A dose of sunshine and hot lemon juice to battle my ‘flu arrived in a letter from Western Australia today. My short story Foretold was shorlisted in the KSP Speculative Fiction Awards (open category). This is the first story I have entered in a competition under my Cheryse Durrant pen-name so I was ecstatic. The winner will be announced by Australian fantasy author Juliet Marillier next weekend. I haven’t been placed, but it’s exciting to be shortlisted, and I want to track down the other shortlisted entries because the judge’s comments sounded so tantalising, especially Carol Ryles’ St Olivia’s Light – starring what else but a leadlight angel. How divine…
My cough still lurks like an unwelcome visitor, but I’m feeling much better than last month when all I wanted to do was sleep in non-working hours! The chest infection really put the brakes on my Shahkara rewrites. I don’t know whether I want to pin the pages to my bedroom wall and fire them with darts, or find an incinerator and burn each page. No, one can’t do that. One should always recycle. *Sigh* As much as I sound like I am angsting, the manuscript is shaping up nicely. Even when you feel overwhelmed by the power of your story – plagued by those insidious doubts that you could never do it justice – you just have to cultivate the confidence that your story will show you the way. And little letters in the mail from story competition organisers always give you that extra puff in the right direction!