No, honest, it’s an honour to be asked. I recall with perfect clarity earlier in my career when writers took the time to sit and listen, to offer advice, to nudge me a little further down the path I wasn’t sure was mine; people like Barry Hines, author of ‘Kestrel for a Knave’ who gave me 10 minutes at a literature event that unlocked a door, and Mary Mackie who took me into a quiet corner at a writers’ conference and chatted for half an hour, giving me the sort of advice and general fillip that fired my confidence to step out of my comfort zone and onto the next level. Only later did I discover that she was no newbie like me, but a prolific author of historical, romance and suspense novels.
Forget the back-stabbing literati of London, Paris or New York, this is what true writers do: they offer a hand to help those who follow on the stony path. And they do it with a smile because it’s called paying back.
So from me there’s a cut price critique for those competition entrants who want one, and I’m offering the judging panel five copies of my forthcoming ebook Reading A Writer’s Mind: Exploring Short Fiction. It contains the sort of information that I wish I’d had pointed out to me when I was starting out.
La Scala short story competition info - Entry form - Rules
Wordcount: 2,000 max
Deadline: 15 September 2011
Prizes: vast selection ranging from £200/£100/£50 cash in Open Section, to horse saddle / day at the races, etc, in Equestrian Section.
Good luck!
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