The Bath Novella-in-Flash Award Runner-up!

A different author picture - a watercolour inspired by a photo of me on the beach at Sheringham, 1963

My novella-in-flash, The Hilltop Hour, has been judged a runner-up in the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award and will be published later this year!

I have also painted the image for the cover - which I will keep under wraps for now - so it will be even more exciting to see the book in print!

This novella began as a short story I was commissioned to write for a magazine years ago. One of the characters has stayed withe me ever since until I finally restructured the entire piece, keeping much of the original story and introducing a ssecond main character to share the narrative.

Here you can read the judge's report for the competition, Congratulations to all the winners and shortlistees!

The Bath Short Story Award, Local Prize Winner!

I'm excited to see my short story, The Song of the Salmon, in this lovely anthology published by Ad Hoc Fiction. This story was written years ago, at the same time time as I won the Bath Short Story Award's Local Prize for the first time with an entirely different story. All those years on and I finally felt The Song of the Salmon was ready to submit to a competition, never expecting history to repeat itself!

Here I am, receiving my prize at Mr B's bookshop with, left to right, Jane, Jude and Alison, the lovely team from from the Bath Short Story Award.

NFFD Interview

It was a great pleasure to be interviewed by author Diane Simmons, who is also Co-Director of National Flash Fiction Day.

I answer her questions about my writing and painting process, and also give some advice about writing microfiction. I will be helping to judge this year's competition and am so looking forward ro reading your entries!.

Submissions are open until February 15th and the theme this year is BRIDGES.