Stuff I wrote.
My story ‘Dying Teddy Bears’ ultimately got sixth place in the literary category of the Writer’s Digest competition. Writer’s Digest gives a generous number of prizes, so I’m getting a $25 voucher and a year’s free subscription. This bumps my sagging average back up to the historic level of one story recognised for every eight entered, so that’s encouraging.
My story ‘Dying Teddy Bears’ was longlisted in the Exeter Writers competition (but did not progress any further). It is already in a couple of other competitions, so we’ll see how it does there.
Sutton Writers has renamed its annual competition after Ann Pattison, a stalwart of the group who passed away recently. This year there had to be a link with St Mary’s church in Beddington, and they introduced separate categories for poetry and prose. I won the poetry (but not the overall trophy)! Maybe I should give poetry more of a try…
At Sutton Central Library where Sutton Writers launched not one, but two anthologies: House of Stories (fiction) and Without Boundaries (poems). Among many excellent readings, I did the beginning of my story ‘Stairway to Heaven’, which is in the former.
My story ’Seven Locations from Which I am Absent’ got second place in the Fiction Factory competition! https://fiction-factory.biz/results-short-story-competition-2022-2023/
The Crazy Cats Theatre gave my story ‘Twelve Days of Massachras’ a special mention in their competition for a ‘violent or chaotic’ Christmas story!
Read it here.
My collection of short stories ‘A Book of Goodbyes’ has reached the finals of the Eyelands Awards!
Update: I did not win. But they put my picture and bio up (if you scroll down far enough)
My story ‘A Voice Across the Coughing Brine’ has reached the Dillydoun Review long list!
The title is a quote from a Mervyn Peake poem…
A voice across the coughing brine
Has sewn your spirit into mine!
O love it is for me to die
Upon your bosom noisily,
Ah pity me, ah pity me,
What is it all about?
What is it all about?
Here’s an experiment – me reading one of my stories on YouTube…
I’m longlisted in the latest Cranked Anvil competition! (Update: I was eventually shortlisted but not placed)
I’ve also had a slightly puzzling email from the Moth, telling me my entry has not been successful. The only thing about that is, I entered twice, on different dates. Does that mean the other one is still in the running (and which was it?). Probably not, but it’s hard not to over-interpret. (Update: of course neither had progressed). There’s a certain competition that keeps sending me messages that look like rejections at first sight, but turn out to be about some other trivial thing. Ah well.
Seen and Done 