Morgen With An E

Welcome to my Tumblr page. I'm Morgen Bailey and live in the UK. My blog, like me, is consumed by all things literary and if you write, you can take part! Take a look and email me. http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com [email protected]

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Word Count Wednesday: MASTER

Hello and welcome to Word Count Wednesday. How have you been getting on? No new writing this week as I’ve been helping a friend (who’s also one of my mentoring clients) get his book ready for publication (which I’m also in the process of doing for him!). I have however gone back through some of my WIPs (works-in-progress), one of which is perfect for my sixty-book series so that’s another 8,350…

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Sunday Prompt: 31 May 2026

Hello and welcome to this feature (inspired by Story A Day May) where I post a prompt, and accompanying – though not necessarily connected – picture*, so actually two prompts, formerly every day but now on a Sunday due to other commitments (sorry!). *This week’s photograph shows the back of a torso (so gender unknown) wearing a dark-coloured hoodie. The figure is facing a wooden walkway with a…

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Word Count Wednesday: 27th May 2026

Hello and welcome to Word Count Wednesday. How have you been getting on? I’ve been writing every morning and have 10,395 words. Thank you, nerdy Excel spreadsheet… the only way I can keep track as I’m working on several in a sixty-book series! Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the…

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Sunday Prompt: 24 May 2026

Hello and welcome to this feature (inspired by Story A Day May) where I post a prompt, and accompanying – though not necessarily connected – picture*, so actually two prompts, formerly every day but now on a Sunday due to other commitments (sorry!). *This week’s photograph shows a large dusty old attic with (day)light shining from the back of the room from the left, showing a lighter wood…

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Word Count Wednesday: 20 May 2026

Hello and welcome to Word Count Wednesday. How have you been getting on? Refreshed after a week in Spain, I’ve written over 5,000 words! T (husband) wanted a week of not doing a lot, which seeing as we were staying at a friend’s house in a village at the top of a mountain and we’d been before, wasn’t difficult. So I continued with my sixty-book series, which is developing nicely. My day job is…

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The books I read (and pulled apart!) in Spain

Because my day job is editing novels, I usually read short stories but with the prospect of a week-long break in Spain I thought I’d take a few (seven) novellas. The results are below… ‘The Ballard Down Murder’ by Rachel McClean (101 pages, 32 chapters, published 2025) Rating: 2/5 Despite the reviews on Amazon (other than someone complaining that the book’s too short), I was disappointed with…

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Sunday Prompt: 17 May 2026

Hello and welcome to this feature (inspired by Story A Day May) where I post a prompt, and accompanying – though not necessarily connected – picture*, so actually two prompts, formerly every day but now on a Sunday due to other commitments (sorry!). *This week’s photograph shows a vertical blue background with white symmetrical stars, being the top-left portion of the American flag. Unless…

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300-word competition!

Hello everyone. A few weeks ago I launched a bi-monthly 300-word (maximum) flash fiction competiton as part of Self-Pub Fest. There are just two weeks before the first theme (‘the opening’) expires. Entries are £3 (first) or £5 (for two) and the prize pot is shared between the top three entries (50%) and the three book-related charities that Self-Pub Fest supports. See…

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Word Count Wednesday: 13th May 2026

Hello and welcome to Word Count Wednesday. How have you been getting on? Greetings from Spain! We’ve been here three days, back next Monday. The bulk of last week was clearing the decks, as much as I could, before going away, but also doing a bit more planning of my sixty-book series! I hope to do more this week as it’s a week of r&r… and walking, and eating… Do leave a comment below to share…

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Sunday Prompt: 10 May 2026

Hello and welcome to this feature (inspired by Story A Day May) where I post a prompt, and accompanying – though not necessarily connected – picture*, so actually two prompts, formerly every day but now on a Sunday due to other commitments (sorry!). *This week’s photograph shows a bratwurst sausage, well cooked, speared onto a fork-like tree branch with a grass background. Unless there’s a name,…

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Results of Morgen’s 50-word Story Competition – April 2026

Hello everyone. I’m delighted to announce the results of the twenty-fourth 50-word competition on the theme of ‘these foolish games’. There were 30 entries from 13 writers this month, including 4 new to the competition, which is always lovely. Sadly one was disqualified by having two sets of two words with ellipses between them (e.g. ‘when I…when’ which should be ‘when I… when’ = three words).…

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Word Count Wednesday: 6th May 2026

Hello and welcome to Word Count Wednesday. How have you been getting on? I’m delighted to report that I started my ‘make mornings my writing’ on Thursday and have 3,000 of notes with 60+ (quantity and many of their ages), birthdays and age charts, character lists, as well as 4,383 of actual writing. I’m very pleased. I have a week off work next week so I hope to double this at least. Do leave a…

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Sunday Prompt: 3 May 2026

Hello and welcome to this feature (inspired by Story A Day May) where I post a prompt, and accompanying – though not necessarily connected – picture*, so actually two prompts, formerly every day but now on a Sunday due to other commitments (sorry!). *This week’s illustration shows a very creepy clown with smeared (running down his face) clown, wearing a bloodied olive green round-neck with a ‘V’…

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Results of Morgen’s 50-word Story Competition – March 2026 (very late!)

Hello everyone. I’m delighted to announce the results of the twenty-third 50-word competition on the theme to include the words: typhoon, belt, alphabet, germ. There were 18 entries from 10 writers this month, including 1 new to the competition, which is always lovely. Sadly one, from a regular, was disqualified for being 52 words. The title was seven words so not a misunderstanding that the…

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FREE 50-word competition: __ closed… __ open

Yes, the competition has closed for April and has opened for May. The theme is ‘the other side of the world’. The forthcoming (up to December 2027!) themes are available on the https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/50-word-comppage.

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Word Count Wednesday: 29 April 2026

Hello and welcome to Word Count Wednesday. How have you been getting on? This post is late today as I’ve been short story competition judging up in Lutterworth (Leicestershire), which was lovely. Our first Self-Pub Fest FULL-DAY (In Person) on Sunday* was, I think, fantastic. I knew the panels were going to be tight (and there were only going to be four authors on each but some had five/six) so…

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Our Self-Pub Fest first-person event was fantastic

I think so anyway. I will be posting the photos on the 26 Apr 2026 Festival page and relevant Authors‘ pages in the next few days. This photo shows the historical panel with AK Nairn at the helm, BG Lambourne, Cristina Loggia and Paula Harmon to his right. We sold 94 books (for 26 authors) and raised £51 for the three charities from the sale of tote bags, notebooks and ‘keep the change’…

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