I said some time ago that I’d returned to the draft of an early novel. Many months and several drafts later, it’s done! The characters have sharpened up their acts, the plot has twisted like a corkscrew into a reasonable Malbec and the one-liners have dutifully presented themselves for inspection.

I was delighted to learn last week that I’d been awarded second place prize in the Steyning Festival short story competition with my story Rebuffed. The competition was organised by West Sussex Writers.

There I was, editing my novel and working on some short stories, when from out of the literary undergrowth a novella sprang. It was on me before I could defend myself: I was too slow to take evasive action; too weak to wrestle it to the ground.

I’ve been busy with the novel as well as a new series of short stories. I enjoy running the two in parallel: the approach seems to keep the creativity topped up. Like a good diet, I think, writing needs to have variety. The working title of the novel remains Auguste in September.

“The Novel is finished!” From the fifth draft onwards, that was my declaration after completing each revision of  my novel which has the working title, ‘Auguste in September’. It is a story of skulduggery in the world of art.

A few days ago I heard I’d got third prize in the 2016 National Short Story competition run by Nottingham Writers Club with my story A Call to Arms. Performing well in a big competition against accomplished writers is a very satisfying experience.