guide to Clubbing’ by Ben Langley
‘Horoscopes’ by Robert Wilton
‘Dead Duck’ by Robert Wilton
‘Diary of a Data Entry Clerk’ by Tracey A Gilbert
‘USA Holiday Solutions’ by Sally Wild
‘No Relative Values’ by India Farquharson-Smithers
‘Nanny Knows Best’ by Vicki Jarrett
‘Out and About With Julian’ by Vicki Jarrett
‘Hyperbolitics’ by Nigel Macarthur
‘Letters Page’ by Nigel Macarthur
‘Corrections and Clarifications’ by Sally Quilford
‘Local News’ by Kevin Wilson
***
Congratulations to the above and our thanks to all who entered. The anthology, to be named The Someday Supplement, will go into production very shortly – it will feature all of the above (or at least all of the above who are happy to be featured) with additional material from the Leaf Team. We shall keep you up to date on its progress.
Sam.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Updates on books, general gabbery, Happy Christmas etc.
Why, hello there. I've been massively neglectful, I know. It's very much time for an update. Where to begin. Well, the latest news is that Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Short Stories is essentially not going to be available in time for Christmas. It might well be back from the printers in the next couple of days, but basically we'll have missed the last post by then. It's a little bit vexing, but printers are busy people in December so we knew it was bound to be a bit iffy. Never mind. BUT, nonetheless, and I'm vaguely sorry to shout at you there, the exciting news is that you'll be able to buy it very soon indeed and have it tumble through your doorway some small number of days after the conclusion of the festivities, which'll be cheering because it's lovely book full of smashing orangery stories and there's a bottom on the front cover. Good. Ceci's just put a nice PayPal button on the website, here, so you can order it from there any time you like and we'll send it to you as soon as we possibly can. Or you can send us a cheque and a letter or an email if that's the sort of thing you prefer. It'll cost £9.99 (p&p £1 per copy).
The other anthology-in-progress is Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction, which is currently at the collating and editing stage and will probably go to print some time in January. So that's jovial. You might also be wondering rather frantically about the whereabouts and whenabouts of the Humour Competition, you know, if you've got a particularly empty sort of a life. Or if you're addicted to all things Leaf. We're fine with that. Well, it's all in hand and actually we've done a fair bit of the judging, but we're holding off finalising the final selection (I'm fairly sure there are better words I could be using here) until January when we can devote the necessary amount of time to it. So remain for the moment on tenterhooks. We'll release you in the weeks to come.
We've been all sorts of kinds of busy these past few months, primarily making competition anthologies for ourselves and compiling work for lovely other people via our Root Creations service (send us text and have it magically transformed into a novel or a collection and possibly a bit of a website on the side - that sort of thing). That's been keeping us tremendously occupied. We've also been working through various iterations of the Mostly Life website with a view to making it generally spiffy (there's quite a test-ish sort of a version up at the moment, but the next 'un's very much in the offing), and all-in-all being website designers and humour writings and contemplating penning a sitcom. Basically what happens is that Ceci sees something on the telly that gives her a magnificent idea, and the next day it's been added to our lengthening CV. It's very exciting. Tomorrow we might be plumbers.
The websites are very nice indeed though. You can see them all through the Mostly Websites page, which is kind of our headquarters. It's a jolly page that makes you go 'What the dickens?' quite a lot, which always amuses us. The first dot's the one you're after. It links to a page called 'What?'.
I can't think offhand what else I need to tell you. Ceci has two new kittens and I have a peculiar itch just behind my right ear. I don't think there's any sort of a connection. So mostly I should just cease to blither now and wish you a happy Christmas and general adaptable seasonal greetings, and we'll be back in January with new books and websites and possibly we'll be designing bridges by then as well. We'll take some photos. It'll be splendid.
Sam.
The other anthology-in-progress is Imagine Coal and More Micro-Fiction, which is currently at the collating and editing stage and will probably go to print some time in January. So that's jovial. You might also be wondering rather frantically about the whereabouts and whenabouts of the Humour Competition, you know, if you've got a particularly empty sort of a life. Or if you're addicted to all things Leaf. We're fine with that. Well, it's all in hand and actually we've done a fair bit of the judging, but we're holding off finalising the final selection (I'm fairly sure there are better words I could be using here) until January when we can devote the necessary amount of time to it. So remain for the moment on tenterhooks. We'll release you in the weeks to come.
We've been all sorts of kinds of busy these past few months, primarily making competition anthologies for ourselves and compiling work for lovely other people via our Root Creations service (send us text and have it magically transformed into a novel or a collection and possibly a bit of a website on the side - that sort of thing). That's been keeping us tremendously occupied. We've also been working through various iterations of the Mostly Life website with a view to making it generally spiffy (there's quite a test-ish sort of a version up at the moment, but the next 'un's very much in the offing), and all-in-all being website designers and humour writings and contemplating penning a sitcom. Basically what happens is that Ceci sees something on the telly that gives her a magnificent idea, and the next day it's been added to our lengthening CV. It's very exciting. Tomorrow we might be plumbers.
The websites are very nice indeed though. You can see them all through the Mostly Websites page, which is kind of our headquarters. It's a jolly page that makes you go 'What the dickens?' quite a lot, which always amuses us. The first dot's the one you're after. It links to a page called 'What?'.
I can't think offhand what else I need to tell you. Ceci has two new kittens and I have a peculiar itch just behind my right ear. I don't think there's any sort of a connection. So mostly I should just cease to blither now and wish you a happy Christmas and general adaptable seasonal greetings, and we'll be back in January with new books and websites and possibly we'll be designing bridges by then as well. We'll take some photos. It'll be splendid.
Sam.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Micro-Fiction competition results.
The 2007 Micro-Fiction Competition Winners are as follows.
Winner
‘Imagine Coal’ by Mary Cookson
Runner up
‘Moving House’ by Anne Youngson
Commended
‘Toothbrushes’ by Mary Cookson
‘The Writing on the Wall’ by Anne Youngson
‘Fish’ by Una Corbett
‘Ten Past Five’ by Robert Warrington
‘Whisky and Cigarettes’ by Sara Benham
‘The Man and the Pea Ball Chain’ by Frederick Mugford
‘Acquiring Wisdom’ by Suzanne Weichhart
‘Outside the Station’ by Lauren Huxley-Blythe
‘Letter to Bridget’ by Lyn Browne
'Fallen Fruit' by Ken Elkes
'The Alien Prisoner's Dilemma' by Rich Hough
'The Affluence of Incohol' by Jo Horsman
'The Woman Who Starts Accidents' by Jo Horsman
'Memoir 101' by Lockie Hunter
'Love' by Morag Edward
'A Strong Hand' by Sarah Dunnakey
'Spilt Milk' by Ruby Radburn
'Pop-Lockin'' by Marie Gallagher
'Drowning Mother' by Ruth Fay
'A Space of Waste' by Shirley Golden
'Entertaining the Idea' by Shirley Golden
'Illumination' by Shirley Golden
'A Problem Shared' by Helen Pizzey
'Velcro' by Emma Dewhurst
'Nape' by Lorraine Cave
'Pineapple' by Lorraine Cave
'Missing' by Lorraine Cave
'Three Times by Water' by Ailsa Cox
'RIP' by Christine Todd
'Gingerbread Mum' by Anne Shewring
***
Congratulations to the above and our thanks to all who entered. The anthology will go into production very shortly. Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Stories is near completion. All very exciting.
Sam.
Winner
‘Imagine Coal’ by Mary Cookson
Runner up
‘Moving House’ by Anne Youngson
Commended
‘Toothbrushes’ by Mary Cookson
‘The Writing on the Wall’ by Anne Youngson
‘Fish’ by Una Corbett
‘Ten Past Five’ by Robert Warrington
‘Whisky and Cigarettes’ by Sara Benham
‘The Man and the Pea Ball Chain’ by Frederick Mugford
‘Acquiring Wisdom’ by Suzanne Weichhart
‘Outside the Station’ by Lauren Huxley-Blythe
‘Letter to Bridget’ by Lyn Browne
'Fallen Fruit' by Ken Elkes
'The Alien Prisoner's Dilemma' by Rich Hough
'The Affluence of Incohol' by Jo Horsman
'The Woman Who Starts Accidents' by Jo Horsman
'Memoir 101' by Lockie Hunter
'Love' by Morag Edward
'A Strong Hand' by Sarah Dunnakey
'Spilt Milk' by Ruby Radburn
'Pop-Lockin'' by Marie Gallagher
'Drowning Mother' by Ruth Fay
'A Space of Waste' by Shirley Golden
'Entertaining the Idea' by Shirley Golden
'Illumination' by Shirley Golden
'A Problem Shared' by Helen Pizzey
'Velcro' by Emma Dewhurst
'Nape' by Lorraine Cave
'Pineapple' by Lorraine Cave
'Missing' by Lorraine Cave
'Three Times by Water' by Ailsa Cox
'RIP' by Christine Todd
'Gingerbread Mum' by Anne Shewring
***
Congratulations to the above and our thanks to all who entered. The anthology will go into production very shortly. Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Stories is near completion. All very exciting.
Sam.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Rejoicings for the presence of Derek and Dogstar.
For they are indeed amongst us. They're so beautiful. It's almost absurd. We're really very smug. We've started sending out the complimentary copies of both titles and we'll resume doing so at the beginning of next week, because the post-sorting-person understandably has conniptions if you try to bury her entirely underneath 57 moderately bulky envelopes or however many it is. All the orders have been fulfilled though. Good. You ought to buy these books, you know. Really you ought. Derek and More Micro-Fiction sports the last Matt-designed cover and The Dogstar and Other Science Fiction Stories has an equally brilliant Ceci-designed cover and there are many and varied, you know, words inside and it's all just a bit divine. And they're heavy and shiny and bookish. We love them obscenely much.
Ukraine and Other Poems next. Shockingly soon, actually, and Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Stories not long after. It's brilliant. It's like we're eating nothing but oats and steroids.
Sam.
Ukraine and Other Poems next. Shockingly soon, actually, and Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Stories not long after. It's brilliant. It's like we're eating nothing but oats and steroids.
Sam.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Apologies for the current lack of Derek and Dogstar.
We know Derek and More Micro-Fiction and The Dogstar and Other Science Fiction Stories are currently listed as 'in stock' - we were under the impression that they very much would be when we put that announcement on the site, but unfortunately they've actually been slightly delayed at the printer by a couple of unforseen graphics errors. Luckily that's all sorted now and we've given the go-ahead for the clever book-compiling machines to do whatever it is they do best. The books should be with us within the next few days. Apologies to anyone who's put in orders and to the authors who are expecting their free copies - we'll get everything sent out as soon as we possibly can. Thanks for your patience.
Sam.
Sam.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
2007 Short Story Competition winners
On this computer, all the buttons and things for posting and editing and sauvegardering maintenant and the like are in French. I studied French for a good five years at school, so I don't really understand it. Apologies therefore if I accidentally do anything deranged.
The 2007 Short Story Competition Winners are as follows.
Winner
‘Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks’ by Anne Shewring
Runner up
‘Translations’ by Mark Wagstaff
Commended
‘Jared Williams Again’ by Jenny Jackson
‘Looking at Water’ by Alan Markland
‘Turning’ by Pippa Goldschmidt
‘The Spirit of the Age’ by Nemone Thornes
‘Mortgage’ by Priya Sharma
‘The Volcano’ by Catherine Chanter
‘Like a Good Boy’ by Aiden O’Reilly
‘Postcards from a Previous Life’ by Andrew Blackman
‘You’re Dead’ by Tom Williams
***
Congratulation to all of the above, and thanks to everybody who entered. Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Short Stories has taken its rightful place in the production queue and will hopefully be available for purchase in time for Christmas.
In other news, there's a postal strike on, but probably you already knew that. As such, we're kind of behind in our orders and the like, but we hope to catch up as soon as possible. Our email's been playing up slightly as well. Comic timing. Never mind. Ukraine and Other Poems is in the editing stage. Derek and Dogstar are both in the final proofing stages and seem likely to go to the printer this very week. The website and Mostly Life are in fairly transitional stages and are basically waiting for other people to be a tad less busy. We have a new carpet in our office. Ceci's foot is giving her a certain amount of grief. I've lost a pair of swimming goggles. I don't know what 'brouillon plus' means.
It's fine on the whole.
Sam.
The 2007 Short Story Competition Winners are as follows.
Winner
‘Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks’ by Anne Shewring
Runner up
‘Translations’ by Mark Wagstaff
Commended
‘Jared Williams Again’ by Jenny Jackson
‘Looking at Water’ by Alan Markland
‘Turning’ by Pippa Goldschmidt
‘The Spirit of the Age’ by Nemone Thornes
‘Mortgage’ by Priya Sharma
‘The Volcano’ by Catherine Chanter
‘Like a Good Boy’ by Aiden O’Reilly
‘Postcards from a Previous Life’ by Andrew Blackman
‘You’re Dead’ by Tom Williams
***
Congratulation to all of the above, and thanks to everybody who entered. Naked Thighs and Cotton Frocks and Other Short Stories has taken its rightful place in the production queue and will hopefully be available for purchase in time for Christmas.
In other news, there's a postal strike on, but probably you already knew that. As such, we're kind of behind in our orders and the like, but we hope to catch up as soon as possible. Our email's been playing up slightly as well. Comic timing. Never mind. Ukraine and Other Poems is in the editing stage. Derek and Dogstar are both in the final proofing stages and seem likely to go to the printer this very week. The website and Mostly Life are in fairly transitional stages and are basically waiting for other people to be a tad less busy. We have a new carpet in our office. Ceci's foot is giving her a certain amount of grief. I've lost a pair of swimming goggles. I don't know what 'brouillon plus' means.
It's fine on the whole.
Sam.
Monday, September 24, 2007
New books.
Outbox and Other Poems and The Light that Remains and Other Stories are amongst us, and really quite phenomenally available for purchase.
Outbox and Other Poems costs £7.99 and has the following blurb:
He swam the Mekong in Dong Det
with two dark-haired sisters who cast their nets
before inviting him to share their haul….
- Extract from ‘Outbox’ by Nicky Mesch
Outbox and Other Poems contains the winning entries from the Leaf Books Open Poetry Competition that ran during the winter of 2006. The thirty poems within cover such diverse subjects as love and hate, boat-building and ghostly rats, dreamfishers, funerals and science classes. What unites them is their brilliance.
The Light that Remains and Other Stories costs £9.99 (p&p £1.69 - lots of pages in this one) and is blurbified thusly:
‘Keep walking,’ he said, and we kept walking. The excited sound of the spectators at the edges of the crash itself, the whee-oosh clamour of the approaching ambulance, the burning scent that the cars offered up: none of it attracted him. Other people saw the wreckage, a body lying in the street (still alive, I think) and rushed over, like flies wanting corpses, for whatever reasons they have – but not him. Not at all. ‘Keep walking,’ he said.
- Extract from ‘The Light That Remains’ by Paul Currion.
A bookish boy’s learning to experience his city as a blind man would experience it; a fabled and helplessly destructive dragon that lives at the local takeaway and a biker’s encounter with a Harley-fancying mermaid. The Light That Remains and Other Stories contains the winning entries from the Leaf Books Open Short Story Competition that ran during the winter of 2006. The fourteen superlative stories residing within represent the pick of crop.
***
We think they're probably the nicest couple of books we've ever made. Kindly buy them and agree.
In other news, the judging for both the short story and micro-fiction competitions is ongoing, as is the production of Ukraine and Other Poems, as are several critiques and the website revamp and the launching of the whole Mostly Life phenomenon and also I need to fill out some forms for the dentist. It's all go really, and the printer isn't work. Fine.
Sam.
Outbox and Other Poems costs £7.99 and has the following blurb:
He swam the Mekong in Dong Det
with two dark-haired sisters who cast their nets
before inviting him to share their haul….
- Extract from ‘Outbox’ by Nicky Mesch
Outbox and Other Poems contains the winning entries from the Leaf Books Open Poetry Competition that ran during the winter of 2006. The thirty poems within cover such diverse subjects as love and hate, boat-building and ghostly rats, dreamfishers, funerals and science classes. What unites them is their brilliance.
The Light that Remains and Other Stories costs £9.99 (p&p £1.69 - lots of pages in this one) and is blurbified thusly:
‘Keep walking,’ he said, and we kept walking. The excited sound of the spectators at the edges of the crash itself, the whee-oosh clamour of the approaching ambulance, the burning scent that the cars offered up: none of it attracted him. Other people saw the wreckage, a body lying in the street (still alive, I think) and rushed over, like flies wanting corpses, for whatever reasons they have – but not him. Not at all. ‘Keep walking,’ he said.
- Extract from ‘The Light That Remains’ by Paul Currion.
A bookish boy’s learning to experience his city as a blind man would experience it; a fabled and helplessly destructive dragon that lives at the local takeaway and a biker’s encounter with a Harley-fancying mermaid. The Light That Remains and Other Stories contains the winning entries from the Leaf Books Open Short Story Competition that ran during the winter of 2006. The fourteen superlative stories residing within represent the pick of crop.
***
We think they're probably the nicest couple of books we've ever made. Kindly buy them and agree.
In other news, the judging for both the short story and micro-fiction competitions is ongoing, as is the production of Ukraine and Other Poems, as are several critiques and the website revamp and the launching of the whole Mostly Life phenomenon and also I need to fill out some forms for the dentist. It's all go really, and the printer isn't work. Fine.
Sam.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Spring 2007 Poetry Competition - Winners
We’re inordinately pleased to announce the winners of our Spring 2007 Poetry Competition:
Winner:
‘Ukraine’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee
Runner-up:
‘The Guest’ by Catherine Chanter
Commended:
‘Heart’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee
‘What Could Be Done To Make a Difference?’ by Catherine Chanter
‘On taking my 80-year-old aunt back to Ireland to look for our roots’ by Pauline Plummer
‘My Friend Barry, the Painter and Decorator’ by Pauline Plummer
‘You Watch Yourself’ by Barry Taylor
‘The Day is White’ by Mary Charman-Smith
‘I Made This Box’ by John Foggin
‘Explorer 242’ by Clive Gilson
‘Dumb-Show’ by Rosi Beech
‘Falmouth’ by Rosi Beech
‘Ersatz Fidelis’ by Harrison Solow
‘Aunt Matilda’ by Keith Shaw
‘Departure’ by Patricia Ward
‘Red’ by Margie Harriott
‘Monochrome’ by Sharon Hosker
‘Snapshots’ by Ian Stanley Ward
‘Daffodil Trail’ by Sarah James
‘The Welfare’ by Kate Noakes
‘Piopet’ by Helen Jayne Gunn
‘Obsession’ by Ivy Bannister
‘Colour of Life, Colour of Blood’ by Ivy Bannister
‘Home-Cooked’ by A.F. Harrold
‘This Englishman in Paris’ by A.F. Harrold
‘Flowers on the Salt Bush’ by Rob Mooney
‘BBC’ by Wayne Preece
‘The Washing of Plates’ by Simone Mansell-Broome
‘Portrait of Schoolgirls by Larchwood’ by Owen Lowery
All of the above poems will be published in an anthology to be called Ukraine and Other Poems that we very much hope should be available for purchase in time for Christmas. Congratulations to the winners and our heartfelt thanks to all who entered.
Sam.
Winner:
‘Ukraine’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee
Runner-up:
‘The Guest’ by Catherine Chanter
Commended:
‘Heart’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee
‘What Could Be Done To Make a Difference?’ by Catherine Chanter
‘On taking my 80-year-old aunt back to Ireland to look for our roots’ by Pauline Plummer
‘My Friend Barry, the Painter and Decorator’ by Pauline Plummer
‘You Watch Yourself’ by Barry Taylor
‘The Day is White’ by Mary Charman-Smith
‘I Made This Box’ by John Foggin
‘Explorer 242’ by Clive Gilson
‘Dumb-Show’ by Rosi Beech
‘Falmouth’ by Rosi Beech
‘Ersatz Fidelis’ by Harrison Solow
‘Aunt Matilda’ by Keith Shaw
‘Departure’ by Patricia Ward
‘Red’ by Margie Harriott
‘Monochrome’ by Sharon Hosker
‘Snapshots’ by Ian Stanley Ward
‘Daffodil Trail’ by Sarah James
‘The Welfare’ by Kate Noakes
‘Piopet’ by Helen Jayne Gunn
‘Obsession’ by Ivy Bannister
‘Colour of Life, Colour of Blood’ by Ivy Bannister
‘Home-Cooked’ by A.F. Harrold
‘This Englishman in Paris’ by A.F. Harrold
‘Flowers on the Salt Bush’ by Rob Mooney
‘BBC’ by Wayne Preece
‘The Washing of Plates’ by Simone Mansell-Broome
‘Portrait of Schoolgirls by Larchwood’ by Owen Lowery
All of the above poems will be published in an anthology to be called Ukraine and Other Poems that we very much hope should be available for purchase in time for Christmas. Congratulations to the winners and our heartfelt thanks to all who entered.
Sam.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
News. Lots thereof.
Well, now we know how to get you talking. Make a two-line post then leave you to it for the next three weeks. Bravo.
Here are some other things for you talk about.
The Micro-Fiction Competition. Having been granted a brief extension (which means pantaloons), this now closes on September the 15th, in ten days time. So you've still oodles of hours in which to send us your short short stories for judging purposes. I hope they're all brilliant.
Judging. Ongoing. We're currently pretty darned close to reaching a result in the poetry competition and the short story comp's biffing along fairly nicely as well. Probably we're a touch slower than usual because we don't have Turbo-Reader Matt to help us anymore, but we're doing our utmost and we hope to make an exciting announcement within the next couple of weeks. Please to be bearing with us.
Books in progress. Outbox & Other Poems and The Light That Remains & Other Short Stories are with the printer as we speak and should hopefully be available for purchase by the end of the month. All featured authors, as ever, will receive a free copy as soon as we can bung it in an envelope and send it in their general direction. Derek & More Micro-Fiction and The Dogstar & Other Science Fiction Stories are both a significant distance along the production line and could very conceivably be at the printer within the next month or so as well. For which a hearty hurrah.
Leaf Itself. Hello there. Now. Probably you've noticed that we've undergone a couple of changes over the last few months. We've mislaid Matt, and Gav's going to go AWOL some time in the near future on the grounds of his needing a job that pays more money. Boo. But it's not all grim. We have, in recent weeks, acquired the assistance of a couple of extraordinarily able web-bods who are helping us first and foremost with Mostly Life, the Leaf Team's new and almost spleen-poppingly exciting project that I do believe Ceci might have mentioned to you once or twice before. It's essentially an online repository for various things humorous and quirksome and generally pleasing. There's going to be a spoof of a village newspaper, a section for less audio-based versions of radio 4 type panel games, the Someday Supplement for the housing of all manner of humorous writings and the Sensorama, for anything amusing in a visual or noisy fashion. Or tactile if you can work out how to do that over the computer. Please keep checking the website at http://www.mostlylife.com/ - we expect it to go live within the next couple of weeks.
Leaf Books itself is going to slightly alter its working processes in order both to match the requirements of its costumers and to enable us to be a bit more massively productive with the whole Mostly Life thing. Basically we'll be running fewer competitions - 2008's preliminarily going to see the production of a poetry anthology and a micro-fiction anthology, both of which we hope will be sizeable and slightly fantastic. We think this is in many ways a smart move. We were possibly getting a bit deranged with the competitions there and we were frankly kind of running out of names for them. A touch of focus was called for. Nothing much else is changing... newsletters will go out on a quarterly basis, all our books will still be very much available for purchase and the website at http://www.leafbooks.co.uk/ is going to get a spiffy new revamp with art deco shapes and coffee-ish colours and improved functionality and all those jolly things. Which is something to look forward to.
And now I'm off for a spot of breakfast. I'm thinking crumpets and lemon curd, and I won't be swayed.
Sam.
Here are some other things for you talk about.
The Micro-Fiction Competition. Having been granted a brief extension (which means pantaloons), this now closes on September the 15th, in ten days time. So you've still oodles of hours in which to send us your short short stories for judging purposes. I hope they're all brilliant.
Judging. Ongoing. We're currently pretty darned close to reaching a result in the poetry competition and the short story comp's biffing along fairly nicely as well. Probably we're a touch slower than usual because we don't have Turbo-Reader Matt to help us anymore, but we're doing our utmost and we hope to make an exciting announcement within the next couple of weeks. Please to be bearing with us.
Books in progress. Outbox & Other Poems and The Light That Remains & Other Short Stories are with the printer as we speak and should hopefully be available for purchase by the end of the month. All featured authors, as ever, will receive a free copy as soon as we can bung it in an envelope and send it in their general direction. Derek & More Micro-Fiction and The Dogstar & Other Science Fiction Stories are both a significant distance along the production line and could very conceivably be at the printer within the next month or so as well. For which a hearty hurrah.
Leaf Itself. Hello there. Now. Probably you've noticed that we've undergone a couple of changes over the last few months. We've mislaid Matt, and Gav's going to go AWOL some time in the near future on the grounds of his needing a job that pays more money. Boo. But it's not all grim. We have, in recent weeks, acquired the assistance of a couple of extraordinarily able web-bods who are helping us first and foremost with Mostly Life, the Leaf Team's new and almost spleen-poppingly exciting project that I do believe Ceci might have mentioned to you once or twice before. It's essentially an online repository for various things humorous and quirksome and generally pleasing. There's going to be a spoof of a village newspaper, a section for less audio-based versions of radio 4 type panel games, the Someday Supplement for the housing of all manner of humorous writings and the Sensorama, for anything amusing in a visual or noisy fashion. Or tactile if you can work out how to do that over the computer. Please keep checking the website at http://www.mostlylife.com/ - we expect it to go live within the next couple of weeks.
Leaf Books itself is going to slightly alter its working processes in order both to match the requirements of its costumers and to enable us to be a bit more massively productive with the whole Mostly Life thing. Basically we'll be running fewer competitions - 2008's preliminarily going to see the production of a poetry anthology and a micro-fiction anthology, both of which we hope will be sizeable and slightly fantastic. We think this is in many ways a smart move. We were possibly getting a bit deranged with the competitions there and we were frankly kind of running out of names for them. A touch of focus was called for. Nothing much else is changing... newsletters will go out on a quarterly basis, all our books will still be very much available for purchase and the website at http://www.leafbooks.co.uk/ is going to get a spiffy new revamp with art deco shapes and coffee-ish colours and improved functionality and all those jolly things. Which is something to look forward to.
And now I'm off for a spot of breakfast. I'm thinking crumpets and lemon curd, and I won't be swayed.
Sam.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Novella submissions: still very much closed.
Apparently there are some websites still reporting that Leaf Books is requesting open submissions of novellas. This is sadly untrue. We had to close novella submissions some weeks back due to an unexpected lack of funding, and we shan't be opening them again. We've had a couple of emails from understandably confused people who've submitted novellas to us and had them returned, and then read the contradictary and enormously incorrect rumours that we're still open to submissions. Now, obviously we're very sorry indeed to disappoint people, but let's make this absolutely clear. We're disappointed as well. We wanted to publish a novella. We most certainly weren't pretending to lack funding purely to clear a backlog of unread manuscripts before finding that the money had magically reappeared. Money, in our experience, simply doesn't do that. We're all writers ourselves and we know how gruelling and unrewarding the submission process can be. We're very sorry to have disappointed you; we would never deliberately make things harder for other writers.
As a rule, we can't really control what other websites and blogs report, though obviously we'll try and gently correct those ones that are reported to us. Please take the information on our official website - the only website that we're capable of editing - as the last word in what we are and are not accepting at present.
Sam.
As a rule, we can't really control what other websites and blogs report, though obviously we'll try and gently correct those ones that are reported to us. Please take the information on our official website - the only website that we're capable of editing - as the last word in what we are and are not accepting at present.
Sam.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Science Fiction and Fantasy Competition Results
Hello. You'll be wanting to hear the result of the Sci(ence)-Fi(ction) & Fant(asy) comp(etition), won't you. I know your sort.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Competition Winners
Winner:
‘The Dogstar’ by Kathy Kachelries
Runner up:
‘The Glass Tower’ by Sarah Thompson
Commended:
‘Charlie and the Letting Go’ by Michael Hulme
‘Lady of the Plagues’ by Elana Gomel
‘Time of Death’ by Robert Wilton
‘A Question of Madness’ by Anthony Howcroft
‘A Good Mother’ by T. Rawson
‘Meal Deal’ by Mona McKinlay
‘The Tycoon’ by Sally Quilford
‘Pretty Boy’ by Tracey S Rosenberg
There. I hope it makes you happy. Congratulations to all our winners and commiserations to all our not-winners. And look at Robert Wilton there, getting himself in another competition anthology. He does that all the time. It's really very hard to stop him. The anthology will go into production pretty much as soon as all of the above have lobbed over e-copies of their lovely stories and then it'll be sent off to the printers and then there'll be the usual frustrating delay and then essentially it'll be up for sale. We'll keep you, you know, informed.
And I'll be sending out the critiques to those who requested critiques on their sci-fi comp entries within the next few days.
I rather like sending out the emails that say 'Hurrah for you, you've won etc.' That's really one of the nicest parts of the job. What I don't like so much is the heavy lifting. Possibly you don't think there's a great deal of heavy lifting involved in publishing. You're so engagingly naive. Yesterday Ceci and myself carried boxes of books from our old office out of which we've been turfed into our new squatting space while the man of the team licked envelopes. Mr Bingley would've been aghast. I don't really get the whole Darcy-love thing. Stroppy little git. Anyway. The man moved some boxes later in the day when we more or less went on strike. Also Coffee&Chocolate came back from the printers and we upset the nice receptionist lady by giving her twenty-eight parcels of books to send out. We're beasts like that.
I'm going now because this keyboard's running on a sort of time delay and throughout this post I've been typing three times as fast as the words have been appearing and I've been massively SUFFERING for you here and now I'm going to sit over there and ostensibly do some work but probably mostly think about cake and the papal schism and that. Good.
Sam.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Competition Winners
Winner:
‘The Dogstar’ by Kathy Kachelries
Runner up:
‘The Glass Tower’ by Sarah Thompson
Commended:
‘Charlie and the Letting Go’ by Michael Hulme
‘Lady of the Plagues’ by Elana Gomel
‘Time of Death’ by Robert Wilton
‘A Question of Madness’ by Anthony Howcroft
‘A Good Mother’ by T. Rawson
‘Meal Deal’ by Mona McKinlay
‘The Tycoon’ by Sally Quilford
‘Pretty Boy’ by Tracey S Rosenberg
There. I hope it makes you happy. Congratulations to all our winners and commiserations to all our not-winners. And look at Robert Wilton there, getting himself in another competition anthology. He does that all the time. It's really very hard to stop him. The anthology will go into production pretty much as soon as all of the above have lobbed over e-copies of their lovely stories and then it'll be sent off to the printers and then there'll be the usual frustrating delay and then essentially it'll be up for sale. We'll keep you, you know, informed.
And I'll be sending out the critiques to those who requested critiques on their sci-fi comp entries within the next few days.
I rather like sending out the emails that say 'Hurrah for you, you've won etc.' That's really one of the nicest parts of the job. What I don't like so much is the heavy lifting. Possibly you don't think there's a great deal of heavy lifting involved in publishing. You're so engagingly naive. Yesterday Ceci and myself carried boxes of books from our old office out of which we've been turfed into our new squatting space while the man of the team licked envelopes. Mr Bingley would've been aghast. I don't really get the whole Darcy-love thing. Stroppy little git. Anyway. The man moved some boxes later in the day when we more or less went on strike. Also Coffee&Chocolate came back from the printers and we upset the nice receptionist lady by giving her twenty-eight parcels of books to send out. We're beasts like that.
I'm going now because this keyboard's running on a sort of time delay and throughout this post I've been typing three times as fast as the words have been appearing and I've been massively SUFFERING for you here and now I'm going to sit over there and ostensibly do some work but probably mostly think about cake and the papal schism and that. Good.
Sam.
Friday, June 29, 2007
This weeks happenings
ALMOST THERE -You know I finally did it. I'm managed to get Coffee and Chocolate to the printers and it's being printed as we speak. So I'll be updating the website so you can put in your orders for it very soon.
I was a little scared when we announced both these competitions (the Coffee and Chocolate Themed Competitions) as I thought that that all the stories would be very samey and that it would an un-entertaining read. I need not have worried though, this collection of poems, stories and short fictions if both varied and entertaining. And great with a cup of tea, coffee or even something stronger like espresso.
The Light that Remains and Outbox containing the Open Short and Open Poetry selections are going to follow in quick succession closely followed by Derek (our micro fiction collection). The Light that Remains is out biggest collection yet at over 200 pages! The covers aren't yet done but I'll post them as soon as they are in a showable state.
UPDATE: SCI-FI JUDGING DELAYED - I know the result is due at the end of the month, but someone didn't check their diary for this week, so the Committee of Readers hasn't been able to sit and make the final judgements on the short-list. We're not keeping you in suspense on purpose, honestly. The same person is also away from most of the world for next week. I'll try and get a decision for you as soon as I can in the week starting the 8th of July.
POETRY COMP ENDS TOMORROW - Don't forget that you have until midnight Saturday to make your entry to our latest poetry competition. If you've posted your entry don't worry we'll take into account the postal strike today.
I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of for now.
Keeping writing,
Gavin.
I was a little scared when we announced both these competitions (the Coffee and Chocolate Themed Competitions) as I thought that that all the stories would be very samey and that it would an un-entertaining read. I need not have worried though, this collection of poems, stories and short fictions if both varied and entertaining. And great with a cup of tea, coffee or even something stronger like espresso.
The Light that Remains and Outbox containing the Open Short and Open Poetry selections are going to follow in quick succession closely followed by Derek (our micro fiction collection). The Light that Remains is out biggest collection yet at over 200 pages! The covers aren't yet done but I'll post them as soon as they are in a showable state.
UPDATE: SCI-FI JUDGING DELAYED - I know the result is due at the end of the month, but someone didn't check their diary for this week, so the Committee of Readers hasn't been able to sit and make the final judgements on the short-list. We're not keeping you in suspense on purpose, honestly. The same person is also away from most of the world for next week. I'll try and get a decision for you as soon as I can in the week starting the 8th of July.
POETRY COMP ENDS TOMORROW - Don't forget that you have until midnight Saturday to make your entry to our latest poetry competition. If you've posted your entry don't worry we'll take into account the postal strike today.
I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of for now.
Keeping writing,
Gavin.
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