As regular readers will know, I’m a big fan of Hour of Writes. I enjoy the weekly competition, but more than that, I love the way that Alison Ireland reaches out and tries to partner literature with other things like the Littoral Arts Trust and Life Plus 2 meters.

Hour of Writes gave me my first competition win, and my first published work in their 2015 Winners Anthology, the weekly challenge and feedback has been a big part of my growth as a writer. Along with all of this, Hour of Writes has a sense of ‘cool’ about it, I love the aesthetic of the website which carries through into their publications.

Now Hour of Writes has launched a monthly magazine. Alongside articles on a range of topics, are the winning and featured entries for recent prompts. I took a break from Hour of Writes over the summer, but came back just in time to have two of my pieces, that had been ‘featured entries’ included in the first issue of the magazine.

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What a thrill! The magazine encapsulates all I love about Hour of Writes, and it’s given me a real lift to see my words so beautifully presented, alongside some really fabulous writing.

I’m a big believer in reading your work in different formats; how you read it seems to change it. I read my work in scrivener, in word, on my kindle and printed out and each way seems to highlight something different about it.

But reading it in print, in a real life, actual, publication?

Nothing beats that.

You can take part in Hour of Writes and subscribe to Ephemera Magazine by visiting the Hour of Writes website.