It’s on a rather sad note that I announce this round. This competition has been a huge part of this blog for the last year and announcing this round as the FINAL round seems rather disappointing. So many great stories have been submitted and published etc, and great connections have been made with some amazingly talented people.

As sad as it is, it’s also extremely exciting  because we are that much closer to the first anthology to come out of Mum Life Stories. There’s a lot of work to do, but I’m hoping after this round, it will get underway and be ready for release by Christmas or at the latest, early January. Yes, the plan was for the end of 2020 but lots of extensions and other unforeseen events have put a bit of a delay on the process, but never fear it will happen and it will be awesome. I’m thinking about a little competition to name the anthology, so keep an eye out for that in a month or so. Subscribe to the mailing list if you’d like to be notified when it happens.

Read more →

I know, I know, “finally”, I hear you say. Yes, at last Round 5 of the Mum Life Stories, Micro Fiction Writing Competition is here. Let the crowds go wild, woot woot.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been eagerly anticipating the return of our competition, and I sincerely apologize for keeping you all hanging, but all good things come to those who wait, so I’m expecting this to be our best round yet!

If you missed out on reading the winning entries for round 4, way back at the beginning of June, you can find them right HERE along with the shortlist HERE and don’t forget to visit our competitions page for all the past winners of our previous rounds.

Read more →

*UPDATE: Round 5 has begun. Details HERE!*

Our first three Micro Fiction Writing Competitions have been a wonderful success and we were very impressed by the quality of entrants. We are getting very excited about the anthology and the quality of stories that will be featured. The winners and shortlist for round 3 have been published (you can read the results HERE) and now it’s on to round 4.
If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 shortlisted stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published by the end of 2020.

Competition opens on the 14th of April

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

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FLASH: Writing the very short story by John Dufresne

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Themes

This Competition is the fourth of 6 Micro-Fiction Writing Competitions run over the next year, ending with an anthology publication sometime between July and November 2020 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of Motherhood. The 6 different sub-themes are:

1. Mother (November/December ’19 COMPLETED)
2. GrandMother (January ’20 COMPLETED)
3. Single Mother (February/March ’20 COMPLETED)
4. Step-Mother (CURRENT)
5. Great GrandMother
6. Foster Mother

The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 10 days (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!

Sign up to our mailing list to be notified when a new competition has begun.

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Rustic/Farmhouse Serving Tray (Buy it Now)

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This Months Competition

This month’s theme is ‘Step-Mother’ (April ’20) and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the words ‘Step-Mother’ but it must be clear your story is about, you guessed it…a Step-Mother.

Whilst I’d love to keep the competition free to enter, administration costs have started to take their toll on my bank account and it’s become necessary to charge a very small fee (to cover costs) of just $2 AUD. I do lose a bit of that to Paypal fees so what I’m getting is very minimal and doesn’t even completely cover the prize money that I give away so please don’t put off by the small entry cost as you are helping contribute to your’s or someone else’s success and publication as an author. A noble deed indeed!
Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!

Competition Rules and Guidelines

‘Step-Mother’ Competition Dates: April 14th 2020 – April 24th 2020 (Extended till 14th May) @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on the 25th of April (Extended till the 15th of May) 2020, with the shortlist and winners being announced on the 8th of May (Extended till the 25th of May) 2020.

Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.

Rules:

1. 500 words or less.
2. Narrative Fiction (no poetry please).
3. Must be about a Step-Mother.
4. No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
5. Must agree to the T & C’s.
6. Your story must not already be published anywhere else.
7. The $2 AUD entry fee must be paid via Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com and must clear before the competition end date in order for your entry to qualify. Please also insure you enter the email address you use for PayPal into the section provided on the entry form so we can match your payment to your entry.

Submission:

1. Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
2. 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
3. Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
4. Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
5. Click HERE to go to the form where you can attach your story file, or go to the T & C’s page and enter there.

Judging:

There will be 2 judges, myself and one of our regular story contributors Fiona M. Jones.

1. Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
2. We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
3. While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
4. We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
5. All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.

You can read more about the judges on our ‘About‘ page.

Prizes:

1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Submit:

Click HERE to go to the entry form.

Go to the T & C’s page.

Sign up to mailing list to get a reminder when the competition is about to close & keep informed of upcoming competitions, plus receive a FREE Ebook.

Good Luck and Have Fun Writing!

---

Writing Flash – How to craft & publish flash fiction for a booming market (Kindle Edition)

---

Get your FREE Ebook

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

---

*PLEASE NOTE: THIS COMPETITION HAS ENDED AND WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED. CLICK HERE FOR INFO ON OUR NEXT ROUND STARTING SOON*

 

Our first two Micro Fiction Writing Competitions have been a wonderful success and we were very impressed by the quality of entrants. We are getting very excited about the anthology and the quality of stories that will be featured. The winners and shortlist for round 2 have been published (you can read the results HERE) and now it’s on to round 3.
If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 shortlisted stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published by the end of 2020.

Competition opens on the 24th of February

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

---

FLASH: Writing the very short story by John Dufresne

---

Themes

This Competition is the second of 6 Micro-Fiction Writing Competitions run over the next year, ending with an anthology publication sometime between July and November 2020 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of Motherhood. The 6 different sub-themes are:

1. Mother (November/December ’19 COMPLETED)
2. GrandMother (January ’20 COMPLETED)
3. Single Mother (February/March ’20 CURRENT)
4. Step Mother
5. Great GrandMother
6. Foster Mother

The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 10 days (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!

Sign up to our mailing list to be notified when a new competition has begun.

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Kids Personalised Easter Basket

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This Months Competition

This month’s theme is ‘Single Mother’ (February ’20) and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the words ‘Single Mother’ but it must be clear your story is about, you guessed it…a Single Mother (biological, adoptive or otherwise).

We managed to keep the last two months of submissions free to enter, but administration costs have started to take their toll on our founder’s bank account and it’s become necessary to charge a very small fee (to cover costs) of just $2 AUD.

Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!

Competition Rules and Guidelines

‘Single Mother’ Competition Dates: February 24th 2020 – March 2nd (extended to 23rd March), 2020 @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on the 3rd of March (extended to the 24th of March), with the shortlist and winners being announced on the 4th of April.

Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.

Rules:

1. 500 words or less.
2. Narrative Fiction (no poetry please).
3. Must be about a Single Mother (biological or adoptive).
4. No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
5. Must agree to the T & C’s.
6. Your story must not already be published anywhere else.
7. The $2 AUD entry fee must be paid via Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com and must clear before the competition end date in order for your entry to qualify. Please also insure you enter the email address you use for PayPal into the section provided on the entry form so we can match your payment to your entry.

Submission:

1. Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
2. 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
3. Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
4. Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
5. Click HERE to go to the form where you can attach your story file, or go to the T & C’s page and enter there.

Judging:

There will be 2 judges, myself and one of our regular story contributors Fiona M. Jones.

1. Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
2. We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
3. While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
4. We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
5. All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.

You can read more about the judges on our ‘About‘ page.

Prizes:

1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology.

3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of the anthology

Submit:

Click HERE to go to the entry form.

Go to the T & C’s page.

Sign up to mailing list to get a reminder when the competition is about to close & keep informed of upcoming competitions, plus receive a FREE Ebook.

Good Luck and Have Fun Writing!

---

Writing Flash – How to craft & publish flash fiction for a booming market (Kindle Edition)

---

Get your FREE Ebook

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

---

*Please note: This competition has ended. Please visit our competitions page for details of our current competition. Please sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of this page to keep informed of new competitions starting*

Our first Micro Fiction Writing Competition has been a wonderful success and we were very impressed by the quality of entrants. The short list has been published and our top 3 winners have been chosen but the announcement is yet to go out, so stay tuned and check back for that exciting news.

Time for round 2. If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 short-listed stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published by the end of 2020.

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

---

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Themes

This Competition is the second of 6 Micro Fiction Writing Competitions run over the next year, ending with an anthology publication sometime between July and November 2020 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of Motherhood. The 6 different sub-themes are:

1. Mother (November/December ’19 COMPLETED)
2. GrandMother (February ’20 CURRENT)
3. Single Mother
4. Step Mother
5. Great GrandMother
6. Foster Mother

The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 10 days (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!

Sign up to our mailing list to be notified when a new competition has begun.

---

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This Months Competition

This month’s theme is ‘Grandmother’ (January ’20) and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the word ‘Grandmother’ but it must be clear your story is about a Grandmother (biological, adoptive or otherwise).

We have decided to keep this months submissions FREE to enter. Consecutive months competitions will incur a $2 entry fee (to cover administration costs).

Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!

Competition Rules and Guidelines

‘Grandmother’ Competition Dates: January 14th 2020 – January 24th 2020 (extended till 10th February) @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on the 25th of January (extended till the 11th of February), with the shortlist and winners being announced on the 8th of February (extended till the 20th of February).

Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.

Rules:

1. 500 words or less.
2. Narrative Fiction (no poetry please).
3. Must be about a Mother (biological or adoptive).
4. No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
5. Must agree to the T & C’s.
6. Your story must not already be published anywhere else.

Submission:

1. Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
2. 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
3. Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
4. Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
5. Click HERE to go to the form where you can attach your story file, or go to the T & C’s page and enter there.

Judging:

There will be 2 judges, myself and one of our regular story contributors Fiona M. Jones.

1. Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
2. We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
3. While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
4. We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
5. All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.

You can read more about the judges on our ‘About‘ page.

Prizes:

1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of anthology.

2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of anthology.

3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of anthology

Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of anthology

Submit:

Click HERE to go to the entry form.

Go to the T & C’s page.

Sign up to mailing list to get a reminder when the competition is about to close & keep informed of upcoming competitions, plus receive a FREE Ebook.

Alternatively, go to our COMPETITIONS page for info on the latest competitions!

---

Writing Flash – How to craft & publish flash fiction for a booming market (Kindle Edition)

---

Get your FREE Ebook

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

---

*Please note: This competition has now ended. Please visit our competitions page for info on our current comp. Please sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of this page to keep informed of new competitions starting*

Last month we attempted to start a series of micro-fiction competitions and unfortunately didn’t receive enough entries to justify a fair judging process, so we are opening up again and giving you 3 weeks to submit your stories.

If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this competition. You could score yourself $50 (AUD) for first place or $20 (AUD) for 2nd or 3rd place, plus the top 10 shortlisted stories, including the 3 winners (from 6 competitions, so 60 stories in total) will be featured in an anthology to be published by the end of 2020.

Photo credit: Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.

---

Personalized Handcrafted Leather Journal (Buy Now)

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Themes

This Competition will be the first of 6 Micro-Fiction Writing Competitions run over the next year, ending with an anthology publication sometime between July and November 2020 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of Motherhood. The 6 different sub-themes are:

1. Mother (November ’19)
2. GrandMother (January ’20)
3. Single Mother (March ’20)
4. Step Mother (Aril ’20)
5. Great GrandMother
6. Foster Mother

The comps will be run in this order and competition start and finish dates will be released at the end of each preceding competition. Competitions will run for 10 days (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!

Sign up to our mailing list to be notified when a new competition has begun.

Alternatively, go to our COMPETITIONS page for info on the latest competitions!

---

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This Months Competition

This month’s theme is ‘Mother’ (November ’19) and it can be interpreted any way you like. You don’t have to include the word ‘Mother’ but it must be clear your story is about a Mother (biological, adoptive or otherwise).

Since this is our first very first Micro Fiction writing competition, this month’s submissions will be FREE to enter. Consecutive months competitions will incur a $2 entry fee (to cover administration costs).

Please read the competition rules below and then follow the link to our competition T & C’s where there will be an entry form to fill in with your story. Good Luck!

Competition Rules and Guidelines

‘Mother’ Competition Dates: November 23rd 2019 – December 14th 2019 @ midnight AEST (Extended until 31st December). Judging will commence on the 15th of December (Extended to 1st January 2020), with the shortlist and winners being announced on the 31st of December (now 10th January 2020).

Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.

Rules:

1. 500 words or less.
2. Narrative Fiction (no poetry please).
3. Must be about a Mother (biological or adoptive).
4. No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
5. Must agree to the T & C’s.
6. Your story must not already be published anywhere else.

Submission:

1. Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
2. 12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
3. Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
4. Your name should not appear on the document (submissions will be read blind so if your name is on the doc it will not be accepted).
5. Click HERE to go to the form where you can attach your story file, or go to the T & C’s page and enter there.

Judging:

There will be 2 judges, myself and one of our regular story contributors Fiona M. Jones.

1. Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
2. We will not be giving feedback on stories at this point in time, apart from general opinions on the winning entries that will be published on the blog.
3. While our opinions and personal taste will play a small role in the judging, we will be looking at the structure, form, originality and storytelling technique of each submission.
4. We both have different tastes but will work together, discussing all elements of the story to come up with 10 stories for the shortlist and then 3 winners.
5. All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.

You can read more about the judges on our ‘About‘ page.

Prizes:

1st Place – $50 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + a printed copy of the anthology + digital copy of anthology.

2nd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of anthology.

3rd Place – $20 (AUD), published on mumlifestories.com & in anthology + digital copy of anthology

Shortlist (Top 10) – Published in anthology + digital copy of anthology

Submit:

Click HERE to go to the entry form.

Go to the T & C’s page.

Sign up to mailing list to get a reminder when the competition is about to close & keep informed of upcoming competitions, plus receive a FREE Ebook.

Good Luck and Have Fun Writing!

---

Writing Flash – How to craft & publish flash fiction for a booming market (Kindle Edition)

---

Get your FREE Ebook

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave many of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time.

With this ebook you will learn to approach your days in another way, reducing stress and getting results through prioritizing, leveraging and focus!

---