Apologies for another late shortlist announcement. I’m pretty sure I’ve crammed more into my life lately than I ever crammed into the nappy bag for my twins, but I eventually get all my ducks in a row and get to everything I need to, late or not. Hopefully you’ve all kept busy and haven’t been holding your breath too long for this short list, or we’ll have a lot less entrants in the next comp.
Dad jokes aside, the quality of entrants get’s better and better every round, so our job has been a lot harder. On the upside it means that we’re going to have an outstanding anthology to release at the end of it all. Just 3 more rounds after this one, with round 4 starting soon. So get those creative juices flowing and think about what mischievous tales you can tell about teens.
Now for the big news. The shortlist for round 3 of this series, of the Mum Life Stories Micro Fiction Writing Competition.
Writers were asked to write a story of 500 words or less around the theme ‘Early Childhood’. They could interpret it any way they saw fit as long as it was in narrative form. I’m happy to say that 99% of submissions stuck to these guidelines and made reading for us judges, a pleasurable experience.
I can’t believe we’ve already nearly reached the middle of our second series of Micro Fiction Writing Competition’s. Who’s excited for the second anthology? I know I am. We’ve got 20 awesome micro fiction stories ready to be published, we’ll have 10 more by the end of this round and then there is only 30 more to go. Could your story be one of them?
I’ve made the submission time period 4 weeks this time, so there is ample opportunity to get your stories polished up and submitted.
Anyway I won’t waffle on, competition information below!
So in typical #mumlife fashion, life happened and I’m now ‘un’-fashionably late with this shortlist announcement. How fitting though that a competition about the busy and fulfilling lives we lead as mothers, is often running behind schedule because the organiser is overcome by mum life?
Because I’m always trying to find new words to express myself, I’m going to say that I believe it is a felicitous concept to have mothers running and judging such a competition, for who else can relate to the beautiful chaotic mess that provides inspiration for our mum life stories? But, I understand that it is most uncomfortable to be kept waiting for competition results when your heart and soul are invested, or when you’re eager to read some insightful, inspirational new stories by gifted writers. So without further blithering…okay maybe just a little more blithering, I will reveal the shortlist for round 2 of this series, of the Mum Life Stories Micro Fiction Writing Competition.
Writers were asked to write a story of 500 words or less around the theme ‘Infancy’. It could be interpreted any way they saw fit as long as it was in narrative form. I’m happy to say that 99% of submissions stuck to these guidelines and made reading for us judges, a pleasurable experience.
Ok, finally time to get round 2 of our micro fiction writing competition underway. It’s taken a little longer to get things organised around here this series, and as a result the expected publication time for the second anthology will most likely be more toward mid/end of 2022. This month has seen a lot of changes in my life and in an attempt to be as authentic as possible I will admit that I haven’t been coping as well as I would have liked. Life has been busy to say the least, I’ve gone from one casual job to two casual jobs, 50% custody of my little ones to 85% custody of my little ones and consequently have had a whole lot less time for blogging, study and relaxation. Never the less, I am committed to these competitions and to seeing the second Mum LifeStories Micro Fiction Anthology come about.
So let’s get cracking, all the details of how to enter and what you could win, are below.
Can you believe we’ve already gotten through one round of the second series of micro fiction writing competitions? I can’t. Christmas is also approaching rapidly and a million things are racing through my mind in regards to kids, Christmas holidays and the blog. The busy season starts now but I really want to get through at least 2 more rounds before the year finishes, so next comp needs to have a tonne of entries in the first two weeks so we can avoid the extensions. So make sure you keep spreading the word when the next round starts so we can make this happen and get that second anthology out.
This round was extended but we got a great bunch of stories to go through and choose for our shortlist. Very proud of everyone who entered, it’s a shame we couldn’t pick you all for the anthology but there’s always next time. Congratulations to all our shortlisted stories, they will all appear in the anthology and all receive a free digital copy of the anthology when it is published.
Here are our 10 shortlisted stories in alphabetical order (please note the order has no bearing on placement):
Earth Mother, ELIZABETH SMITH, Great Britain
I Cannot, KRISTINA ANDERSON, Australia
Listening In, LAURA TAPPER, Great Britain
Suffer Little Children, GRACE G MORAN, Ireland
The Alter, AUTUMN BETTINGER, United States
The Hollow, DETTRA ROSE, Australia
The Miracle, RHETT SMITH, Australia
The Way Home, JULIE MEIER, Canada
Undisclosed Desires, BROOKE DEBONO, Australia
Where Things Grow, KRISTINA ANDERSON, Australia
Winners will be contacted shortly so keep an eye on your inbox if your name appears on our shortlist, and these winners will be announced within the next few days so stay tuned.
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Next Micro Fiction Round
The second round will commence within the next week or so, so don’t forget to check back or sign up to our email subscription below to be notified when the next round has begun. You’ll also receive all the latest stories, news and competitions (including writing comps and giveaways), plus a FREE eBook!
Alternatively, visit our competitions page for more information on the latest comps.
We’re Back! The time has finally come for series 2 of our micro fiction writing competition. The last series was pretty special, being not only our very first micro fiction writing competition, but our very first writing competition, period! I’m hoping this series will be even bigger and better than the first.
When I launched the competition back at the end of 2019, I wasn’t at all sure how it would work out. Mum Life Stories was still a relatively new blog (which has become more like an online magazine) and our reader base was not on the larger side of large, but after a bit of a rocky start, it took of like a toddler at the playground.
Series 2 marks the next chapter in the continuation of a competition trend that I hope will be a permanent part of MLS for years to come. It’s up to all of you to make it happen though. We need your brilliant stories…your creative prose…your inspiring words. All that and a bag of chips, or as most of us would prefer…a bar of chocolate. So spread the word, share this with your friends, your competition, even your enemies because the more entries we have, the greater the pressure to perform and we all know how diamonds are formed, right?
So let’s get cracking, all the details of how to enter and what you could win, are below.
This page contains affiliate links which may earn me a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click through and make a purchase. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. Affiliate links are how I keep this blog running, thank you.
If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer and enjoy telling a tale then why not have a go at this micro fiction writing 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 early to mid 2022.
SERIES TWO
This competition will be the first of 6 micro fiction writing Competitions run over the next 6 -12 months, ending with an anthology publication sometime between March and June 2022 (exact dates will be known closer to the time). Each competition will have a slightly different theme but revolve around the idea of ‘The Stages of Motherhood’. They can be interpreted any way you like, from any perspective as long as they include a mother of some kind.
Themes
The 6 different themes are:
Pregnancy
Infancy (birth to 2 years old)
Early childhood (3 to 8 years)
Middle childhood (9 to 11 years)
Adolescence (12 to 18 years)
Empty Nest
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 2 weeks (unless extended), judging for 2 weeks, at the commencement of which, the winners will be announced!
Meet the Judges
So once again I will be a judge, along with an amazingly talented writer who had not one, but 4 stories published in the first MLS Micro Fiction Anthology, as a result of being shortlisted in 4 rounds of series one. Here’s a quick bio for the both of us.
Jo Caddy
An aspiring writer/author/blogger residing in Townsville, Australia. Jo is a single mother to 5 children aged 18, 18, 16, 5 and 3, and has been a stay-at-home mum, a business woman (4 business in total) a videographer, photographer & decor creator. She has in the last few years completed a Diploma at Bible College, and is currently studying business and social media management, thinking about whether or not to continue a degree in creative writing. She recently decided to return to her childhood passion of writing, and has written and produced a short film, a documentary, and won a flash fiction competition on the writing and publishing platform sweek.com (you can read her winning story here). Her stories have been published in anthologies like Sweek Flash Fiction Book – Part 3 & Adverbially Challenged Vol 5, and will appear in the upcoming AdverbiallyChallenged Vol6 and Sensorially Challenged Vol 4.
She has a passion for storytelling and supporting mums in the career of Motherhood. Her strengths and weaknesses make her the writer that she is and her adventures and trials through life and motherhood are the inspiration that has driven her to write and to create this platform for Mothers around the world to share their stories and share ‘in’ the stories of others.
Laura Besley is a talented writer/author who has recently been listed by TSS Publishing as one of the top 50 British and Irish Flash Fiction writers with her story ‘On Repeat’ (Reflex Fiction) and her talent with the 21st-century pen has been noted in many online publications, including FictiveDream, Spelk and EllipsisZine, as well as in print (Flash: The International Short Story Magazine), and in various anthologies like Adverbially Challenged,Another Hong Kong, and Story Cities. Her debut flash fiction collection, The Almost Mothers, was published in March 2020, and her new book 100neHundredwas released in May (2021). You can read our interview with her HERE.
Laura is a full-time mum to two young boys and squeezes her writing time into the bookends of her day. Having lived in Holland, Germany, and Hong Kong, she now lives in landlocked central England and misses the sea. Laura writes short (and very short) fiction in the precious moments that her children are asleep
The first round of micro fiction writing competitions is themed ‘Pregnancy’ 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). It can be written from any perspective, i.e. first person, the mother (of the mother), the partner, the friend, etc.
We didn’t receive quite as many sales on the first micro fiction anthology as I’d hoped so we will have to continue with the $2 entry fee to try and subsidise the prize money a little. Hopefully after the second anthology is published and we have 2 books in the marketplace, we will be able to do away with the entry fee.
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!
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
Micro Fiction Writing Competition Rules and Guidelines
Competition Dates: Tuesday 17th August 2021 – Tuesday 31st August 2021 (Extended to the 14th of September) @ midnight AEST. Judging will commence on Wednesday the 1st of September 2021 (Extended to the 15th of September), with the shortlist announced on the 14th of September 2021 (Extended to the 29th of September) and the winners announced on the 15th of September 2021 (Extended to the 30th of September).
Open to: Worldwide (but must be written in English), 16 years or older.
Rules:
500 words or less.
Narrative Fiction (no poetry please), any genre (except horror and erotica)
Must be about a Mother (biological, adoptive, Foster, etc).
No gratuitous violence, sexual content, blood & gore or profanity.
Your story must not already be published anywhere else.
Submission:
Story to be typed in a doc, docx, pdf, rtf or txt formatted document.
12 point, Times New Roman or Georgia Text.
Title of story should appear at the top of the document and in the file name.
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).
Your entry fee must be paid through Paypal to mumlifestories@gmail.com before the competition closing date, for your story to qualify.
Click HERE to go down to the form where you can attach your story file, make sure you’ve read the T & C’s page first.
Judging:
There will be 2 judges, myself and Laura Besley
Stories will be read ‘blind’ without author names attached so as to avoid bias.
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.
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.
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.
All decisions are final and will not be open to discussion.
Submit
Ready to submit your story to our micro fiction writing competition? Fill in the entry form below and attach your story.
Please make sure you have read the T & C’s before you submit!
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