For aspiring and emerging writers, in October 2013 mcBookishness will be teaming up with Tiny Owl Workshop and The Leeds Big Bookend to work with cafes in Leeds (England), Brisbane (Australia) and Toronto (Canada) to add a little something Halloweenish to coffee time. We’ll be publishing 30 flash fiction stories on paper napkins and distributing them throughout the three cities via cafes who’d like to join us. We’ll choose 10 stories from Leeds writers, 10 from Brisbane writers and 10 from Toronto writers.

If you want to see what a napkin story looks like take a peek here.

I discovered this wonderful project  via the Twitterverse from the wonderful and creative souls down under at Tiny Owl Workshop. I saw their last project and just knew I had to be involved! Tiny Owl (@tinyowlworkshop) in Australia and the lovely Anne E. Murray (@annemurray99) in Canada will be helping to promote the project to aspiring and emerging writers as well as tracking down cafes who may like to be involved. Here in Leeds I've been lucky enough to partner up with the great Leeds Big Bookend (@BigBookend) literary festival to spread the word and get the creative juices flowing about this exciting project. Make sure you follow Big Bookend, Tiny Owl and Anne on Twitter to keep up with what’s happening where you are.

So, if you’re an aspiring or emerging writer in Leeds, Brisbane, or Toronto and you’d like to have your flash fiction story considered for inclusion, here are the guidelines:

1. It’s flash fiction. On napkins. So, stories cannot be over 300 words.
2.  The stories will be published and distributed in time for Halloween, so the theme is  simply Halloween.  That means your stories can be about ghouls, ghosts, otherworlds, fables, family, feasts, rituals,  etc, so long as there is some element of Halloween in the story.
3. Stories accepted for inclusion will be paid $50 (AUD) by the wonderful Tiny Owl.
4. Stories that have already been published are not eligible for consideration.
5. Finished stories must be submitted via email to Kate at mcbookishness@hotmail.co.uk, by clicking the button above, or in person. 
6. Stories must be included in the body of the email or as a .doc attachment.
7. The submission deadline is midnight Friday 14 June 2013 (GMT).
8. Along with your story, please submit a flash bio – no more than 140 characters (characters, not words). The bio will be published alongside your story (for those accepted).
9. While the theme is ‘Halloween’, there are no limitations other than to say your potential audience will be people stopping for a cuppa/break/chat/think/scribble/snack/laugh in a local cafe they like. They may be adults, but they may be any age, so keep your potential audience in mind.
10. We will let you know when your story reaches us (via email).
11. We’ll let people know in the week beginning 24 June 2013 whether their story has been accepted or not.
12. Authors retain copyright of their stories.

So, get scribbling and submit by 14 June 2013.

I’ll also let you know which cafes are joining us as we go.

Can't wait to read all your spooky efforts! 

For more information and to send your work