She wandered lonely as a cloud.. until now
It all became a bit much - then you subscribed | 4 x writing comps & news| & something new
My dear wordsmiths,
Wow, you guys. I’ll have to take a break more often as it’s clearly the secret to adding subscribers and making new friends. Hello to all you newcomers - writers, journalists, travel types and lovers of the grind - I see you and appreciate you. Let’s meander into 2026 together as nobody needs to put any more pressure on themselves than that, something I’ve learned the hard way. Please subscribe, we need each other.
If you are new, I’ll introduce myself. I’m Nicola, by day a journalist/editor and by night a writer of novels. I also work as presenter and podcaster and live in the glorious Lancashire countryside, which is definitely the main character in my life right now. Expect pheasant updates.
My delightful paid subscribers, I have decided to share some of my work with you (and you alone) under the paywall, let me know what you think. This particular extract is not a manuscript currently, more an exploration of what is possible.
I took a break from here at the end of last year as it was all a bit much. I also put my radio show on hold and even took a break from the gym. I did manage to take a few breaks because I felt like I was toppling over. I’m sure you know the feeling if you managing all the things on top of the day job or family or the the myriad things that boot us off course..
I was hoping this would get me into the editing process from my latest novel but nothing got done over Christmas when I was partially working anyway- but I’ve given myself a new year deadline so I’m (sort of) reinvigorated. I tried not to stress over the festive period and moved into 2026 dressed vaguely as Claudia Winkleman in Traitors mode (wig and all, see heavily edited image) and now the new year is here. Let’s move on - my eyes are still recovering from the black eyeliner (how does she do it?)
Writing competitions
..are definitely the future for querying writers like myself. I’ve decided to enter everything this year because - why not! The key is to enter then forget you ever entered, so if you do get shortlisted it’s a bonus and if not, you don’t notice. 2026 is the year we do not to self flagellate in the misery of rejection because everyone gets rejected, it’s a fact of life. Here are four open for entries:
Deadline May 26, 2026: The Bath Novel Award 2026 is a £5,000 international prize for adult and YA novels of every genre. Open to unagented writers, who are unpublished, self-published or independently published without advance and of every age, gender, nationality and residency. Entry fee £33 per novel, with sponsored places available for writers on a low income.
Deadline May 31, 2026: Bridport Prize (Poetry, short story, flash fiction categories) 42 lines of poetry for a possible £5,000 poetry prize, £5,000 for short story (Gail Honeyman won this before her breakthrough) and £1,000 for flash fiction - 20 words max. Entry £12-£15 depending on category.
Deadline March 16, 2026: Submissions opened yesterday for the 21st BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University 2026 (NSSA) The winning author receives £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each.
Many of Britain’s most renowned writers have won or been shortlisted for the NSSA including Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, William Trevor, Jon McGregor, Deborah Levy, Naomi Alderman, Kamila Shamsie, Tessa Hadley, Mark Haddon, Sarah Hall, Helen Oyeyemi, Lucy Caldwell and Rose Tremain.
Deadline March 23, 2026: The BBC Young Writers’ Award for young people aged 14-18 is also open for submissions ( teachers resources also available). The judges are Lily Fontaine, lead singer of Mercury Music Prize 2024 winning band ‘English Teacher’, award-winning children’s author David Almond and Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025 winner Margaret McDonald, with Chair, Radio 1 presenter Lauren Layfield.
Book news
New crime fiction festival: Some of the biggest names in crime writing could be heading to Lancashire later this year, as part of the inaugural Preston Crime Fiction Festival, says the Lancashire Post. The event is the brainchild of Preston’s acclaimed thriller writer, Christie J. Newport.
The book censorship police have been busy in one US state with three more books banned in Utah, say KSL 102.7FM. The worrying thing is this is not even unexpected any more. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire are banned alongside Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes.
Journalism news
The new cohort for the JI Leaders course has been announced. I took part a few back (I was kindly sponsored by Google - those were the days). Loads of top journalism leaders are on this year’s roster so good luck chaps! Read all about it here
The Society of Editors has announced the launch of the News Podcast Awards 2026, the first UK awards dedicated exclusively to recognising excellence in news podcast journalism. Opening for entries next month, with winners announced at an awards lunch in central London in June 2026. Read all about it and how to enter here.
Extract from my latest work - thoughts?
I think any of you writers out there know how vulnerable sharing your work in progress can be. This is not the novel I am currently re-drafting but a short extract from a narrative non-fiction work I have been working on, very much based on my grandmother’s story as a young girl who after attending boarding school in England throughout her childhood and wartime, then faced return to her Indian birthplace at a critical and controversial time in history. Her parents, with roots in northern England, were based in Cawnpore working in the cotton industry aka ‘The British Raj’.
But I may fictionalise this into a novel…and the Norma’s diary section is word for word. Here goes…Prelude
The thread dangles. It twists, it turns, it tangles, it splits. From the mother, to the child, to the grandchild to the cousin once removed, it is animate and glowing, it is an invisible legacy. Love. Prejudice. Power. Politics. Colour. Inequality. It’s the never-ending terraced rows of back to back houses against the bleak October skylines in Lancashire, the humidity of the dusty streets in India, the backbreaking field work, and the sweating factories. It winds through the once-noisy red-brick Manchester mills that are now gastro-pubs or hotels with 100-thread count sheets or no longer there. It is the generations of privilege, the nebulous of need, the cruelties of haves and have-nots and the realities of exploitation. It shaped the map, it is deep in pride, and deeper in shame, it is lost and found and wanting, it so cheap yet expensive and forgotten. It is India, it is England, it is north.
It is cotton.
And it makes me itch.
Chapter 1. Norma
Norma’s diary: Tuesday January 9th, 1940, port of Glasgow
Arose 7.30. Went down to quay 8.30. Saw inspection etc. on board, collected luggage. Saw Ark Royal, Queen Elizabeth and two battle(ships). Sailed. Bed 9.30. Read.
The girl, or maybe she’s a young woman now, stands on the deck of the ship slightly bored already, as this was to be a very long and testing voyage. Her mother, dressed in her embarkation finery and entranced by the presence of so many slightly-known families after such a long stretch in the social wilderness of England and Wales, was conversing intently with Sir and Lady whatever their name was. Their small and bundled up daughter held a seagull feather in the air, seemingly entranced by the patterns made by the gusting winds in its white and grey fluff.
Norma, for that was the young woman’s name, already knew the child to be too young and dull to be her companion, as they had travelled together by train and car from the school which had been her home until the end of winter term just weeks before. She was sad to have left, though furious was a better word, as it was her happy place and contained her friends who would stay until they were 17 or 18. She too would have remained had it not been for the blasted war she thought, forcing her home with mother across the endless seas and oceans, past the dolphins, the jellyfish and the strange shores. It was exciting yet infuriating all at once. A rude and inconsiderate end to her largely happy schooldays, an emotional goodbye to the girls she has known since she was six and to the teachers she both loved and hated depending on the day. It was a farewell to her childhood and all because some politicians couldn’t get along, because men wanted to kill each other. Now she was 16, and full of ideas for the future, full of dreams and longings, fear and anger she couldn’t pin down. But it had been now or never, a choice between boarding a last ship home before the things got worse, or facing a long war entirely alone without her family, without her mother.
I’ll share part 2 next week if the appetite is there - please let me know. Thanks to my ride or dies..Back soon Nx