Can you provide the cover picture for the 2025 LAA Anthology?

our 2024 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 the Ringing Singing Tree, in 2023 Blackpool Tower and in 2022 Lancaster Castle, so please avoid those three. Other pictures of Blackpool or Lancaster are welcome.  A few of the runners up in 2023 provided pictures of other aspects of Lancastrian life, such as the shoreline at Lytham so something like that might also be interesting.   

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. Note, we are showing these as they would look with a spine. You don't need to worry about the spine.  Just provide the landscape-shaped picture. 
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 2025
2. Please do not include your name on your photo. Label your file by location and the date the photo was taken or the illustration was produced 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 unless you can confirm that the people in the illustration have your permission to include them and understand the purpose of the photo.  
   
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 2025
2. Chapeltown will short-list the entries. All photos that will work without too much manipulation will be short-listed by 7 July 2025.
3. Members of the LAA will be asked to vote for their favourite photo.  The vote will close on 14 July 2025.
4.  Should there be a tie, the LAA Committee will vote on the tied entries by 21 July 2025.
5. If there still is a tie, Chairman Judith Addison will make the casting vote by 25 July 2025.  

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.  

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. 

 

 

 

 

Lancashire Writers of Today

 

 

An anthology of prize-winning and commended writings of the Lancashire Authors’ Association.

The LAA has been promoting the reading and writing of Lancashire literature since 1909.
Fellowship and Friendliness are prime features of our Association and new members are assured of a warm welcome.

Lancashire Writers of Today is a wealth of contemporary writing from those who cherish Lancashire.

RRP £6.50 

Buy from Amazon  

Buy from us (1-4 books) 

   

Buy from us (5+ books) 

 

Can you help design the cover for the 2023 Lancashire Authors Association Anthology?

 Photographic competition Chapeltown and LAA  

the 2022 cover

 

We are looking for an image that represents Lancashire so your photo must be taken within the   Lancashire Palatine – see map for details: https://www.forl.co.uk/online-resources/lancashire-county-palatine

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

 

Guidelines:

1.  Please take your photo as a landscape shot, with the focal point on the right hand half of the picture.
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 2023
2. Please do not include your name on your photo. Label your file by location and the date the photo was taken e.g. BlackpoolTower230617.
3. Please provide a copy of your photo 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.    
4. Photos should be devoid of identifiable people.   
5. By entering the competition you are agreeing that your photo 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 photo 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 photo is taken within the Lancashire Palatine. 
9. Entry of the competition is limited to one per person           

Time line

1.  Entries received by 23.59 BST 30 June 2023
2. Chapeltown will short-list the entries. All photos that will work without too much manipulation will be short-listed by 7 July 2023.
3. Members of the LAA will be asked to vote for their favourite photo.  The vote will close on 14 July 2023.
4.  Should there be a tie, the LAA Committee will vote on the tied entries by 21 July 2023.
5. If there still is a tie, Chairman Judith Addison will make the casting vote by 25 July 2023