Detritus
January 31, 2026
My story Cities of the Antediluvian World has been longlisted in the Pudding Press Detritus competition!
Mozart at the RFH
January 26, 2026
We went to an enjoyable concert consisting of the Overture to the Magic Flute, Piano Concerto no. 21, and the Requiem. Music this popular is often used as a lure to get audiences to listen to something more obscure, but this was pure pleasure.
I remember being shocked when I first discovered that the usual version of the Requiem is a completion of a work Mozart never finished himself. Whether or not he really came to think of it as music for his own funeral, it’s impossible not to be reminded of his early death, which certainly deprived us of some of the greatest classical music never written. Imagine the results of an extended rivalry between Mozart and Beethoven, each needling the other into constantly raising their game, like some Romantic era Lennon and McCartney…
February 2026 Competitions
January 20, 2026
I have now collected the competition details from previous months and put them all together on a new page, which I will update rather than making separate posts. February’s info is already there. You’ll see there’s also a direct link from the front page to the new one. I think this will make the list a little easier to find and consult. The idea is also that in due course there will be a full rolling twelve months on the page, which should make it easier to look at old details to get an idea of what’s probably coming up beyond next month.
I hope this is helpful. Feedback is welcome, (but don’t write to say you’d like all the competitions to be free, for I am powerless in that respect).
January 2026 Competitions
December 21, 2025
Here is another monthly round-up, covering competitions with deadlines in January.
As always, these are contests I may enter myself, so generally no poetry or flash and no competition that isn’t open to an elderly bloke in the UK. Prizes and entry fees vary a lot, so check the benefits to see whether they appeal to you. There is no point in entering a competition if you don’t even want the prize! In some cases the entry fee amounts to a large slice of the prize, though there may be other benefits such as publication, trophies, free books or courses, etc.
Merry Christmas!
| Contest | Word Count | Fee | Prize | Deadline | Details |
| Exeter Novel Prize | 10k + synopsis | £20.00 | £1,000.00 | 01/01/2026 | |
| Disquiet Literary Prize | 25 pages | $15 | Lisbon Program or $1,000 | 05/01/2026 | First prize is a week-long lit program in Lisbon, but you can opt for cash |
| Storybottle | 10,000 | $15 | $1,000 | 15/01/2026 | |
| Cai Emmons | 25,000 word min | $25 | $5,000 | 15/01/2026 | |
| Georgia Review | Less than 9,000 | $25 | $1,500 | 15/01/2026 | Winners of story and essay sections compete for the top prize. |
| The Page is Printed | 1 A4 page | £5 | £100 voucher | 19/01/2026 | |
| LISP | 3,000 | £14.50 | £100 | 26/01/2026 | You can enter later but it costs more |
| Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize | 3,000 | $25 | $1,000 | 30/01/2026 | |
| Parracombe | 2,026 | £5 | £150 | 31/01/2026 | |
| The Ghost Story flash | 1,000 | $15 | $1,000 | 31/01/2026 | |
| Bristol Short Story Prize | 4,000 | £14.00 | £1,000 | 31/01/2026 | |
| Askew’s Word on the Lake | 2000 | $15(Ca) | $200(Ca) | 31/01/2026 |
Special Christmas Tree
December 15, 2025
Our potted miniature maple is beautiful when in leaf, but during the winter it’s a bit bare. So I have made it into a Christmas tree inspired by Charlie Brown’s threadbare one. I used green strinsel, a kind of tinsel made from recycled string.
Woman In Mind
December 11, 2025
We went to see the new production of Woman In Mind, the Alan Ayckbourn classic, staring Sheridan Smith as Susan and with Romesh Ranganathan as Bill Windsor. It’s a great show and I recommend it: funnily enough my only reservations are about the play itself. There are some spoilers in what follows.
The story is in essence about a woman losing her mind. In the early stages her delusional and at first ideal life contrasts with the depressing reality, as she switches between the two. I would have liked a neat resolution to all this, but we don’t get one: instead the delusions get stronger, less controllable and less pleasant and eventually swallow her up.
I said one side of the story is the depressing reality of her life, but in fact our faith in the reality of even the ‘real’ parts is gradually undermined (or at least, mine was). Bill Windsor seems to move across gradually from sensible reality to florid delusion. Muriel the sister-in-law seems like a caricature, too completely awful to be a real person. The behaviour of Susan’s son is not depressing in normal ways but bizarre, and seems to revolve around her, even if in a most negative way. So perhaps in the end we are to realise that the entire play is the record of a set of growing delusions that reflect reality only in a distorted way. That can still be interesting, but I think a little less than a play that does engage with real life effectively.
Merry Christmas!
December 10, 2025
I am not really posting any cards this year, but here is my little Christmas painting instead – it is an adaptation of one by Lin Fengmian, but obviously I lack his skill with the brush.
Sloe Day
December 8, 2025
This year’s sloe gin is ready!
Plus… gin-infused sloe berry chocolate!
Woolly Hat Trail
December 2, 2025
Container Candles
November 29, 2025
I made a multi-coloured set of container candles in glass goblets, each with a different fruity scent*. These need a quicker-melting wax than pillar candles. No skill at all is required, but they are quite practical (they never dribble) and look especially good when the wax is molten.
*From the left: passionfruit, grape, strawberry, mango, banana and watermelon
Seen and Done 