Deadline 31 January 2026 — #FlashFiction and narrative #poetry competition, Hot Flashes, and also stories and poems for possible inclusion in a new anthology to be published in April 2026. For full details, see https://paradisepress.org.uk/projects.html
The competition will have four categories:
- Under 40 words prose (for poetry – #haiku, #limerick or #clerihew).
- Under 300 words prose, or, for poetry – #sonnet, or other form under 20 lines.
- Under 600 words prose (poetry under 40 lines).
- Under 1000 words prose (poetry under 70 lines).
The anthology is for #LGBTQ writers and straight allies, but submissions do not have to be about sexuality. The submission must not contain material produced by AI, and must not have appeared in any publication with an ISBN.
#queer #CallForSubmissions #WritingCommunity
#Wordweavers Day 11 - Looking back at the beginning of your writing journey, what advice would you give yourself?
I know you love this franchise right now but the author will turn out to be a fucking terf and the fandom kinda stinks regardless, do better things with your time and money.
This is in reference to the fact that the first time I widely shared fictional writing was posting fanfic about the Terf Wizard Books. I discussed my progression into and out of fanfic in this post, without going into any details about that particular franchise because none of it is relevant now. https://ljwrites.blog/posts/fanfic-writing-history/
#Wordweavers Day 11 - Looking back at the beginning of your writing journey, what advice would you give yourself?
I know you love this franchise right now but the author will turn out to be a fucking terf and the fandom kinda stinks regardless, do better things with your time and money.
"Research systematically confirms . . . people with ADHD show increased dependency on external reinforcement and struggle with self-directed motivation." https://jascha.wtf/living-with-adhd-between-stereotypes-and-neurobiological-reality/
I've noticed this exact tendency and discussed it in a prior post, especially the last two sentences: "One way to put [the #ADHD attention system] is that we lack self-direction and have a harder time modeling abstracts into specific action. Another way to put it is that we are more community- and environment-directed and more attuned to the specific, physical, and communal." https://writeout.ink/@ljwrites/114873991889530639
Yeah I even used essentially the same expression, "self-direction," without being aware of the other post or the research it references! It's almost like the "self" is more permeable to the "external" for bodyminds like ours and that is terrifying, and therefore diseased and abnormal, to some notions of order 🤔
"No matter how humble the spirit it’s offered in, a sermon is an act of aggression."
- #UrsulaKLeGuin, Teasing Myself Out of Thought
Amused that #Tolkien referred to his lecture on #conlang as "A Secret Vice" as though it were some kink or fetish xD
My pronouns are she or they but I'm cis, in case it's confusing. My native language just doesn't gender much so I'm just as comfortable with "they." 🤷
Oops I forgot to write an #introduction post! "Oops I forgot" being a frequent refrain with me, in part because I have #ADHD, diagnosed at 40. (That rhymed!)
#Writing fiction is my curse and my haunting. I wrote fanfic for decades and still do sometimes, but my current focus is a novel series about a Korean queen who lived 2,000 years ago. You can find my rantings and struggles on the #DailyWriting or #LjWrites tags.
I have set up the WriteOut instance and am one of the mods, but I take most mod actions through the @nerd@writeout.ink account. Don't hesitate to bring me your moderation and technical concerns, of course! 
Author-ized L.J.