CRYSTAL, The Magazine For Writers

FROM THE EDITOR

My granddaughter Lily is the Cheshire & Merseyside champion AND the North West champion (Cheshire & Merseyside, Greater Manchester & Lancashire combined).

Hello everyone

Welcome to the website for Crystal, The Magazine For Writers. Crystal is an A4, 40-page, bi-monthly, print only magazine with colour images.

Crystal is full of good stories, poetry and articles. There's an opportunity to share writing successes and anything of interest to writers. Also there are usually pages of letters, which indicates readers have had an enjoyable experience if they have taken the time to write. The rule for letters, as stated in Guidelines on the back page, is: kind comments or none at all.

£3.50 for one issue or subscribe for £21. You will receive six issues of my very popular magazine. Why not consider joining the Crystallite family.

The new Surprise Competition is to 'Write a Sonnet'. Entry is £1.23. The prize is a surprise. Please request a flyer for details. Email: christinecrystal@hotmail.com

Happy writing.

Warm regards

Christine Carr

Editor

CURRENT ISSUE

MAY 2024

CONTENTS

Welcome

Roy Hewetson: Serial

Heather Buswell: Just Me

Linda Tilston: Sea Swallow

Heather Buswell: The ‘THING’ in the River

Sue Hassett: The River

David Norris-Kay: Summer Solstice

Brian Webster: The Promise

Bernard Lazenbury: Aquatherapy

Heather Buswell: In England We Have Weather

Michael Newman: Turning Out Wet

Nicky Wheeliker: The Cobb, Lyme Regis. Golden Cap. Dorset

Don White: Tales From a Solo Traveller: Dorset

Bernard Lazenbury: Joke

Letters

Wendy Webb: Walled Garden

Keith Taylor: Morning Hunger

Phil Wilson: Wordsmithing

Richard Dobbs: Word Wise

Alan Barker: Black Thursday

Jill Rundle: Confession

Felix Sefton: Bats

Bernard M Jackson: Sonnet ‒ To the Moon so Beautiful

Michael Newman: The Ice-cream Van. By the Garden Gate

Anne Brown: The Small Whites

Sue Hassett: In the Garden

Peter Davies: Great Balls of Fire

Susannah White: The Lost Steam Trains

Roy Hewetson: Beddgelert

Susannah White: Sleeping Steam Trains

NEW SURPRISE COMPETITION

WRITE A SONNET

Email your postal address to receive a flyer giving details.

christinecrystal@hotmail.com

Competition closes 1 November 2024

NEWS

www.bookguild.co.uk ISBN 9781915603975 NATURE £9.99

Veteran environmental tutor and retired countryside ranger Keith Taylor seeks out spiritual and visual riches as he undertakes a year travelling to locations that have always intrigued him or may offer a fresh relationship with the outdoors, both through his own seasonally aware eyes and those of equally restless colleagues.

Here, in The Seasonal Eye, he takes the reader through extreme parts of Britain, from the foot of an oak in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, to the caves of a Nottingham border ice age sanctuary, our coastlines and nature reserves now managed by our county naturalists trusts, and the varied terrains of the Cairngorms.

This inquisitive man invites us to join him in his quests to discover how the compulsion to merge supposition with reality provides a clearer understanding of the precarious yet adaptive environmental issues that surround us all.

An enchanting seasonal tour of Britain, written by a retired countryside ranger.

This is a joint effort between Keith and myself. Through my word processing service (see inside-back page of magazine) I typed up a manuscript from handwritten notes. I truly enjoyed reading the resulting 242-page book. Christine

SINGLE ISSUE

Don't want to receive six issues of Crystal a year but would like to see your work in print? There is the option to purchase single issues for £3.50.

I publish stories, poems, articles. Send me something and I'll let you know if I'd like to include it.

In due course I will tell you which issue it is in. Then either send me a cheque, payable to Mrs C Carr, for £3.50 or click the PayPal button.

You can send work by email: christinecrystal@hotmail.com

Post: 3 Bowness Avenue, Prenton, Birkenhead CH43 0SD

Note

You can only be called a Crystallite if you subscribe.

DESCRIPTION AND HOW TO GET COPIES

Crystal Magazine is intended for subscribers (called Crystallites). They receive six issues a year for £21.

If you do not wish to become a Crystallite you may still send in work and can purchase the issue it appears in for £3.50. There is a PayPal button on this website. The price is the same as a Crystallite would pay for one issue.

An A4, 40-page, spiral-bound, print only bi-monthly. Full of stories, poems and articles with colour images. Pages of letters, an opportunity to share writing achievements and anything of interest to writers.

There are yearly Surprise Competitions open to all. Entry is £1.23 and you don't know what you could win (it's a surprise). Prizes are only small but winners have been very happy.

HOW TO GET COPIES

You can send a cheque to Mrs C Carr, Editor, Crystal Magazine, 3 Bowness Avenue, Prenton, Birkenhead CH43 0SD. Please make it payable to Mrs C Carr. See below for cost options.

PayPal Buttons

£21 to become a Crystallite and get sent six issues within a 12-month period.

£2 for a sample copy.

£3.50 for non-Crystallites to purchase a copy of the issue their work appears in.

GUIDELINES

Poems, stories (true and fiction) and articles. Any style, length and theme, except erotica. Handwritten material accepted.

Also very long stories which could be turned into serials.

Short fillers, joke etc.

Letters: kind comments or none at all. Deadline is 15^th of the month prior to the month of publication.

News: Share publication successes.

PAYPAL BUTTONS

If you use the payment button to subscribe to Crystal Magazine, PayPal can set up a Payment Profile with automatic recurring payment. This means in a year's time your subscription will be automatically renewed. You don't have to do anything.

Of course, if you no longer wish to receive Crystal Magazine you can either contact PayPal direct to cancel or I can cancel your Payment Profile.

There is a PayPal button for a sample copy. This is intended for writers thinking about taking out a subscription.

I have set up a single issue button. Should I accept any poem, story or article from a non-Crystallite they may purchase the issue it appears in.

The yearly Surprise Competitions have an entry fee button.

ISSUE 100 JULY 2017

The special 'golden' 100th issue.

More colour, more pages.

Golden covers (not shown).

Only £3

PayPal button or cheque