Foreign Flavours: A New Anthology from Writers Abroad

The online writing group I belong to, Writers Abroad, published last week a new anthology of short stories and non-fiction articles, entitled Foreign Flavours. The theme of the anthology is food, drink and recipes from around the world.

It is a tantalizing collection of fiction and non-fiction, full of spice and flavour and sprinkled with mouth-watering recipes. The wide-ranging, sometimes bittersweet, contributions show how adaptable an ex-pat has to be to leave familiar dishes behind and venture into the culinary unknown.

Two pieces of mine are in it: ‘The Beekeeper’, a short story set in Corsica, and ‘When to Eat in Corsica’, a non-fiction article.

This is the second anthology published by Writers Abroad. All the contributors are, or have been, ex-pats living in places around the globe. Alexander McCall Smith, acclaimed author of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series and himself an ex-pat, has written the preface.

Foreign Flavours contains 64 contributions. Thirty-four are non-fiction articles and 30 are short stories. The anthology also includes 33 recipes.

Contributors live in and have written about the following places: Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Corsica, Cyprus, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malawi, Mallorca, Morocco, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Wales.

All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to The Book Bus, a charity whose aim is to bring literacy and the joy of reading to children in the developing world. 

The paperback print version of Foreign Flavours is available from Lulu from today, Monday 24th October, price £9.60 (€10.99). At around 250 pages, it’s great value. An e-book version will be available soon.

To find out more about Writers Abroad and our publications, please go to our website.

Winning Short Story now Published on Internet

My short story ‘Memory’, which won first prize in the Writing Magazine 750-word short story competition in June, has now been published on the Writing Magazine/Writers’ News website. You can read it online as well as the competition judge’s comments about the story.

The story, which addresses the issue of dementia, was published in the October print issue of Writing Magazine .

Winner of Writing Magazine short story competition

I had a nice surprise a couple of weeks ago when I received an email informing me that I had won the Writing Magazine 750-word short story competition.

This was an open-themed competition, i.e. you could write a story on any subject of your choice. My story, Memory, which won first prize, addressed the issue of dementia.

The story will be published in Writing Magazine‘s October issue, along with a critique by the Competitions Manager, Richard Bell.

50 Stories for Pakistan published today

Helping the victims of the floods

50 Stories for Pakistan is out today. All proceeds are in aid of the flood victims in Pakistan. My story, The Sparkler, is one of the 50.

To read more about it or to buy a copy, please click on the link above. An ebook version will be available soon.

Please help us to help the Pakistan flood victims by buying it.

Flash 500 competition

The longlist and shortlist for the last quarter’s (July-Sept 2010) Flash 500 fiction competition are now out. One of my stories, Happy ever after?, made the longlist of 45, although not the shortlist of 25.

However, I’m pleased to have got that far. Lorraine Mace, who organises the competition says, “The standard was exceptionally high and to have made this list was an achievement in itself.” Thanks, Lorraine.

The aim of the competition is to give greater emphasis to Flash fiction, which sometimes gets overlooked in the wake of so many competitions about longer short stories. The winning entry is published every year in Words with Jam.

To find out more about Flash 500, click here.

50 stories for Pakistan

Following on from the success of 100 Stories for Haiti, which was published in aid of the international relief effort following the Haiti disaster earlier this year, the energetic Greg McQueen is publishing 50 Stories for Pakistan. The aim is similar. Proceeds from the book will go to the relief fund to aid people made homeless by the flooding in Pakistan this year.Continue reading “50 stories for Pakistan”