Sorry? Did you just say you'd love to enter an almost free* festive flash fiction competition to win £500?

I thought you did!

Well as coincidence would have it, that is exactly what we've got going on in this very episode.

So step this way, my cheeky little word-purveyor, and cast your well oiled ears at our glorious 350 word Flash Fiction Competition.

That's it.... yep... cast them freely.... mmmm.... that's the ticket.

*I say 'almost free', cos it's only a pound to enter. And we only did that to keep the pesky AI enterers from entering.

So, well... that pretty much qualifies as free doesn't it?

Here are some links to stuff mentioned in the podcast:

Buy the Fuel Anthology Emily mentions, here: https://www.fuelflash.net

Find Smokelong Quarterly here: https://www.smokelong.com

And here is your failsafe

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO ENTERING

THE FAILING WRITERS PODCAST

£500 FESTIVE FLASH FICTION COMPETITION:

1. Listen to Series 4, Episode 20 of The Failing Writers Podcast.

2. Jot down the special phrase you must include in your story.

3. Write your 350 word, festive flash, (including that phrase!) Ideally well before the deadline - midday, Friday 13th December!

4. When you’re super-happy with it and ready to go… log into your Paypal account https://www.paypal.com

5. Click on 'send and request'.

6. Under the send menu, type failingwriterspodcast@gmail.com into the box. It will suggest Tom Turner – click on that!

7. If ‘you send’ is set to USD, change to GBP, and send £1.00 (don’t forget that decimal point or you’ll send us £100!!! whoopieee)

8. ‘What’s this for?’ put something like “Comp entry”

9. Hit send.

10. Now go to your email and find the receipt you should’ve just been sent.

11. Click Forward, and attach your flash fiction entry to this new email.

12. Send that email (with Paypal receipt & flash piece) to failingwriterspodcast@gmail.com

You’re all done!

Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

For all of the details and terms and conditions and all that jazz - go here:

https://www.failingwriterspodcast.com/post/win-500-in-our-festive-flash-fiction-competition

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What is ergodic literature? Well, it's when a story becomes more than just something you read, and you become part of it.

But pretend you haven't read that, so that you can find out from listening to this wonderful episode. In which, we have a chat with "S" co-author Doug Dorst and You Say Which Way author Deb Potter, in our quest to get to the bottom of what ergodic fiction is and why it's so blummin' good. Enjoy!

Here's some links for things in the show and stuff...

https://dougdorst.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/S-Doug-Dorst/dp/0316201642

https://yousaywhichway.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/327088/house-of-leaves-by-danielewski-mark-z/9781529943993

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)

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Should you treat yourself to a writing retreat?

If you did it twice would you be re-treating yourself to a writing retreat?

If you tweeted about treating yourself to a writers retreat would you be tweeting your re-treat of retreating to a retreat?

And if you then re-tweeted your...

OK, I'll stop.

Tom & Jon not only answer the first of these pressing questions, but as they disappear into the wilderness (sort of) to sample a writers' retreat, they seek to answer the biggest question of all.

The one that's been haunting them for as long as they've been doing this podcast.

Can they actually knuckle down and write for 2 and a half days straight? No social media. No boxsets. No 'nipping to the pub for one' and then accidentally spending the entire afternoon there?

...

What?

Well I'm obviously not going to tell you am I?

Of course not.

What do you mean, I'm being a tease? That's what these bits of blurb are for! to tease you in.

Oh stop arguing and hit play.

Here's where we went:

https://writersretreatuk.co.uk/2023/01/our-own-venue-the-retreat-at-the-kings-arms/

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