In June 2020 I set out a new series of blog posts on my website called ‘writing about writing about writing’ after a chapter in Tom Bissell’s ‘Magic Hours’ about the topic of reading books about writing. I am a self-confessed bookaholic and when I started writing I started reading books about writing. The first was Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ from which I discovered that I was doing everything wrong – it wasn’t until I did a subsequent workshop that I discovered that writing short and adding in edit was just as valid an approach as King’s writing long and cutting 25%. But I digress. Being a b ..read more

ALCS, the UK Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, collects secondary royalties on behalf of writers for work published in the UK, and campaigns and lobbies on writers’ rights at national and international levels. Founded in 1977, to date it has paid £650 million to its 120,000 members. These royalties are very difficult for individual writers to collect. They come from photocopying & scanning by business, education and other organisations, overseas library lending, retransmission, and other sources. There’s more detailed information on their website. Lifetime membership costs only ..read more

We are delighted to announce that our bursary writers for 2024 are Naomi Eselojor and Plangdi Neple, both from Nigeria. We had some excellent applications and it was tough to pick out two to join us at Gladstone’s Library in September for the Milford SF Writers’ Conference – an intense week of workshopping writing in progress and ideas. We are looking forward to meeting Naomi and Plangdi. NAOMI ESELOJOR is a speculative fiction writer from Nigeria. She is the winner of the 2023 Utopian award for short fiction and the 2024 winner of the Wilson Okereke’s prize for short stories. Her works are i ..read more

Here are the thoughts of Milford’s 2023 bursary winners. We’ll be announcing the recipients of the 2024 Mulford Bursaries in the next couple of weeks NEON YANG (they/them) I attended the Milford Workshop in the autumn of 2023, on the generosity of a bursary. I was pretty nervous as I’d just moved to the UK a year ago and hardly knew anyone. But my fears were unfounded as what I found was a delightfully welcoming community of knowledgeable, passionate, funny and generous writers. Nestled in the silent, remote wilds of Snowdonia, I made new friends and spent a glorious week reading, writing, an ..read more

From CB’s Top 100 Writing Tips, Tricks, Techniques and Tools from the Advice Toolbox: Break the rules, not the writing Keep your promises. When a reader picks up a text for the first time, reads the first few words in a preview, or gets the first few chapters for signing up to a mailing list, the rest of the story had better be of the same type and quality as the sample from which they made their purchasing decision or other commitment. Otherwise, they will go away unhappy, having read the story little beyond the point where its original promise broke down. There can be any number of reasons ..read more

Over the last few years we’ve grabbed sayings out of context from various sayings heard at Milford, some during critiques, some not. Here are some of our favourites – anonymous, of course (to protect the guilty). I have been hypnotised by a personal friend of King Arthur Reminds me of Brideshead Revisited with the improving addition of a heavily militarised refugeee from Little Grey rabbit. Is West Country science fiction Cider Punk? I love the idea of grumpy vengeful floorboards as a main character. These characters use Promethius as a health and safety instruction film This ship basically tr ..read more

Is your story the one you cannot bear not to write? Does thinking about it consume your idle moments? Do you lie awake at night worrying about bits that aren’t working? Do you leap out of bed in the morning with ideas that will improve it? Do you filter everything you encounter in your daily life through your story, to see what you can use to make it better? If you want an editor or agent to be passionate about your book, you must be passionate first. Because a genre agent will get a couple of thousand submissions through the year. A Fantasy publisher can get over five thousand unsolicited sub ..read more

My first Milford was nearly 43 years ago (good grief!) in 1981, when it was still held at Milford-on-Sea because of the name. Among the participants was George RR Martin, and so when Game of Thrones made it big on TV, I was able to say, shamelessly, “Well, of course I know George…” I missed the 1982 Milford because I’d started a new job in the middle of the year and had used up more than all of my truncated annual leave allowance on my TAFF trip to Chicago and other destinations in the US. The President then was Ronald Reagan, and I have no idea how he managed to get elected since no one I met ..read more

Previously posted on Jacey Bedford’s blog on January 16, 2024 byJacey Bedford My first book, Empire of Dust, a space opera, came out in October 2014. I was excited, pleased and nervous all at the same time. A week or so before publication my author copies arrived, all packed up is a big shipping box. I can’t begin to tell you how delighted I was to get them – so delighted I gave them their very own bookshelf. The book slipped out without a launch. For one month it went into the Locus best sellers list of February 2015, based on the figures from November 2024. Then it disappeared from there, n ..read more

The Milford committee would love to have your support for ECLECTIC DREAMS in the Best Collection Category. Though it doesn’t say on the listing, it’s edited by  J W Anderson, Liz Williams and Pete W Sutton .  This is the Milford Anthology raising funds for the Milford Writers of Colour Bursary. It features a previously unpublished story by Neil Gaiman and lots of other excellent stories that have been through the Milford Mill, and are reprinted here. BSFA members and Eastercon 2024 attendees, if you don’t know where to cast your vote this year, you might consider the following. You ..read more