MA Creative Writing at the University of Manchester
I have some news for you. I have know what my future holds for a while but decided to wait before sharing. At the end of last year I decided to do an MA. After much research I applied to a few Universities, and after several interviews, e-mail exchanges, and much consideration of where I wanted to live and study during the coming year, I accepted my place at the University of Manchester. Starting this September I will be studying for an MA in Creative Writing. Hurray!
A few friends already know but I wanted to make it official with this post.
Now when that is out of the way – what else have I been doing lately?
I added a new contact form on the website! In case you ever need me urgently.
I am also going to Barcelona tomorrow so there won’t be any updates for a while.
And now it is time to unveil the “secret” projects I have been working on. I am the lead writer for two MMO video game projects. Development is still early and both teams are working on the prototypes. These prototypes might be discarded, and the projects cancelled, if we are unlucky, but if we do a good job one or both of them will become full fledged games in a few years! When there is actual game play to show I will post it here! So look forward to that.
Now I need to go and pack my bags. Let us hope I get a good tan and gain a tonne of weight.
A week of travel!
Where have I been these past few days? Lots of places.
It began with a visit to my girlfriend’s parents, then we went to the most fairy-tale wedding I have ever been to.
The wedding celebration lasted two days. I then went to Stockholm to visit my parents and listen to my girlfriend hold a presentation.
Afterwards, I flew straight to Manchester for an interview.
The moment I got back it was time to celebrate Eurovision (I live 10 minutes from Malmo arena. I could practically hear them by opening the window).
A friend then came to visit. I also attended a cultural job expo, and a Undergraduate exhibition, before going to the cinema yesterday.
I truly wish I took more photos. It was in the back of my mind the whole time, you need to remember the pictures, but I just forgot! Well, for the most part. Here are some of the ones I took (and I apologize for the poor quality. I usually make a great effort with the pictures I upload here):
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- 800 Year old church
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- Church Interior
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- Church bell tower
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- Malmo was transformed during Eurovision
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- Wedding cake!
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- Four Cheese Pizza
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- Preparing for the wedding
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- Wedding coach
The pizza is from Manchester (a place called Dough Pizza Kitchen). It might not look appetizing but it was real good! They even had a desert pizza that I will have to try when I go back! There will be pictures of that.
I also work on an undisclosed project at the moment. No, it is not another novel, or short story, or anything like that. I hope to tell you about it soon. Let’s just say it takes up a lot of time and is the main reason I need to summarize my trips like this instead of having really long posts for each one of them.
If things go as plan I will unveil the project in a week or two. It will be around the same time I will lock myself in to complete Project 3.
Also, if you’re looking for places to submit writing during June/July, go here: http://aerogrammestudio.com/2013/05/17/opportunities-for-writers-june-and-july-2013/
Shopping time!
Last night I discovered, to my great horror, that my wonderful and custom suit no longer fits! It was loose! Can you believe it? I lost weight after tearing through Ben & Jerry’s at a rate of 123 litres a week! No wonder I was growing paranoid that my muscles were languishing. Luckily I found a great suit that I can wear for some very important upcoming events.
This is actually a picture from 2008. I believe it was taken by Andrei Selariu.
200 posts!
This is my 200th post! How time flies. To be honest, it did take longer than I expected, mainly because I don’t blog during the writing process, but here it is, roughly 18 months after my first entry introducing you to the new up-and-coming author Fredrik Hakansson! Much has happened since – mainly the completion of two novels, 100 or so poems, and four short stories. Some have been published here, some remain on my computer. I received my first payment as a writer in June of last year and recently won my first short story competition. I have also won about ten or so blogging awards. Agents in the UK are (hopefully) busy reading through the first chapters of Project 2 and soon I’ll send a specific agent in the US, who wanted to read YA if I ever wrote some, the manuscript for Project 1. This does not guarantee anything but it seems promising. Even if I get published next year, or after my death, writing is what keeps me going and I love telling stories, constructing intricate plots, and see my characters come to life. It’s what I live for and I’ll keep writing no matter what!
How will I celebrate this magical event? With Ben & Jerry’s, Swedish pick ‘n’ mix, and Game of Thrones – of course!
I have a few readers who have, almost, followed me since day 1. They made blogging fun and their comments made me want to come back and keep writing. Thank you!
(I have many frequent followers and if you feel I should have mentioned you – please forgive me! Leave a comment if you’re a frequent visitor and I’ll make it up to you.)
Kate Johnston (4amwriter)
Eliza (iwritewhaticannotsay)
Ben (bennaga)
Will Of Heart (willofhearts)
Sultan Abdul Haseeb (sultanabdulhaseeb)
Nathanael Williams (robertsonomini)
Anne (annessays)
Pete Denton (petedenton)
Helena (witnessthefire)
I hope you stay with me for the whole ride. Do you have any favourite posts here on the site? Do you have suggestions for improvement? Cake? Anything else?
Anyway, I just wanted to say THANK YOU!
Coffee Protein
I recently needed new protein and ordered Whey-80 from Gymgrossisten (even though I usually go for mixed-source protein). When deciding on a flavour I noticed a new addition to their assortment – Ice coffee. I’ve had it for a few days now. How does it taste? Surprisingly awesome! Like the sugary Ice Coffee powder from Nestlé. One thing which caught me by surprise, even though it shouldn’t have, was the fact that each serving contains 80 mg of caffeine. If one considers the thermogenic properties of caffeine it’s actually a great thing for those who want to get lean. Now I just need to halve the daily serving of Black Burn to avoid caffeine jitters.
For those of you who work out – what’s your protein of choice?
Four places to send your writing!
More places to send writing, taken from the reddit writing-subreddit. The first three were found here and aren’t really meant for amateur writers – but you might get lucky!
- The first one is the “Drue Heinz Literature Prize.” They want a collection of short fiction. The prize? Publication and $15 000! The downside is that you already need to have something published in print. Deadline is June 30th. For more info click here.
- Next is the “Investigative Journalism Grant.” This is non-fiction, for someone who want to report on something, and you can apply for it several times during the course of the year. The sum of the grant differs but the average is $5000. For more info click here.
- Lastly! “Writer’s Digest Writing Competition!” Now this is something for me! They accept several different categories of writing, such as Inspirational Writing, Essays, Memoirs, Poetry, Movie scripts, YA, Plays, Short Stories, and much more. You can win $3000, a talk with an agent/editor, a trip to a writing conference in NY, subscription to Writer’s Digest, and a meeting with a strategy consultant. Since this applies for practically every writer I urge you to apply! NOTE: There is a reading fee. The fee is however reduced until May 6th. For more info click here.
While this might seem intimidating, with a reading fee and all, there’s one place I’m going to tell you about. Black Treacle is looking for submissions in Horror, Dark Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction. It’s a great place for new writers to send submissions! You even get paid. A thing to note is that the magazine is Canadian and thus they favour Canadian writing – but they accept and print submissions from anyone anywhere. For more info click here.
New Design
Now you might think Where am I? but rest assured – you are still at a place where dreams (hopefully) come true. Even though I felt the that the old and dark design fitted the themes and tones of my poetry and prose it was not always lenient on the eyes. I also wanted my main page to have a more traditional “blogging” format so you could simply scroll down and read instead of having to press each post to read it. I am hoping I will update it more frequently now as well.
I also fixed the Live-stream. It should be working now and I promise I’ll turn it on every now and again. It was after all a very popular feature when it worked. What do you think? Did you prefer the old theme? Do you like the background?
Prada Creative Writing Competition
Believe it or not, but Prada is having a short story competition! I read about it a week ago but forgot to mention it. The prompt, and description, is as follows:
“What are the realities that our eyes give back to us? And how are these realities filtered through lenses?”
By using the metaphor of prescription glasses, Prada enters a world made of written words, rather than spoken, thus launching a challenge to explore and enhance the individual interpretation of reality. Optical eyewear become an opportunity and a tool to investigate diverse creative worlds: a preferred channel and a window on our world, and – why not – on new potential worlds.
Even though this prompt allows a wide array of interpretations I am utterly stumped as to what I should write. At this point I’m not even sure I’ve got something worth submitting. If I get an idea I’ll definitely try to craft a good piece for them, but as of now, I’ll leave the prompt here, for me to look at every now and again and scratch my head in frustration.
Here’s the official link: http://www.prada.com/en/journal/project
Good luck!
- F H Hakansson
My short story won!
Yes, I am speaking of LitReactor’s annual writing challenge. ‘Our Masters’ was voted one of the winners! This feels amazing, especially considering there were over 150 entries. Thanks for all your support! If you haven’t read it yet, you should do so while its up: http://litreactor.com/events/teleport-us/our-masters
NOTE: You need to log in using a Facebook account to read it.
Established Sci-Fi author E. C. Myers will soon read through it and provide feedback. I’ll be sure to post his criticism here! That’s all I wanted to say really. My leftthumb really hurts from all the time I spent writing so I really need to take a break (even though I probably won’t. Too much work to do).
- F H Hakansson
The (almost) Ultimate Writing Resource
Here’s another top Reddit link from the “Writing” subreddit. It is a collection of top-posts, articles, and other information regarding writing. Here’s everything from Creative Boosts, Worldbuilding, setting, how to “show not tell,” grammar, sentence construction, pacing, character specific advice, and much more! Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is. Most links do, unfortunately, lead to sites no longer available and are therefore broken. But it’s still worth checking out! Maybe you find a hidden gem there? If so, let me know!
You can find it here!
- F H Hakansson
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