LITERARY ARTS SECTION

Septemberish News from Leaf Books

In this newsletter:

General news – revamping and the website
Spring 2007 Poetry Competition – winners
New and ongoing competitions
Brand new books
Update on Mostly Life

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Well. Lots of news this sunny September: not least of which is the fairly long-awaited announcement about the winners of the Spring 2007 Poetry Competition. I mean, frankly that ought to be quite enough for one month, yet we’re going on to spoil you with information about our new competition and reminders about our ongoing competitions; tell you all about our very-nearly-hot-off-the-press titles; burble on a bit about our swish new website and give you another update on the progress of Mostly Life. And before we get on to any of that, we’d like to briefly fill you in on Leaf’s plans for the near and slightly more distant future. Leaf Books is going to slightly alter its working processes in order both to match the requirements of its costumers and to enable us to be a bit more massively productive with the whole Mostly Life thing. Basically we'll be running fewer competitions - 2008's preliminarily going to see the production of a poetry anthology and a micro-fiction anthology, both of which we hope will be sizeable and slightly fantastic. We think this is in many ways a smart move. We were possibly getting a bit deranged with the competitions there and we were frankly kind of running out of names for them. A touch of focus was called for. Nothing much else is changing... newsletters will go out on a regular basis, all our books will still be very much available for purchase and the website at www.leafbooks.co.uk is going to get a spiffy new revamp with art deco shapes and coffee-ish colours and improved functionality and streamlining and a much expanded published authors section and, oh, all those jolly things. Hurrah and very much huzzah. And on with the news.


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Spring 2007 Poetry Competition - Winners

We’re inordinately pleased to announce the winners of our Spring 2007 Poetry Competition:

Winner: ‘Ukraine’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee

Runner-up: ‘The Guest’ by Catherine Lloyd

Commended: ‘Heart’ by Julie Bolitho-Lee

‘What Could Be Done To Make a Difference?’ by Catherine Lloyd

‘On taking my 80-year-old aunt back to Ireland to look for our roots’ by Pauline Plummer

‘My Friend Barry, the Painter and Decorator’ by Pauline Plummer

‘You Watch Yourself’ by Barry Taylor

‘The Day is White’ by Mary Charman-Smith

‘I Made This Box’ by John Foggin

‘Explorer 242’ by Clive Gilson

‘Dumb-Show’ by Rosi Beech

‘Falmouth’ by Rosi Beech

‘Ersatz Fidelis’ by Harrison Solow

‘Aunt Matilda’ by Keith Shaw

‘Departure’ by Patricia Ward

‘Red’ by Margie Harriott

‘Monochrome’ by Sharon Hosker

‘Snapshots’ by Ian Stanley Ward

‘Daffodil Trail’ by Sarah Leavesley

‘The Welfare’ by Kate Noakes ‘Piopet’ by Helen Jayne Gunn

‘Obsession’ by Ivy Bannister

‘Colour of Life, Colour of Blood’ by Ivy Bannister

‘Home-Cooked’ by A.F. Harrold

‘This Englishman in Paris’ by A.F. Harrold

‘Flowers on the Salt Bush’ by Rob Mooney

‘BBC’ by Wayne Preece

‘The Washing of Plates’ by Simone Mansell-Broome

‘Portrait of Schoolgirls by Larchwood’ by Owen Lowery

All of the above poems will be published in an anthology to be called Ukraine and Other Poems that we very much hope should be available for purchase in time for Christmas. Congratulations to the winners and our heartfelt thanks to all who entered.


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New Books

Our newest titles, Outbox and Other Poems and The Light That Remains and Other Stories will – really will – be available for purchase in a matter of (we fervently hope) days. We’ve received and approved the most beauteous proofs from the printers and are just waiting on their delivery. Free copies will go out to all featured authors, who’ll be able to buy further copies at the discounted price for authors. Otherwise the books will be available from our website and very shortly from Amazon. Or you can just send us a cheque (₤7.99 for Outbox; ₤9.99 for The Light That Remains) and say ‘Book please’ and we’ll, you know, send you a book. While you’re waiting, enjoy the following blurbs.

The Light That Remains and Other Stories ‘Keep walking,’ he said, and we kept walking. The excited sound of the spectators at the edges of the crash itself, the whee-oosh clamour of the approaching ambulance, the burning scent that the cars offered up: none of it attracted him. Other people saw the wreckage, a body lying in the street (still alive, I think) and rushed over, like flies wanting corpses, for whatever reasons they have – but not him. Not at all. ‘Keep walking,’ he said. – Extract from ‘The Light That Remains’ by Paul Currion. A bookish boy’s learning to experience his city as a blind man would experience it: a fabled and helplessly destructive dragon that lives at the local takeaway and a biker’s encounter with a Harley-fancying mermaid. The Light That Remains and Other Stories contains the winning entries from the Leaf Books Open Short Story Competition that ran during the winter of 2006. The fourteen superlative stories residing within represent the pick of the crop. The competition was judged by the Leaf Team. Our thanks to all who entered. ₤9.99

Outbox and Other Poems He swam the Mekong in Dong Detwith two dark-haired sisters who cast their netsbefore inviting him to share their haul…. – Extract from ‘Outbox’ by Nicky Mesch Outbox and Other Poems contains the winning entries from the Leaf Books Open Poetry Competition that ran during the winter of 2006. The thirty poems within cover such diverse subjects as love and hate, boat-building and ghostly rats, dreamfishers, funerals and science classes. What unites them is their brilliance. ₤7.99


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Ongoing Competitions Micro-Fiction – deadline September 15th Please note: Our micro-fiction competition is closing in a few days’ time – all entries must be received by Saturday, September 15th.

Spring 2007 Micro-Fiction Competition: Micro-fiction on any topic. Maximum 300 words. Entry fee: 1 entry - £3, 4 entries - £10.
All selected stories will be published in a Leaf Books Anthology. Overall winner receives £200. Runner-up receives Mega-Bundle of Leaf Books. DEADLINE: 15th September 2007
All entries can be made by post or online. Please see our website for competition guidelines: http://leafbooks.co.uk/writers/guidelines.html

Spoof and Humour Writing competition: Leaf Books is inviting you to render us helpless with mirth. We’re looking for humorous articles and comments up to 500 words in length with an emphasis on spoofing regular magazine and/or newspaper content. There are no notable limits on your creativity, but we’ve produced a list of sorts that you might like to peruse for ideas. Spoof articles/columns on the following: - news; current affairs; commentary; regular column type pieces; reviews; serialisations; cartoons; diaries; fashion; sport; style; home and garden; science; environment; technology; politics; jobs; analysis; travel; money; arts; classified; obituaries; food; horoscopes; problem pages; recipes; lonely hearts; letters page; complaints; corrections and clarifications; pretty much anything else that occurs to you. Entry fee: £3 per submission; £10 for four submissions. All selected pieces will be published in a Leaf Books anthology. The overall winner will receive £200. Closing date: 30th September, 2007. PLEASE NOTE - ONLINE SUBMISSIONS ONLY.

New Competition – Poetry 2008

We’re ever so slightly jumping the gun here by announcing a competition that isn’t even on the website yet, but we thought we’d give you a chance to get scribbling. The 2008 Poetry Competition will go up on the new improved site by, hopefully, next month (if not slightly beforehand), but here’s the competition information to be going on with:Submission guidelines: Poems of any length on any subject. Enter online or by post. Entry fee: £3 per poem. £10 for four poems.Winner receives £200. Runner up receives ten free Leaf Books. All selected entries will be published in a competition anthology.Opens - October 1st, Closes - January 31st 2008


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Exciting New Venture from Leaf Books in collaboration with CHnet.com Mostly Life – The Cybernauts Guide to the Mirthverse We know it isn’t live yet, but we’re really not fibbing. We’ve been working very hard behind the scenes on the Leaf Team's new and almost spleen-poppingly exciting project. It's essentially an online repository for various things humorous and quirksome and generally pleasing. There's going to be a spoof of a village newspaper, a section for less audio-based versions of radio 4 type panel games, the Someday Supplement for the housing of all manner of humorous writings and the Sensorama, for anything amusing in a visual or noisy fashion. Or tactile if you can work out how to do that over the computer. Please keep checking the website at http://www.mostlylife.com/ - we really do expect it to go live within the next couple of weeks.


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Contacting Leaf Books contact@leafbooks.co.uk 01443 665704 Leaf Books Limited, GTi Suite, Valleys Innovation Centre, Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taff CF45 4SN http://www.leafbooks.co.uk
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