Wednesday 18 October 2023

Can you provide the cover picture for the 2024 LAA anthology?

our 2023 cover 

We are looking for an image that represents Lancashire. This can be a photo or a piece of art. Your illustration  must be of something within the  Lancashire Palatine – see map for details: https://www.forl.co.uk/online-resources/lancashire-county-palatine

Last year we had Blackpool Tower and in 2022 Lancaster Castle, so please avoid those two. Other pictures of Blackpool or Lancaster are welcome.  

The winning illustration will be used on our cover and the winner will receive £50.00.   

 

Guidelines:

1.  Please make your illustration landscape with the focal point on the right hand half of the picture. See examples here. 
2.  Bear in mind this is to make a book cover. There must be room on the right-hand side for us to print our title and subtitle. The backgrounds on the left hand side, which will form the back cover, must have an area where we can print a blurb.  For instance, an area of pathing, grass or sky.  Look at a few books in your favourite book shop to get an idea. We do find that covers work better if the picture wraps around the whole book.   
3.  Be careful with blue.  If you have large areas of blue, sea or sky for instance, you may have to accept that it may look a little different on the printed book cover.  Bright blues (ultramarine) will be replaced by either cyan, magenta or grey. 

Rules:

  1. Entries must be received by 23:59 BST on 30 June 2024
  2. Please do not include your name on your photo. Label your file by location and the date the photo was taken e.g. LythamShore240617.
  3. Please provide a copy of your illustration as jpg file emailed to editor@bridgehousepublishing.co.uk  . In the subject line put PhotoCompetition and the name of your file. In the body of the email repeat your photo name and provide contact details – name, phone number and email. If your picture is too big to email, please use a file-sharing system such as We Transfer.       
  4. Illustrations should be devoid of identifiable people.   
  5. By entering the competition you are agreeing that your illustration may be used by Chapeltown and the LAA for the book cover and for promotional activities to do with the book. The copyright remains with you and you may use the illustration in any other way you wish.
  6. You are also agreeing to provide a picture with a minimum size of 3600 pixels wide by 2700 pixels high that we can use for printing should you win the competition. 
  7. Entry to the competition is free of charge.
  8. Entry is open to anyone anywhere as long as the illustration is of somewhere within the Lancashire Palatine. 
  9. Entry to the competition is limited to one per person.           

Time line

  1.  Entries received by 23.59 BST 30 June 2024
  2. Chapeltown will short-list the entries. All photos that will work without too much manipulation will be short-listed by 7 July 2024.
  3. Members of the LAA will be asked to vote for their favourite photo.  The vote will close on 14 July 2024.
  4.  Should there be a tie, the LAA Committee will vote on the tied entries by 21 July 2024.
  5. If there still is a tie, Chairman Judith Addison will make the casting vote by 25 July 2024.  

Thursday 12 October 2023

Lancashire Writers of Today 2023

 


 
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Friday 6 October 2023

Playing Together by Linda Flynn and Caroline Casali



Brother and sister enjoy playing together. Join in the fun and see all of the interesting things they do.

Be inspired by Linda Flynn's simple text and Caroline Casali's enchanting illustrations.

In this book there are plenty of ideas for games that children can play with friends, and which get them away from phone, television and computer screens.

A percentage of the royalties from Playing Together will support Medical Detection Dogs. This is a charity that trains dogs to detect the odour from disease in the fight against cancer, Parkinson's disease and bacterial infections, as well as training Medical Alert Assistance Dogs.

RRP £7.00 

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Tuesday 19 September 2023

Seen Through a Glass of Red by Liz Cox - one of our fast track books

 

Prepare to suspend your disbelief, have the tissues handy and allow your imagination to run wild. This mix of stories will delight you, make you laugh, make you cry and make you cry out – not really!

From a woman who finds a giraffe under the canal bridge and two cats squabbling over a pancake, to an arrogant French chef and a pair of abandoned sparkly trainers, this collection will make you laugh out loud and touch your heart. You will feel intrigued by a French ghost, visit medieval Denmark at Yul, and the war-torn Middle East. You will even find romance with a green-eyed angel. These are just some of the stories you can expect to find in this collection.

In Seen Through a Glass of Red, you will discover stories which are imaginative and tender-hearted just like their creator.

RRP £7.50 

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Sunday 30 July 2023

Talking to Sherry Morris, winner of the LAA photographic competiton


 

Tell us about how you became interested in photography.

 

I’ve dabbled in photography throughout my life. In my final year of high school I took an elective photography class as I thought it would be easy—just aim and shoot. But the cameras were manual and the teacher was strict. His photography assignments were prescriptive and boring. We didn’t get on at all. He gave us more freedom to complete our final project and I did well on that. He praised a number of my photos. After that, I saw photography as a way to capture mundane moments I felt sure I’d forget later. The last few days of high school I took loads of photos of classmates. I still didn’t really know what I was doing, and back it those days there were only film cameras. I had to send off the roll to be developed and wait to see if I’d captured anything ‘good’. Those photos became very popular at school reunions when I took them along years later, but after I left school I didn’t really think about photography for decades.

 

Then in 2008, I won a trip to New Zealand and took along a friend who was a photographer. His photos were always amazing and he taught me a lot about framing and lighting. We spent a whole afternoon once waiting for the perfect shot of a trolley bus and a car going around a corner. But I didn’t mind. I think that’s when I started paying attention to the composition of my shots. (Thanks, Russell.)

 

Now that I live in the Scottish Highlands, I feel compelled to try and capture its beauty.

 

 

 What made you decide on this photo?

I think it was the fact it was a sunny day. It was also the closest photo I had that fit the brief regarding location and focus, and also left space for the title and blurb. I took a lot of photos of Blackpool that day—it was my first time there. My partner and I were on our way down to Porthcawl in Wales for their annual international Elvis festival, so it felt right to stop in Blackpool—a sort of UK Vegas. I’m glad we did! The beach front is fabulous for photographs. I toyed with submitting a ‘busier’ Blackpool photo but in the end decided less is more. It seems I made the right choice!  

 

 

Tell us all about how you made it.

I wanted to capture the expanse of sky, beach, sea and indicate I was in Blackpool. Normally, I wouldn’t shoot into the sun but keeping the sun just out of the frame seemed to work. It’s obligatory to photograph the Blackpool Tower when in Blackpool, right?

 

 

What has been the funniest thing that has happened to you as a photographer? 

I have loads of photo mishaps. It takes me ages to compose a shot—even on an auto setting. It’s probably why my photos tend to be of landscapes…hills, trees and flowers don’t move. If I try to take a photo quickly, it usually turns out something like this…

 

One day my partner and I were driving through a small Highland fishing village where Ian Rankin has a house. As we approached the house, to my utter excitement, Ian Rankin came out! I told my partner to slow down so I could get a good shot at close range as we drove by. For all my efforts and concentration, I am now the proud owner of a blurred photo of the house next to Ian Rankin’s…. (I still showed everyone.)

 

 

How did you hear about our competition?

A wonderful writing pal who is very supportive of my photography (and writing) saw the call on Twitter (or whatever it’s called now)  and sent me the tweet asking if I had any Lancashire photos. Luckily, I did. Thanks, Michelle!

 

 

Do you enter many competition? 

I tend to submit my photos to literary magazines rather than competitions. Often, literature magazines have photography calls and use the image to accompany the writing. And they pay! I write short stories and flash fiction and like to enter writing competitions so my photography a handy way to fund my writing habit.

 

 

Do you have any advice for other photographers?

I’m not a professional photographer so I don’t feel qualified to give any advice. During the pandemic, I took an online photography course where we looked at a variety of photographers and their work. Seeing different styles (like street photography) was interesting and gave me things to think about in my own photography. Since I live in the Scottish Highlands, it’s relatively easy to take great nature photos and most of my published photographs are of Highland landscapes. I suppose photography is like writing:  the key is to find your own look or tone, what’s specific to you. Then do your best to capture it truthfully.

 

 

Bio

Originally from Missouri, Sherry Morris (@Uksherka) writes prize-winning fiction from a farm in the Scottish Highlands where she pets cows, watches clouds and dabbles in photography. Her photos feature with Sunlight Press, Briefly Write, Molecule literary and Stanchion magazine. Her writing features in Longleaf Review, Fictive Dream, Reflex Fiction, Free Flash Fiction, NFFD, Flash500, Retreat West and other publications. She reads for the wonderfully wacky Taco Bell Quarterly and her first published story was about her Peace Corps experience in Ukraine. 

 

This photo will be used for the cover.

 


This is how it will look as a cover: 
 
 
We shall of course also add a title and a blurb. 

 

 

 

 


Wednesday 5 July 2023

Cover images for the 2023 LAA Anthology

Lytham Shore
Lytham St Annes
Ribble Estuary

 

Blackpool 
 
    
 
   
 
   

Monday 17 April 2023

Lost by Sam Findlater

 

 


Lost: A wordless book for all ages, is the graphic short story where you are the author. Both a literacy device and creative writing springboard, Lost offers all readers and non-readers the benefits of reading and a creative journey, where they are the story maker.  There is a universal story that all readers will find and follow, but the more you return to the book the more you will see each page is laden with cues and prompts for different nuances and stories to evolve.

Beautifully illustrated and packing an emotional punch, this book is a must-have for schools seeking to utilise the power of wordless books in the classroom. Free lesson plans and classroom uses for Lost for KS2, KS3 and GCSE are available from the authors website www.samanthafindlater.com

Beyond schools Lost can be enjoyed by all ages, the ‘puzzle solving’ of wordless books helps maintain cognitive health as well as offering a short satisfying read in our busy lives.

Sam Findlater’s Lost will delight story-lovers of all ages.

RRP £6.00

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