Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "competitions"

They are the 'raison d'etre' for sports people, but are competitions right for musicians, artists, writers? If you don't win you are comforted by the thought that judging can only be subjective. But if you do win or are placed, you have confirmation that at least one complete stranger, who knows nothing about you, likes, even loves your painting or novel. Away from the world of the famous, big money novel awards, many short story competitions are held, with writers hoping for a big break or at least some handy pocket money.
Lat year the phone rang on a particularly noisy day in our house and when the telephone was finally handed to me I thought the woman on the other end said 'You have been shortlisted for the World Literary Competition and we are inviting you to the reception at the Bishops Palace.'
I did not recall entering such a prestigious competition, but had visions of meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. Actually it was the Wells (Somerset) Literary Competition and Wells is a very nice place for an outing, but unfortunately we would be on our way back from Scotland that day. I didn't win.
This month was the reception for Christchurch (Dorset) Writers' Competition, a pleasant afternoon with readings from the stage and interesting talks by the judges. I came second in the short story section and when I went up to receive my prize the female judge was surprised I was a woman! For a moment I did wonder if I should be using only my initials for my books, maybe selling more! My story 'Experiment' could be called science fiction. You can read it in my new anthology 'Hallows and Heretics' published last week on Amazon Kindle. Read more about it at my website www.ccsidewriter.co.uk