Sometimes it takes something like the unexpected death of a very good friend and fellow writer to give you the impetus to do something you used to love doing, but had forgotten just how much. We sadly lost the wonderful Jane Wenham-Jones on Sunday. I published some of Jane's first short stories back in the early 1990s in Quality Women's Fiction Magazine (QWF). She was a one-off. She helped me so much with the magazine by introducing it to friends and making suggestions as to how to improve and market it. Jane came to the very first QWF Convention at a country hotel in Sudbury, Derbyshire and was an instant hit with the other writers who attended. I will never forget her reading aloud her rather saucy story, Carla's Gift featuring orgasms and vibrators. It certainly had us all laughing out loud and sent the young waiters scurrying away to take cover. Jane continued to support all my literary endeavours both as a writer and as an editor/publisher. She went on to publish seven novels and three other books, including two handbooks for writers. She became a sought after public speaker, the MC for the RNA Awards and had a regular column in The Isle of Thanet News. Jane will be much missed by so many people. Condolences to her family.
The punishing schedule of QWF's bi-monthly output just about finished me off once my youngest child arrived in 2002. Sally Zigmond, another talented writer and great friend, helped me enormously, but it all got on top of me and I passed the magazine on to Kathie Giorgio in the USA.
In 2008 when Megan was seven-years-old, I realised how much I missed publishing and editing a literary magazine for women writers, so I founded The Yellow Room Magazine. The Yellow Room had very much the same ethos as QWF and proved instantly popular. However, by 2013 and nine issues later, life took another turn and the effort of keeping a print magazine afloat defeated me once more.
And here we are in 2021 and I'm about to relaunch The Yellow Room Magazine with Issue 10. I think a global pandemic gave us all pause for thought about what was important in our lives. Jane's death prompted me to revisit all those magazines I had published and made me realise how much they meant to me.
Do raise a glass to Jane and to the relaunch of The Yellow Room!
Here are the submission guidelines:
The Yellow Room is a place where women writers can gather together for support, encouragement, inspiration and friendship. Editor Jo Derrick is always on the look out for new talent as well as short fiction by more established writers. Female writers are invited to send in short stories of between 800 and 3000 words in length. Please only submit one story at a time and the story should not have been previously published elsewhere. Jo will consider stories in any genre, but is particularly looking for those which highlight the female experience and psyche. Please send stories as an attachment (preferably Word or docx) with a title page stating the word count and that First British Serial Rights are offered. Double spacing on the manuscript, please. Send to: theyellowroommagazine@yahoo.com
We hope to make a small payment to writers whose stories are included in the magazine. This will depend on subscription take up.
