Hello there! I’m Virginia Betts, the newest member of the editing team and I’d like to begin my journey by making a call for submissions to be published in the online zine.

I was absolutely honoured to be asked to join the team officially, after a greatly admiring them as people and also all the work they have done with this awesome press. I’m the indie author of four books – two poetry books, (Tourist to the Sun and That Little Voice), a collection of Gothic and speculative stories (The Camera Obscure), which is soon to have a second edition published by UPP, and of course, Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets, my debut novel about punk rockers, which UPP have made an amazing job of publishing, and is entered for two book awards this year.

One of the most recent calls was ‘Addiction’, so I thought it only fair to put a call out for stories, flash and poetry on the theme of ‘Recovery‘. The definition of recovery is ‘1: A return to a normal state of mind, health or strength; 2: The process of regaining possession of something lost or stolen; 3: The process of removing or extracting an energy source or industrial chemical for use, re-use or waste treatment.’ I’m sure you creative and inventive people will use the theme to its fullest potential, and I look forward to reading your work!

Please keep poems 40 lines max, flash should be 500 words or fewer and stories around 1500 -2000 words max. Submission window closes 5th July.

Thank you and oinks from the little miss piggy,

Virginia Betts.