This year’s BFS Short Story Competition will be once again be judged by award-winning editor and BFS stalwart Allen Ashley.

Allen Ashley is an author, editor, poet, critic and writing tutor as well as a long-standing, active member of the BFS. Allen is a regular contributor to The BFS Journal and attendee at FantasyCon. Allen won the BFS award for Best Anthology in 2006 as editor of The Elastic Book Of Numbers (Elastic Press).

Allen says: “It was a pleasure and a privilege to judge last year’s high quality competition. Those of you who receive The BFS Journal will have read the top three stories by now. There were also several other tales that pushed that trio pretty close. So, if you think you can write to the level of last year’s winner Megan Kerr, or even surpass her, then I definitely want to see your story. Besides which, BFS members get one free entry, so there are no excuses for failing to take part. There’s just me judging – no filtering committee or anything like that. Word limit is 5000 words and all the usual rules apply. Submission window opens on 1 March 2013 and closes on 30 June 2013. I will be reading the stories over the Summer and we hope to make the presentation at World Fantasy Con in Brighton.”

Entry is free for BFS members and just £5 per entry for non-members. Further details and full submission guidelines HERE

For enquiries please email Allen on shortstorycomp@britishfantasysociety.org

Allen Ashley has several free “taster” sessions lined up for his writing workshops. Each of these is being held at a different venue. Depending upon the take-up, Allen hopes to follow the sessions with a regular group starting a few days or a couple of weeks after the taster session. So, if you live in or near north London and you want to take up or return to creative writing, get yourself along to one of his workshops!

Attendance is free at these Ways into Writing one hour taster sessions. Attendees will need to bring a pen, paper, a board or notepad to lean on, plus their imagination. Allen’s workshops are practical – you will be writing within 5 minutes.

If you want to reserve a place or if you have any queries, such as how to get to the venue, please email Allen on allenashley-writer (at) hotmail.co.uk

Please put the name of the venue (e.g. Chipping Barnet) in the subject bar.

Workshops will run on:

Saturday 19 January 2013 from 10.30am to 11.30am at Chipping Barnet Library, Stapleton Road, Barnet EN5 4QT

Monday 4 February 2013 from 5pm to 6pm at the Bull Theatre, 68 High Street, BarnetEN5 5SJ

Tuesday 5 February 2013 from 12noon to 1pm at Finsbury Library, 245 St John Street, Islington, London EC1V 4NB

Tuesday 19 February 2013 from 2.30pm to 3.30pm at Central Library, 2 Fieldway Crescent, Islington, London N5 1PF.

Allen Ashley has several free “taster” sessions lined up for his writing workshops. Each of these is being held at a different venue. Depending upon the take-up, Allen hopes to follow the sessions with a regular group starting a few days or a couple of weeks after the taster session.

Attendance is free at these Ways into Writing one hour sessions. It’s first come, first served but Allen expects to be able to fit in everyone who turns up. Attendees will need to bring a pen, paper, a board or notepad to lean on, plus their imagination. Allen’s workshops are practical – you will be writing within 5 minutes.

If you want to reserve a place or if you have any queries, such as how to get to the venue, please email Allen on allenashley-writer (at) hotmail (dot) co (dot) uk

Please put the name of the venue (e.g. All Saints) in the subject bar.

Workshops will run on:

Monday 5 November 2012 from 11am to 12 noon at All Saints Arts Centre, 122 Oakleigh Road North, London N20 9EZ

Wednesday 14 November 2012 from 12.30pm to 1.30pm at Enfield Town Library, 66 Church Street, Enfield

Saturday 24 November 2012 from 1pm to 2pm at North Finchley Library, Ravensdale Avenue, North Finchley, N12 9HP

Saturday 19 January 2013 from 10.30am to 11.30am at Chipping Barnet Library, Stapleton Road, Barnet EN5 4QT

If you are a member of the BFS you should by now have received (or shortly be receiving) the latest BFS Journal (Autumn 2012). The Journal contains new fiction and poetry by: Christopher Golden, Gary Fry, Peter Crowther, Allen Ashley, Terry Grimwood and others. This issue also includes interviews with Nina Allan, Rhys Hughes, David A. Sutton and graphic artist Emma Vieceli (who also provides the amazing cover art for this issue of the Journal). Together with regular and one-off features by Mark Morris, Ramsey Campbell, Garry Kilworth (on crafting the short story) and Editorial Director of Gollancz Gillian Redfearn among others, this issue is jam-packed full of interesting content.

All BFS members receive the BFS Journal on a quarterly basis along with their other benefits of membership. If you haven’t yet joined the BFS but would like to do so to secure your copy of The Journal please go to the “join the BFS” page HERE

Allen Ashley reports that there are a couple of spaces left in his new regular weekly writing group “Ways into Writing”. The group meets at Alexandra Park Library, London N22, starting from Wednesday 19 September 2012. The group is open to everybody and will be particularly suited to beginner writers, those who enjoy writing as a hobby, as well as those who want to start getting published or be published more frequently.

The group will meet from 5.30pm till 6.30pm every Wednesday, from 19 September. Bus and tube links to the venue are good, so for more details or to register an interest, please email Allen on allenashley-writer [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk

All enquiries will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. So, don’t be shy, ask away!

Allen Ashley will be hosting a poetry event at this year’s FantasyCon, which takes place at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton from 27 – 30 September 2012. Allen reports:

“I am pleased to let everyone know that I am once again hosting a Poetry Event at Fantasycon. This year we are in the Russell Room from 8.00pm till 9.30pm on the evening of Friday 28 September. I will be running the event in a similar fashion to last year, which is: we will read ’round robin’ style. This means that every participating poet will read two poems (up to about 40 lines each) in the first round. Then, if we have time, we will go round again and people can read a couple more poems. I am advising everyone to prepare up to 6 poems. Last year’s event was fun and friendly with an appreciative group of poets and audience and I anticipate that this year will be much the same. If you want to put your name down, please email me on allenashley-writer [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk or else just turn up on the night to read or listen”.

Sein und Werden is a quarterly magazine of horror and magic realist fiction and poetry normally published in both print and web formats with different content in each. This year, the web issues are on hold and each print issue is themed and guest-edited.

The first issue this year was edited by Marc Lowe (Surreal-noir). The next editor will be Mark Howard Jones (Pulp punks) and the last editor this year will be Rhys Hughes (theme tbc).

The editor of the current issue is Allen Ashley, with the theme of The Unnatural World. This issue includes poetry and fiction by J. J. Steinfeld, Zachary Scott Hamilton, A. J. Kirby, Emma Lee, Ian Hunter, Richard Gessner, Marion Pitman and many others.

For ordering information please visit the website HERE

Successful writer, editor and this year’s BFS Short Story Competition judge, Allen Ashley, will be running a regular weekly writing group at Alexandra Park Library, London N22 from Wednesday 19 September 2012. The group is called “Ways into Writing” and will be particularly suited to beginner writers, those who enjoy writing as a hobby, as well as those who want to start getting published or be published more frequently. The group will meet from 5.30pm till 6.30pm every Wednesday, from 19 September. For more details or to register an interest, please email Allen on allenashley-writer [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk

All enquiries will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. So, don’t be shy, ask away!

Allen Ashley, judge of this year’s BFS Short Story Competition, sends this gentle reminder to anyone who has yet to enter:

“Thank you to everyone who has already sent me a story for consideration. I have my work cut out reading the stories already received and have booked out most of July to do so… but there is still time to send in an entry for this year’s Short Story Competition which offers fantastic, generous prizes to the winner and two runners-up. Full details are available HERE but, in brief, I want to see new, unpublished stories in the broad fantasy / science fiction / horror/ slipstream / fabulation genres. 5000 words strict maximum. One free entry for BFS members. £5 entry fee for non-members (or Paypal calculated equivalent for non-UK residents). Send your story as an attachment saved in Rich Text Format or Microsoft Word 2003. Not .docx format please, it upsets my computer!”

The competition closes at midnight British Summer Time on Saturday 30 June 2012, so don’t delay too long in sending your story to Allen. If you are sending from abroad, allow for time differences.

If you have any queries, or if your manuscript is ready to go, you can email Allen on shortstorycomp@britishfantasysociety.org

Don’t forget that the BFS Short Story Competition closes this month. Allen Ashley, judge of this year’s competition, sent this message:

“Now, I know that some people who enter competitions leave it till the last minute to get their entry in. I’m also sure that many of you are frantically writing and revising your entry to this year’s BFS Short Story Competition. So, this is just a gentle reminder to all you authors out there to make sure you do not miss the boat on this year’s competition. Entries close at midnight British Summer Time on Saturday 30 June 2012. Full details are available at the BFS website HERE.”

If you have any queries or if your manuscript is ready to go (as an attachment in Rich Text Format or MS Word 2003, but NOT doc.x) you can email Allen on shortstorycomp@britishfantasysociety.org