Shortlisted.....?!

BookAngst 101: Misadventures in (Mis)representation: "PLATE OF SHRIMP [Courtesy Alex Cox’s REPO MAN, circa 1984]

'A lot of people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidences and things. They don't realize that there's this like lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. I'll give you an example, show you what I mean. Suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly somebody will say like 'plate' or 'shrimp' or 'plate of shrimp' out of the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness.' "



I arrived home from work on Thursday evening to find an answering machine message from the deputy editor of Writer's Forum, tantalisingly advising me that it was with regard to a short story I had submitted to their January competition. I rang back immediately, but sadly I was too late as they had left for the day. How ansty do you think i was for the remainder of that evening?! Thing was, I myself had pretty much fallen out of love with that particular story: I had written it a considerable time beforehand, and had really only submitted it as the entry fee included a critique and I am actively garnering feedback at the moment in order to sharpen my skills. Maybe the call was of the "tough love" variety, advising me that my writing was so dreadful I should be better employed pursuing definate proof of the existence of Nessie? (Seriously, a part of me really believed that they were going to tell me off for insulting them with such rubbish! Boyfriend eventually talked some sense into me about this, but even so, I didn't dare let myself get too excited, or even begin to imagine what the outcome might be).

And so, after a strange night of forgetting about it totally for, ooh at least five minutes at a time, before remembering with a sudden jolt of fizziness, I spoke to the lovely deputy editor on Firday morning (pacing up and down the hall, thinking, is 3 minutes past nine too soon to ring? Is four minutes past nine to soon to ring? I held out, miraculously, until 7 whole minutes past nine.) And the good news is that I have been shortlisted as a competition winner, potentially in the May issue. The bad news is that i have to compose a 50 word biog and send a photo in too ~ writing about yourself in the third person, and then selecting a photo of yourself which conveys the requisite balance of approachability, intellectualism, youth and authorly promise is quite an uncomfortable process.

Admittedly, whilst i am absolutely I am thrilled to ribbons about this, I am also feeling vaguely lost ~ at New Year I set myself a writing goal to have two pieces selected for publication or placed in a competition. I have now fulfilled this, and it is not even the end of March, so whilst I am really pleaseed with the acheivements I need to devise some new (attainable) goals in order to keep the momentum up. This is proving very helpful, especially as I have just embarked upon my first novel, which has recently changed subject matter as my original idea didn't really have a plot (a minor shortcoming for a novel?!) whereas an idea I had planned to work on several years ago resurfaced from the murky depths of my subconscious and is, if I do say so myself, an absolute cracker.