Exciting Updates and News!

While walking in the early morning snow to work yesterday morning, I realised that I haven’t posted here for a while. Here’s a news round-up of all the wonderful writerly things that have been happening recently.

New Flash Fiction Pamphlet to be Published in 2018

I’m beyond thrilled that I’ll have a new flash fiction pamphlet published by V-Press next year! We’re currently in the editing stages so that we can make the pamphlet the very best it can be, and I’m so excited to see it grow and take shape. The stories really mean a lot to me. The pamphlet will be called There’s Something Macrocosmic About All of This.

Pushcart Nomination

For the first time ever, I’ve been nominated for the Pushcart Prize! My zombie-larvae tree romance flash fiction, a flash that I thought would never find a home, was nominated by The Airgonaut. You can read “These Are the Rules of Our Canopy Shyness and Life” here.

Anthologies

I’ve recently been published in FOUR new anthologies. Yes, four!

My flash ‘His Cat is Wrapped in a Bloody Towel Behind the Shed, Dead’ is featured in Flash Fiction Festival One, an anthology of flash produced during workshops at this year’s Flash Fiction Festival, the first of its kind in the UK. I was honoured to be a part of the team and to be able to bring National Flash Fiction Day to the festival with Calum Kerr. Thank you, Jude Higgins, Meg Pokrass,  and the rest of the festival team for organising such a stellar event. Roll on next year!

Two of my flashes were longlisted in the Bath Flash Fiction Award this year and have now been published in The Lobsters Run Free: Bath Flash Fiction Volume Two. You can find my flashes ‘Veganuary’ and ‘You Lost Something in Your Earthquake that You’ll Never Get Back’ in the anthology. The latter was written during a Kathy Fish Fast Flash Workshop, which I highly recommend.

Possibly one of my favourite stories that I’ve ever written, ‘Plastic’ was recently published in Stories for Homes Volume Two. I’m immensely proud of this one, but I’m honoured to be included because this charity anthology is helping raise money for Shelter, a charity that helps homeless people. You can purchase it in paperback and on Kindle here, and I would LOVE you to support this very worthy cause.

Finally, three of my flashes were published in Wired: Flash Fiction from the Worcestershire Literary Festival 2017. You can read these three flashes there: ‘Interviews with Prospective Postmen’, ‘Actually, Love Actually‘, and ‘What the Coffee Promised’.

Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine

The April 2017 issue of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine (Issue 10.1) has finally been published after an unforeseen delay. It features not only one of my flashes called ‘Getting the Gang Back Together’, but there is also a favourable review for Dots and other flashes of perception by the wonderful Jane Roberts. It has always been a dream of mine to have a flash published in this fantastic, highly-esteemed journal, but to have a flash and a review is beyond incredible. I shall also have another story in their upcoming issue 10.2 called ‘Where We Aren’t’, as well as a review I have written for a stunning flash collection.

Masters Degree

Last, but certainly not least, I can finally confirm that I have passed by Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Bristol.

 

Hopefully there’ll be more good news before the year is done, which I hope so because writing for me has been pretty slow recently. This is partly due to wanting to concentrate on certain projects, wanting to take time to read lots, and an idea that’s forming in my mind that isn’t ready for me to put down on the page but is occupying my mind so much. It’s all exciting, though. Thank you for reading, and thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever supported my writing. You’re all stars!

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Some Updates!

Hello, everyone!

I must apologise for being so quiet and for not posting in a long time. I have been (and still am) very busy studying for my Masters degree at the University of Bristol, but wanted to take some time to share some news about the other things that have kept me busy.

Firstly, I’ve been very busy with National Flash Fiction Day UK. This year I’m the co-editor of the anthology, and it was an absolute pleasure to be involved in reading and selecting flashes from the submissions we received. It was a difficult job for myself and my co-editor, the incomparable Meg Pokrass, because we received so many excellent stories.

The anthology theme is Life As You Know It, and the stories we selected are funny, poignant, evocative, and different. We also were able to include some incredible commissioned writers, writers who are very well known in the flash community, including: Etgar Keret, Stuart Dybek, Robert Shapard, Pamela Painter, Robert Scotellaro, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Danielle McLaughlin. This is to name only a few!

The anthology will be called Sleep is a Beautiful Colour, will be published in June, and will feature my flash fiction ‘They Keep Calling My Ex-Husband Brave’. For the full line-up, visit this link here: National Flash Fiction Day UK Blog.

As well as ‘They Keep Calling My Ex-Husband Brave’ being published, I have also had a handful of other acceptances since I last updated.

‘Getting the Gang Back Together’ will be published in Issue 10.1 of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine. This I am still so excited about. Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine is one of the leading flash magazines in the UK and a magazine I have always admired.  Read more about them here.

My tiny micro-fiction, ‘The Broom of Sisyphus’, will be published in June as a part of National Flash Fiction Day New Zealand’s Micro Madness competition series! Read more about them here.

My short story, ‘Plastic’, will be published in the Stories for Homes Anthology Vol. 2. What is wonderful about this anthology is that the whole point of the anthology is to raise money for the homelessness charity Shelter. They’ve raised lots of money from the first anthology, which is still available to purchase, and the new anthology will be published towards the end of the year. Find out more about their extraordinary work here.

‘The Same People at the Bus Stop’ will be published in the very first issue of DNA Magazine. The editor, Katie Marsden, is absolutely wonderful to work with, and I encourage everyone to submit to future calls for submissions. Find out more about the magazine by visiting their website.

My flash fiction, ‘Veganuary’, was longlisted in the Bath Flash Fiction Award, and will be published in their second volume of their anthology, which will be published in December 2017 / January 2018. This I’m still so, so thrilled about! To enter the Bath Flash Fiction Award, or to find out more, visit their website.

My story, ‘Hair‘, won one of the weekly Ad Hoc competitions run by Bath Flash Fiction Award. You can read the story here: ‘Hair‘.

Finally, ‘Men at Work’ was published by Great Jones Street, and is available to read on their mobile app. Download the app from the Apple App store or Google Play app store. You can read a little of it online, then purchase it online. Great Jones Street are an incredible platform of short stories, fiction on the go, and described as the “Netflix” of Fiction. Check them out there.

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, I’ve been helping organise the first ever Flash Fiction literary festival in the UK. You can find out more about it here: Flash Fiction Festival.