A challenge for writers

A challenge for writers 

 CaféLit is all about reading in cafés. Many writers, we know, also write in cafés. So why not write specifically for the Creative Café Project next time you’re in a café? If you’re not familiar with what we publish, take a look here: http://cafelitcreativecafe.blogspot.co.uk/ Actual submission guidelines are available at: http://cafelit.co.uk/index.php/submission-guidelines     

I challenge you to write a story that is sparked by something you’ve seen on the day, maybe even in the café. It’s also perfectly fine to carry on with a work in progress that fits our brief. 

This time when you send it in, as well as assigning a drink, say which café you wrote the story in.  We’ll put that one up on the site, if it’s not there already, and link to it from your story. 

And as you’re writing a story for CaféLit you may be including a new café in the project.

Win, win.              

New cafés, new creative practitioners and new activities sought

New cafés, new creative practitioners and new activities sought

The Creative Café started off as a seed of an idea about ten years ago. Since then I’ve collected dozens and dozens of cafés. I seem to find them everywhere I go. I’ve altered my ideas about what counts as a creative café activity and embraced some really interesting events and meetings.

I’m now keen of course to get even more people involved, more cafés listed and discover more ideas of how creative practitioners can interact with each other and their audiences in a café environment.

Do have a look at About the Project to find out what the project is about. Also take a look at Ideas for Café Owners to find out how the cafés work. We also have some good ideas about how writers and other creative practitioners might interact with a creative café. Read about it here.   Do browse the cafés and get a sense of how a café become labelled “creative”.  Find a Café shows you a list of activities by café.  You can also search for a café by post code, town and country. 

Don’t forget also CaféLit, our publication that supports the project.   

Can you help me to add more information to the site? If so, please use the contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.              

CafeLit

CafeLit is doing well at the moment. We’re still getting the normal short stories but also a great line in 100-worders. We’ll soon be putting together the Best of CafeLit 2013 and we’re also planning a cute little square book of the 100-worders. So, some contributors might find their work published twice.

Royalties

We do pay royalties on our books but as they’re shared between several people they really don’t come to all that much per person. However, they do accumulate over the years – we only pay out once there is £10.00 – and if someone is published by the project several times, and they’ve got other small trickles of income, it all helps to keep the writer fed and housed. There is the option also of donating royalties to the project and several people do that.

The Best of CaféLit

We'll shortly be looking at all of the stories we've published between 15 October 2012 and 15 October 2013 in CaféLit, the e-zine that supports the work of the Creative Café project. It contains short stories that are linked to a drink. If you're in the mood to drink hot chocolate you may find a story that goes with that. And if you’re reading CaféLit on your phone or tablet in a café or looking at a copy of one of the “Best of” books, then that café actually ought to be in the project.  Do send us details!

CaféLit has recently published quite a few what we call 100-worders. These are pieces of fiction 100 words long. If we can get up to 100 of these, and it’s looking likely, we’re going to publish a little square book. Are you up for the challenge? Find details here.   

CaféLit anyway is always looking for more conventional short stories. Submission details here. 

We publish CaféLit in two different places – on a dedicated web site but also on Blogger. Blogger enables us to judge which are all-time most popular stories and on 1 January 2014 we’ll be announcing first, second and third place. There will be a prize!

You can order individual copies of the Best of CaféLit 2011 and 2012 from the links below. From 1 November there will be a special Christmas offer on orders for five copies plus, mixed and matched between the two titles.   

Happy reading, writing and coffee drinking!            

 

 

The Creative Café Project New Web Site

I’ve now migrated the Creative Café Project web site and am starting to build it up again. This was harder than it should have been, considering I’m going from Microsoft to Microsoft, and frankly, I’m not all that happy with the new platform, so once the trial period is over, I may well move again. A couple of my other sites I have with a different provider and I like that better – at the moment. Who knows, though? Things may change. I’ll most likely get used to it.

So, there’s only a skeleton as yet, but I’m gradually putting back the content that was there before and adding new pages. I actually find this quite creative. It’s forcing me to review the site thoroughly.

One of the biggest differences is that CaféLit now has its own dedicated site.           

As always, I’m on the lookout for new cafes and new ideas all the time. So, if you have any suggestions, do contact me via the contact form on the site.   

Expansion of the Creative Café Project

I believe it is time now to see this project expand massively. Although hopefully a full-time manager will be employed eventually, much of the project’s success will depend on the hard work of volunteers. The work will be fun, however.

How can you help?

CaféLit

This is an e-zine and an annual publication that makes some money for the project and pays an editor. We want to improve the circulation. So we need more hits on the sites and more people buying the book – available as a paperback or on Kindle. Anyone like to push that for us?   On one of our sites we have Google ads. On the other we would like to sell appropriate advertising directly. Could you advertise with us? Do you know anyone else who could? See our advertising rates.  

And don’t forget to submit! See submission guidelines.         

Finding more cafés

Oh, dear oh dear. It’s a hard life. That just might mean trying out more cafés in your local area and deciding whether they are already creative cafés (see definition) or have the potential to become them.  Even better if you can email admin@creativecafeproject.co.uk with the copy for the web site.

Review a Creative Café

Write a review about a creative café or about a café that’s about to join the Creative Café Project. We’ll post it on this blog and link it to the café on the Creative Café web site. You can include a by-line and a link to your own site(s).    

Developing creative cafés

This could mean helping a café to become a creative café or help existing creative cafés become better ones.

Be a creative practitioner at a creative café

See my previous blog post on Writers in Residence. Or, if you are an artist could you arrange with the café to display and / or sell your work? If you are a musician and the café has an entertainments license could you busk there for a few hours? Sell your CDs? Give out leaflets?

Run a literary salon there

See details about this in this post on this blog.

Any other bright ideas?

Please share!   Contact admin@creativecafeproject.co.uk

2012 Flash Fiction CaféLit Calendar

We’re looking for pieces of Flash Fiction 250 works max, associated with a month of the year and a drink.  If the work is good we’ll publish it anyway in our on-line magazine. The best piece of flash fiction each month will go into the calendar. Profit from the calendar will be shared 50% between authors/ artists  / editors  and the Creative Café Project.

Please submit Flash Fiction to editor@creativecafeproject.co.uk . Please put name of story, month and drink in the subject line.   

If you are an artist and would like to send a picture for a particular month, we’ll use that as prompt for the Flash Fiction for that month. If we like your picture, you’re guaranteed to be in the calendar. Pictures should be 72 dpi, 250 x 250 or 300 X 300, jpeg format. They may be illustrations or photos.  Send your pictures to admin@creativecafeproject.co.uk

Even if your piece of Flash Fiction is not used for the calendar, it may still be eligible for The Best of CaféLit 2012.

Please send Flash Fiction by the following dates. Keep your eye on the Creative Café Web Site for picture prompts.

January by 29 February

February by 15 March

March by 31 March

April by 15 April

May by 30 April

June by 15 May

July by 31 May

August by 15 June

September by 30 June

October by 15 July

November by 31 July

December by 15 August

The Janus Report for the Creative Café 2011 / 2012

2011 has seen a handful of new cafes come into the project but even more importantly there are another half dozen people out there looking for and managing to identify them. Several writers are getting interested and I’ve spoken to quite a few about setting up as a writer in residence in a café.  The most popular ideas are:

·         Running a creative writing workshop

·         Holding a creative writing clinic

·         Just writing

·         Selling and signing books

Unfortunately we didn’t get the funding we applied for but some of the writers and cafes have found innovative ways around that.   

I’ve actually enjoyed visiting one or two new cafés and chatting to the owners / managers about the project.  

CaféLit is trundling along nicely and bringing in come good stories. I’ve almost finished the copy edit on The Best of 2011 and although I’d read all of the stories before, I certainly enjoyed reading them again.  I think we achieved what we set out to do – provide stories that go with a cuppa in a café. I’m delighted with how well the drinks match the texts.  So thanks go to Debz Hobbs-Wyatt for her excellent editing.   

For 2012 I’m keen to get more cafés, writers and other creative practitioners involved. I’m keen to get CaféLit into the cafés.  I’m toying with story cards and story pamphlets also. I’m hoping to fund this by selling advertising. Also, I’d like to send attractive notices to the cafés alerting customers to the Kindle version of The Best of and to the online versions.  

I’ve started a Chip-in campaign to raise funds to cover the cost of having a logo designed and getting some stationery printed. Gradually, we’ll start producing merchandise that the cafés and their customers can buy.