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#HistFicThursdays - Inspirational Series - Merlin

 I remember when I was little, watching a Making Of documentary about Robin of Sherwood . One of the points which the writer made was that each person who retells the Robin Hood legend adds a little something to the story. He introduced the idea of the occult – the Baron de Belleme in particular is a terrifying character – and this later influenced other Robin Hood adaptations, including the character of Mortianna in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves . You might be surprised to find that this blog is not actually about any version of Robin Hood. In fact, it’s about the TV series Merlin . That’s your recommended viewing for wet days during summer, if we have any rain ever again after this heatwave! I first came across Merlin when it was released in 2008. It was such a Big Deal that a trailer for the series was shown at the cinema when I went to watch Tropic Thunder with my older sister while living with her in Ipswich. I mostly just remember the dragon and thinking it looked ok. Some...
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#HistFicThursdays - And now for something completely different... COMPETITIONS!

Today's blog is a heads-up on an Historical Fiction competition which is being run by Globe Soup.
If you want more details, head over to their website here.

At Crowvus, our competition season is in full swing: entries for our Ghost Story Competition have been coming in for the past couple of months and the deadline is 30 September. We’re looking forward to reading the stories which always form a key part of our autumn reading.

If you’re looking for inspiration, look no further than Those Experiences, which is available as a free eBook from our website. This should give you a good idea of the kind of stories the Crowvus team find particularly chilling and, as we make up most (but not all!) of the judging team, that’s a pretty good place to start!

This week, another competition was announced which is of particular interest to historical fiction writers: the Globe Soup Historical Fiction Challenge. It doesn’t give you much time to write your stories but, with six great historical periods, it will certainly give you a good platform from which to launch a story!

The time periods are:

1.        The Black Death
2.        The Vietnam War
3.        The Roman Empire
4.        The California Gold Rush
5.        The Renaissance
6.        The British Colonial Period in India

And, as with other Globe Soup Challenges, you are assigned a time period blind. I knew the exact one I did not want (The Vietnam War) so opted for the mysterious Ticket 2, and got the one I wanted most!

So, there you go… two great competitions to end your summer with.

I look forward to reading your spooky stories! 

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