The postman was kind today — the 2016 Bath Flash Fiction Award anthology is out and I’m really chuffed to have a short fiction called OCCASIONALLY in it.
The anthology’s called TO CARRY HER HOME, named after the title piece by one of my favourite short fiction writers, Christopher Allen. The anthology contains 145 flash fictions, all prizewinners or short– or longlisted stories from last year’s Bath Flash Fiction Award rounds, including stunning pieces by Michelle Elvy, Julianna Holland, Claire Fuller, Catherine Edmunds, Emily Devane, Christopher M Drew, Nick Black, and many more. There are lots of pieces by writers new to me and I can’t wait to get stuck in later today, and read them all.
Congratulations to Helen Rye for her well-deserved win with the exquisitely haunting One in Twenty-three, a beautiful story. And thanks to all the organisers, readers, and judges.
or Kindle.
Links: Award Round-up // Judge’s Report // Longlist // Shortlist
OCCASIONALLY
His baton rises and falls. His chin is high.
Hatchery:
I’m really excited to have this little one published because it’s based on my current WIP, a novel primarily about loneliness. It’s about a woman called Rachel who watches a man called Sam, who every day conducts music in his window. It’s one of the saddest pieces I’ve ever written so I’m encouraged to see that at least one person liked Sam, who isn’t the main character in my book but who may, in the end, be loved.
I’m hoping to write a series of little flash fictions to accompany the novel. Not excerpts, just little bolt-ons. (Because basically I’m a flash junkie.) Plus the flash fiction keeps me going while I take a gazillion years to finish the book. It is coming, it is…