An unexpected parcel...


I find the process of sending off hopeful short stories into writing competitions rather like applying for jobs when you're destitute.

You put a lot of hard work in and never get anything back, not even a reply to say it was been received. It can all be very disheartening.

With the promise of a new year I  decided I would set myself new targets for 2015. One of them being to win, or be shortlisted, for at least one short story competition. Surely this can be achievable? After all there's 365 days in a year and a lot of competitions out there.

To help with this target I resolved to commit myself to reading more short stories, those of a high quality. But where can you find them online without having to pay for an anthology?

So imagine my surprise when I looked at my post this morning and there was a thick white envelope with a gorgeous little book waiting to be read.


My first thought was, "Bloody hell, have I won something?" The answer was no, but I didn't mind. It was just so nice to have your efforts rewarded in taking part in competitions.

This little gem was sent to me by www.shortfictionjournal.co.uk . As a thank-you for entering. Which I thought was really sweet.

It's a beautifully produced little book with almost 200 pages, that includes many wonderful  illustrations as well as  14 wonderful  stories from successful published writers such as Alison Moore and Mariko Nagai. Reading through these it's no wonder I wasn't selected, the standard was set very high. But it does give me hope that maybe one day one of my works will be found in a gem of a book like this.

Now I have some really great short stories to read and hopefully learn from.

Thanks Short fiction journal!

If you're interested in buying this anthology or any of their previous you can do so here.
Or for details of their 2015 competition, click here.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Stone Road by G.R.Matthews

Image
I was introduced to this book as part of Fantasy Faction's Book Club where we all get together and discuss our favourite books. This time the administrator chose a title that had been self published. Out now via Amazon Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret, that yes of course there are a lot of really bad self published books out there, but there are also some really good ones. Since buying a kindle I've bought numerous self published titles for as little as 49p and have enjoyed most of them. Recently I read The Lady of the Helm by T.O.Munro and that was really very good. I'm going off track a bit here but if you love fantasy fiction and want to read really amazing self published fiction then head over to Mark Lawrence's site where he hosts the annual SPFBO - The Self Published Fantasy Blog-Off in which top bloggers read through the top 273 self published fantasy  novels to determine an overall winner. So back to  the Stone Road by G.R.Matthews.
Read more

Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

Image
For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature--from Lucy Westenra, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre--as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967. Reluctant Immortals  is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion,  Reluctant Immortals  is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they brave
Read more

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Image
This epic tale is a fictional memoir of Uhtred, son of Uhtred who's destiny was forged in battle between the pagan Viking warriors and the pious Christian Anglo-Saxons in 9th century Britain. "My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred. My father’s clerk, a priest called Beocca, spelt it Utred. I do not know if that was how my father would have written it, for he could neither read nor write, but I can do both and sometimes I take the old parchments from their wooden chest and I see the name spelled Uhtred or Utred or Ughtred or Ootred, and I look at the deeds which say that Uhtred, son of Uhtred, is the lawful and sole owner of the lands that are carefully marked by stones and by dykes, by oaks and by ash, by marsh and by sea, and I dream of those lands, wave-beaten and wild beneath the wind driven sky. I dream, and know that one day I will take back the land from those who stole it from me." (Taken from
Read more