Aussie Short Story Competition for Aussies

It is highly frustrating when I see a competition and get all excited, then read the fine print and see it is only for UK or US residents etc. Happens a lot. However, here is a competition for Aussies only! Woo hoo! In the age of email subs, I don't see why competitions should suffer from xenophobia, but sadly this is life.

As I have quite a few Aussie blogger friends now, I am putting this up in case you've missed it. A literary magazine, Wet Ink  has this short story competition each year. Here are a few guidelines to whet your interest. Click here for full submission details. There is a $15 entry fee.

Here's the blurb:

Presenting the $3000 Wet Ink Short Story Prize

First prize is $3000, 1 year’s subscription to Wet Ink, and publication in Wet Ink.

Two highly commended entries each receive $100, a year’s subscription to Wet Ink, and publication in Wet Ink.

Closing date for entries is 31 August 2010, so start writing, and good luck!

Have a great week writing,

Denise

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:


•Grab your current read


•Open to a random page


•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page


•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)


•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants (and anyone reading the post) can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser.
 

My first entry for Teaser Tuesdays is showcasing an Aussie book as I'm also joining the Aussie Author Challenge where if you're a Fair Dinkum Aussie you have to read and review 8 Aussie books by at least 5 different authors before the end of December this year. If you're not Fair Dinkum, you still have to read 3 Aussie books. Check the details as there are so many excellent Aussie authors.
 
Meanwhile back to #teasertuesdays and a bit of the early Aussie bush...
 

"Then the team swung out from the bush, turning into the track, sunlight striking down through young green of the red gum and jarrah saplings, splashing the big red and white bullocks inthe lead. Red, tawny, black, and white backs of the beasts moved slowly, with rippling sway, against the lighted and shadowy depths of the forest."

from Working Bullocks, by Katharine Susannah Prichard, p.5

ANZAC DAY

Australians are a pretty laidback bunch, but when it comes to Anzac Day (April 25th), it is sacred. For awhile there it was pretty much in the doldrums, but has seen a huge resurgence in recent years. Nowadays young people are embracing the idea of Anzac Day, joining in parades which happen across Australia on this day and travelling to Gallipoli to see where the ANZACS (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed on that fateful day, April 25th 1915.

It was a massacre and Australia and New Zealand lost thousands of their young men. They could ill afford the huge losses as both being such young countries there just weren't that many young men to go around. Yet it was the first war where we fought as Australians and it defined a nation. The ANZAC spirit of mateship is an over-arching spirit in Australians' relationships with each other. We admire the courage, strength, mateship of these young soldiers, and seek to exhibit similar values in our own lives.

Today when there are wars all over the world and it looks like there always will be, it is not bad to think about all the soldiers who have died in the quest to keep their lands free.

Australians still ask why did our young men have to die in Turkey? They were cannon fodder. This is where our ambivilance about the Brits stems from.

Good on you fellow Aussies for believing in this day...

'Fom the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, we will remember them...'