Quiet year so far, but now lets break the silence with not one but two pieces of writing-related news.
On Sunday 25th August I did my second ever live reading, on the Sneakaway Stage at Guernsey’s Vale Earth Fair*. This is a terrible way to announce such an event, as it’s already happened so if you read this and wanted to come it’s too late. Oh dear. Sorry. Anyway, I am pleased to report it went well (or not badly, at least) – I read two short stories, which, on a poetry-heavy stage, must have been a bit of a nice break for people, if nothing else.
My other piece of news is that my story Blue In The Condition Of Blue has been shortlisted for the Aurora Prize for Writing 2019 (Short Fiction category). It says so here. The Aurora Prize for Writing is run by Writing East Midlands in partnership with the Society of Authors, and this year’s fiction prize is judged by Alison Moore, whose novel Lighthouse I greatly enjoyed**.
* The Vale Earth Fair is held each year on the August Bank Holiday Sunday at Vale Castle in Guernsey. The main stage is within the walls of the castle, with various other stages dotted around. The Sneakaway Stage was new for 2019 and was situated right around the back of the castle, down the steps and along a path through some gorse. If you wanted to come and find it, you had to make a bit of an effort.
** I wrote about it a bit here. I also enjoyed her short story collection The Pre-War House And Other Stories and her novel He Wants, but Lighthouse is the one that stands out for me.
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