Monday 17 May 2010

Glass Woman Prize, and Asham Award

Flash fiction has another notch in its bed-post today, as Julie Innis' Sanctuary has won the Glass Woman Prize. Congratulations, Julie!

That's the short short story. The longer one is that I hit 60,000 words with the novel, today which feels like an important milestone. I still haven't re-read any of it and don't intend to until I've reached a first full draft, hopefully by the end of this month. It feels good to be a full-time writer again.

Back to the short stories, because I want to say how much I enjoyed Average Sunday Afternoon by Pat Jourdan, which includes a marvellous flash fiction piece called Miss Haversham Reconstructed. Wonderful, impish and so true.

Finally, the Asham Award is about open for business and this year there's a theme. Ghost, or Gothic. I have something to send to this - hurrah! The entry fee is £15 - boo. That makes it one of the most expensive contests to enter in the UK. Ouch.

4 comments:

Nik Perring said...

Excellent! THAT is what I like to hear!

Sarah Hilary said...

Flash is cleaning up all over the place, Nik. (See what I did there?)

Tania Hershman said...

What a lovely blog post, cheered me up! I've been saying this is the year of flash fiction and here's more proof! I just read a wonderful interview in New York Tyrant with the amazing Diane Williams, editor of NOON and writer of very wonderful and weird short short stories, and she says:

"I think "flash fiction" has gotten more popular. Short, short fiction was causing consternation when I began to publish my stories and books-which bewildered me. Would people argue so publicly and so vehemently in favor of privileging a very tall person over a very short person? "

Love that. Congrats on 60,000 words, and I am sorry again about last night. Still feeling bleurgh, let's hope John C is still in town next week.

Sarah Hilary said...

Hi Tania, sorry you're still feeling rotten. Let's see if John C's around when you're better - would still love to see that film!