Sunday 30 October 2016

BRIGHTON PRIZE and UNIVERSITY of SUNDERLAND SHORT STORY AWARD

Some late October news which I thought I should hang up here. First the Brighton Prize (Flash Fiction section) - the awards ceremony was on Friday October 28th - I was pleased to make the shortlist with 'That Song by Van Morrison' and totally delighted and surprised to discover that the story went on to win. The song in question is 'Brown Eyed Girl' - a song I sing a lot when I am on my own and which had to creep into a story at some point.

The second piece of news is that I won the University of Sunderland Short Story Competition with a piece that was birthed at an Arvon Course I attended 18 months ago… Emma Unsworth, hearing me read the story out loud, commented that I did not need quite so much swearing and that less is more sometimes. I took her advice and 'Lust for Life' is a winner… The award ceremony was on Thursday October 27th. Oh, and by the way, Lust for Life is a reference to a song by Manic Street Preachers… so, two songs give rise to two stories and they both end up winning competitions…

Congratualtions to all the other shortlistees and thanks to everyone connected with the organisation of these competitions… and thanks to Emma, too, and all the other nice people who attended Lumb Bank with me.



Sunday 9 October 2016

WRITING NEWS OCTOBER 2016


NORTHWORDS NOW - this is a really classy publication - look at the cover… so fabulous. And inside lots of very good writers and a wee space for me in there, too. I am so pleased to be here. It's a free publication and it's to be found in lots of places in Scotland. Go to http://northwordsnow.co.uk to find out if there's a place near you. 

You can also download it free online at the same site. 

In other news I just won The Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition and you can read my story, 'Mountains, Pebbles and Sand' here: https://wrekinwriters.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/2016-dg-1st-mountains-and-pebbles-and-sand-by-douglas-bruton/

I was longlisted for 'Over The Edge New Writer 2016'.

And I am currently shortlisted in a couple of others and longlisted in a couple, too. More news on these as and when the results are out.

Finally, I start a uni course in a couple of weeks that will be a spur to me getting one of my novels polished to a state where I feel I could send it out there. So looking forward to this. With so many nice people saying I should be published… well… I suppose I need to make more of an effort to do this.