The Salisbury Short Story Prize 2019 shortlist was announced today. Story length for the competition was 500 words – quite a challenge if you are not, like me, used to writing much flash fiction. Pleased to say that I am one of the six named on the shortlist.

The theme was ‘Rivers’ which was fortunate as I was already working on a fly fishing story – set on the river Usk.

I have been researching the subject for a while, including chatting to a female friend who is a fly fisherman (she uses that term) and also watching the Whitehouse and Mortimer fishing series set on a different river each episode – including the Usk. Talk about synchronicity.

UPDATE

I didn’t win but nothing is wasted – another of my writing mottos. I have expanded and deepened this piece of flash fiction and entered it into another competition. At least I know that half of it is OK – let’s see if I’ve improved or spoilt it with the new version. Not winning, however, does not tell you anything about the quality of your writing- only that it wasn’t what the judges liked enough to award a prize.