My First Publishing Success

Last year I achieved my first long list success with a story called “Death in the Nest”. This was a very exciting moment. Usually, when you are waiting for a long or short list to come out, you end up scanning the list of names two or three times, just in case you might have gone temporarily blind, or in case the organisers of the competition spelled your title or name wrong. It’s a good few minutes before you resign yourself to the fact that you did not make it. And it is a very familiar feeling!

This time however, with the Bath Short Story Award 2015, I made the final 50 out of over 1000 entries! It took no time at all to see my title in the list, which I suppose just goes to prove that if you don’t see yourself on the list the first time you look at it, you’re not on it! Seeing my title there was very exciting, and from then I had another full week to wait to see if I had made the shortlist.

Sadly I got no further, but my story did make it into The Bath Short Story Award Anthology 2015, which is a great thrill and honour.

You can buy the anthology from the Bath Short Story Award website, from Amazon UK, or Amazon US – both the print and digital versions.

Let me know what you think of my story – I would be really interested to hear you views. You can even leave a review on Amazon if you feel inclined!

And if you want to let me know how you are getting on with entering competitions, or with any writing you are doing, please email using the link on the “About” tab above, or leave a comment at the end of this post.