Spill the Beans online writing community was a COVID love child – unexpected, unplanned, and now much loved.
We started as a coffee loving writing group keen to share our writing and emerged, to our surprise, as a vibrant online writing community.
We wanted to build a friendly, meetup group where people could have some fun and share their stories. Our plan was to have a ‘writing’ lunch once a month, where an invited guest would inspire us to write and share our stories.
So, we booked La Boca café and invited Shiho Sparkle Hooper, a Japanese hula hooper, who I had met in Antarctica to be our surprise guest at our first meeting. BUT COVID hit. Undeterred we decided to go online.
It wasn’t the travel experience I thought it would be’ was our first challenge. We asked people to send in a 400 word story or poem and to our amazement, writers from around the world joined in. Since then, we have set a writing challenge every two months. During a challenge we publish a story or poem every day, on our website spillthebeans.net.au.
The most popular members’ stories and poems are published in our print books. Three books have been published so far and a fourth due in June. We also have an ebook coming out in March.
Everyone can join in the website challenges and have their stories or poems printed online but members entries are eligible to be printed in Spill the Beans Books.
At Spill the Beans we welcome writers regardless of writing experience, age or cultural background. Annual membership is $20and $10 concession. We are offering an April special for INK readers – 14 months membership for the price of 12. Click on our membership page on our website, or send subscription fee to BSB: 633000 A/C 176254241 A/C Name: Spill the Beans NSW Inc
April is after all, the month of foolishness and fun, so why not send in your 400 word poem or story to the Spill the Beans Challenge ‘Foolish 400’?
Let this be the start of your year of writing adventures.
Contact us
W: spillthebeans.net.au E: [email protected] (general emails) [email protected] (editors) I: spillthebeans321 F: Spill the Beans Writing Community