At the start of the year, I decided to run a short story competition. This was a very new experience for me and yet another major learning curve.
I got everything set up and I started letting people know. I did limit the entries to writers in Devon. That’s because when I do the anthology of the best entries, I wanted to be able to deal directly with the authors without driving all over the country.
I also had a specific theme that the stories had to be set in or strongly connected with Devon. This is because with my business firmly rooted here, I find that books with local interest sell best.
Anyway, thanks to those restrictions, and having a zero budget for advertising, we didn’t get very many entries. So therefore, I am going to announce a longlist of entrants right now which will just be the names of all the writers who entered. Some entered multiple entries.
As with many things, a very poor start will not stop me from growing and improving, and the following writers can count themselves in with a very good chance of being the lucky winner of £250
So, in alpahebetical order of surname.
- Val Allsup
- Susan Barrett
- Anne Beer
- Ralph Bell-Ley
- Caroline Berry
- Jane Bheemah
- Darren Colwill
- Nathalie Denzey
- Shiela Golding
- Ella Hobson
- Katie Mallett
- Damien Mansfield
- Lalla Merlin
- Alex Morrison
- Jade Ruby
- Colin Smith
- Irene Sugden
- Pamela Vass
The judging will now commence. I’m sorry but I don’t have a definite date for when I will announce a shortlist or a winner yet as I honestly don’t know what to expect of the judges.
In future years I will probably know a lot more and there will be a lot more entries too. Meanwhile you will just have to trust me that something is going on in the background.
Olli