Choc Lit Short Story Contest

For any of you South Africans living in the UK, or with connections in the UK (since the prizes are in UK currency), here's a contest you might find interesting.

Here's a great comp for anyone who likes money and chocolate: 

Choc Lit are looking for short stories of up to 1,500 words in which the central theme is chocolate - eating it, drinking it, cooking with it, or anything else. Let your imagination take flight!

PRIZES 
1st prize £200, publication on the author’s corner blog and a mystery chocolate gift
A Runner Up will receive £50 and another mystery chocolate gift

RULES 
1. Your entry must be a maximum of 1,500 words.
2. All work must be your own and not previously published.
3. Entry fee is £3 per story
4. All entries must be received by 31st January, 2012.

JUDGES
Your judges are Choc Lit authors Margaret James (The Silver Locket, The Golden Chain) and Sue Moorcroft (Starting Over, All That Mullarkey, Want To Know a Secret? and Love & Freedom). Both authors teach creative writing for the London School of Journalism and have published numerous short stories, including in the Romantic Novelists' Association's short story anthology. Both have regular columns, Margaret in Writing Magazine and Sue in Writers Forum.

HOW TO ENTER 
1. Please post your stories to: Short Story Competition, Choc Lit Ltd, Penrose House, Crawley Drive, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2AB. Please enclose a cheque for £3 per story - i.e. to enter 3 stories would cost £9. Cheques are payable to ‘Choc Lit Ltd.’
2. Or email info@choc-lit.co.uk with the subject header ‘Short Story Competition’ and pay your entry fee by Paypal atorders@choc-lit.co.uk.

You can find out more here.

So You Think You Can Write?

First we had New Voices, the X-Factor of romance writing, and now we have the aspiring romance writers' equivalent of So You Think You Can Dance.

So You Think You Can Write is in its second year, and is a week-long online conference run by Harlequin (parent company of Mills & Boon, and based on the other side of the Atlantic).

I'm blogging a bit late on this (I blame my frantic push to finish Once Upon a Time in anticipation of hopefully being on the New Voices follow-up list), so the better part of the SYTYCW week is already over, but there is a ton of stuff on the site for you to read, learn and share.

Best of all, Harlequin are offering another shot at publication through a contest. The deadline is 15th December, and you can find out more here.