Please excuse the minor piece of self-promotion but I’ve just made the short-list of 30 for the Better Read Than Dead annual short story competition in Australia, which had 200 entries. There could even be a cash prize if I make the top 3. Like many writers, I fling my work into the literary universe and hope someone who claims to know about writing thinks I have a modicum of talent, which my millions, nay thousands, nay dozens of followers seem to think. However my lack of success in arousing the attention of the broader universe, other than health supplement spammers, made me begin to think I was subconsciously writing in Swahili. The piece they liked was this one. The Fisherman and the Bucket | Six Crooked Highways (wordpress.com)
Congratulation and good luck Doug! I hope you do get a cash prize! Your posts are always worth a careful read. Dauphy has his paws crossed for you.
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Yes I know the feeling. I had a long phase of going in for every competition on the planet ( mostly unsuccessfully ) and if your story is short listed it has been enjoyed by people who have no idea who you are – true validation. Even if you don’t win, you are still one of the chosen!
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Many thanks for the encouragement, Janet. I think at least part of the problem is that most of these competitions are based in the US and that readers there don’t always get the UK and Aus sensibilities and vernacular. Another part is that they are often run by ivory tower literati who have decided that the best writing is the type of stuff they’ve always published before, to an ever declining readership.
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