Delighted to find that my quirky story made second place in the recent Southport Writers Circle Short Story competition.

Judge, Richard Hooton, commented:

“A heartwarming story on the power of reading with some excellent lines and similes. Emotional, but with a gentle humour throughout… Great characterisation in Arthur’s backstory and his depression is sensitively and powerfully conveyed with his journey of revivification fulfilling and convincing. It brought a cheer at the end with a brilliant last line.”

If you’re interested, you can read it here.

Wonderful to have won first prize in the final short story competition run by that fabulous organisation, Cranked Anvil, with A Guttering Candle, a tale that may resonate with more than a few older people, Through Cranked Anvil, Paul has created fantastic opportunities and provided terrific support for the writing community over many years, so it’s a significant loss, but we wish him well and send our thanks. Where would we be without the selfless people who run competitions?

Great to have been placed second in the Strands International Flash Fiction Competition with my flash fiction piece, It’s Only Swimming. Many thanks to the competition organisers and judges.

“As the candles flickered into life, one by one, the display took on the look of a richly-detailed Renaissance painting. Opulence shouldered grief aside, and the wake assumed the air of a successful party…”

I’m delighted that my story The Language of Love won first prize in the Writetime December 2023 short story competition. Cake has a starring role!

(image courtesy of micheile henderson on Unsplash)

My story, The Incompatibility of Fish won second prize in the 2022 Aestas competition organised by Fabula Press. The anthology of winning and runner-up short stories has now been published.

The judge commented: ‘The Incompatibility of Fish (is) a powerfully moving and complexly woven portrait of the fish-eat-fish world the characters inhabit; the characterization of the misogynistic and controlling Malcolm is impressive’.

Intrigued? The publication’s full of great stories, so why not have a read – it’s available now from Amazon.

Really pleased to have had my story No Rule Book for Old Men shortlisted in the 2023 Flash 500 short story competition. A second story, By Appointment Only: Marika’s Studio of Dreams made the longlist. I was fortunate enough to win this competition in 2022.

A second success was seeing the opening of my novel The Warm-up Man on the shortlist of the Retreat West 2023 First Chapter Competition. Fingers crossed for future success somewhere!

“Will anyone come to save him? Last night, four feet of water swept into Pieter’s house, leaving him beached upstairs like a whale on the shore. The only way he’ll get out anytime soon is if someone comes to get him, and that’s dependent on anyone remembering he’s here….“

My little story, The Seesaw of Isolation, won joint third prize in the 2020 Yeovil Short Story competition. Now, it’s been recorded by Tempest Productions, beautifully read by Stephen Blake. Click here to listen.

Absolutely over the moon to see my little story, Forest Bathing, take first prize in one of my favourite competitions run by Bridgend Writers’ Circle. You can read the story and those of the other winners here. This somewhat strange and rather dark story was sparked by long woodland walks during the second (winter) lockdown when rivers ran high and imagination roamed free!

Many thanks to all at Bridgend for choosing my story as their winner (for the second time!)