Vanessa Couchman, freelance writer

Hello and welcome to my writing site.

You might also be interested in my blog about life in France.

I am a British freelance writer living in France.  I have been running my own successful writing business since 1997 and have a huge amount of corporate writing experience in English for public and private sector clients in the UK and internationally. 

I also write articles for various markets and offer coaching services to help people improve their report writing and business writing skills.  Please click on the relevant tab above to find out more about my services.

I started writing short stories and flash fiction in early 2010. The novel comes later! I am lucky to have had some early successes and have won, been placed and shortlisted in several competitions. A number of my short stories have been published in anthologies. Please click on ‘short stories’ in the top bar to find out more.

You can read my résumé here and contact me here.

To read my news, please keep scrolling down this page.

Foreign Flavours: A New Anthology from Writers Abroad

The online writing group I belong to, Writers Abroad, published last week a new anthology of short stories and non-fiction articles, entitled Foreign Flavours. The theme of the anthology is food, drink and recipes from around the world.

It is a tantalizing collection of fiction and non-fiction, full of spice and flavour and sprinkled with mouth-watering recipes. The wide-ranging, sometimes bittersweet, contributions show how adaptable an ex-pat has to be to leave familiar dishes behind and venture into the culinary unknown.

Two pieces of mine are in it: ‘The Beekeeper’, a short story set in Corsica, and ‘When to Eat in Corsica’, a non-fiction article.

This is the second anthology published by Writers Abroad. All the contributors are, or have been, ex-pats living in places around the globe. Alexander McCall Smith, acclaimed author of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series and himself an ex-pat, has written the preface.

Foreign Flavours contains 64 contributions. Thirty-four are non-fiction articles and 30 are short stories. The anthology also includes 33 recipes.

Contributors live in and have written about the following places: Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Corsica, Cyprus, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malawi, Mallorca, Morocco, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Wales.

All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to The Book Bus, a charity whose aim is to bring literacy and the joy of reading to children in the developing world. 

The paperback print version of Foreign Flavours is available from Lulu from today, Monday 24th October, price £9.60 (€10.99). At around 250 pages, it’s great value. An e-book version will be available soon.

To find out more about Writers Abroad and our publications, please go to our website.

Winning Short Story now Published on Internet

My short story ‘Memory’, which won first prize in the Writing Magazine 750-word short story competition in June, has now been published on the Writing Magazine/Writers’ News website. You can read it online as well as the competition judge’s comments about the story.

The story, which addresses the issue of dementia, was published in the October print issue of Writing Magazine .

Two weeks left to submit to Writers Abroad anthology

There are only just over two weeks to go to the submission deadline – midnight on 9th September 2011 – for a new anthology to be published by online writing community, Writers Abroad.

This year’s anthology is entitled ‘Foreign Flavours’. Writers Abroad are looking for fiction or non-fiction contributions on the topic of food, drink and cooking in far-flung places. Acclaimed author Alexander McCall Smith has kindly contributed the foreword. You are eligible to submit if you are, or have been, an ex-pat. Submission is free.

The anthology will be published as a free  e-book and as a paper edition. All profits from the  paper edition will go to the charity Book Bus, which aims to promote literacy among children in Africa and South America. 

To read the submission guidelines and find out more, please click here.

For a free e-version of Writers Abroad’s 2010 anthology, please click on the image in the right-hand sidebar.

Winner of Writing Magazine short story competition

I had a nice surprise a couple of weeks ago when I received an email informing me that I had won the Writing Magazine 750-word short story competition.

This was an open-themed competition, i.e. you could write a story on any subject of your choice. My story, Memory, which won first prize, addressed the issue of dementia.

The story will be published in Writing Magazine‘s October issue, along with a critique by the Competitions Manager, Richard Bell.

Writers Abroad seeks submissions for new anthology

My online writing group, Writers Abroad, has just published a call for submissions for a new anthology, entitled ‘Foreign Flavours’.

50 Stories for Pakistan published today

50 Stories for Pakistan

Helping the victims of the floods

Produced by www.bigbadmedia.com

Book Preview

50 Stories for Pakistan is out today. All proceeds are in aid of the flood victims in Pakistan. My story, The Sparkler, is one of the 50.

To read more about it or to buy a copy, please click on the link above. An ebook version will be available soon.

Please help us to help the Pakistan flood victims by buying it.

Women on Writing

About three weeks ago, I heard that one of my stories had been selected for the longlist of Women on Writing’s quarterly flash fiction contest. No further news to date, but watch this space.

This is an American site, dedicated to promoting writing by women. To find out more, click here.

Flash 500 competition

The longlist and shortlist for the last quarter’s (July-Sept 2010) Flash 500 fiction competition are now out. One of my stories, Happy ever after?, made the longlist of 45, although not the shortlist of 25.

However, I’m pleased to have got that far. Lorraine Mace, who organises the competition says, “The standard was exceptionally high and to have made this list was an achievement in itself.” Thanks, Lorraine.

The aim of the competition is to give greater emphasis to Flash fiction, which sometimes gets overlooked in the wake of so many competitions about longer short stories. The winning entry is published every year in Words with Jam.

To find out more about Flash 500, click here.

Shortlist out for 50 Stories for Pakistan

Just seen the shortlist of stories to be published in 50 Stories for Pakistan. I’m very pleased to see my story in there, along with those of three of my Writers Abroad colleagues:

A reminder about the Writers Abroad anthology

Just a reminder that you have about three weeks to submit a fictional short story to Writers Abroad for publication in an anthology of the same name, to be published in support of UK National Short Story Week (NSSW). You must be, or have been, an expat.