In 5th position of competition entry

I loved this story, it so took me back to the film in question.

The Last Snows of Spring

Although it was almost the end of March there was yet no hint of Spring. Roger leaned forward and tried to catch a glimpse of the passing scenery from the car window, but in the pre-dawn dark there was nothing to see but his own eerie reflection. The man on his right pushed him roughly in the chest.

  “Sit back,” the man shouted.

It was not his native tongue, but Roger understood the man well enough. After all, he'd had a long time to learn. He sat back.

    “I wonder where we'll end up this time.” He turned to his left and spoke quietly to his friend  Bernard.

  “Who knows?” The other man gave a shrug that indicated he wasn't really interested in such matters.

Slowly, lazily the first hint of dawn tapped the sky with frost-dazzled fingernails. The snow outside  became visible, and the road ahead was deserted. In another time this journey could almost have been pleasant. He wondered where he would be when the first green shoots of Spring deigned to make an appearance. What flowers would he watch bloom, bud and ultimately die? How long would it be before he could observe nature's annual miracle at work in his own garden? Not too much longer now, surely?

Roger felt the full throated roar of the car slow to a gentle purr and realised they were stopping. He turned again to Bernard. The Frenchman indicated with the merest lift of one eyebrow that he didn't know why. All became clear when the other two passengers alighted and fumbled with cold hands for cigarette packets. Moving a few feet away from the car, their chatter drifted idly towards the two men left in the back seat.

  “Damn, I could do with one of those.” Roger muttered.

Bernard just laughed. “Soon enough my friend, soon enough.”

There was a shout from one of the men outside and the driver climbed out and joined them. After a brief conversation he returned to the car.

  “Out.” He said, as he pulled the back door open. “You can relieve yourselves over there, ” he jerked his head towards a clump of snow-kissed bushes, “but don't go too far.”

As the two men hesitated  he continued. “I suggest you do so. We have a long way to go.”

Roger felt it prudent to do as he was told and headed toward the bushes, Bernard following.

For a fraction of a second Roger didn't recognise the sound, so familiar yet so alien in this tranquil landscape. Then, as he felt the pain and saw Bernard collapse next to him, he understood.

Roger Bushell had no way of knowing that he was one of fifty men who were to become famous for being illegally executed for what they had done. He would also never know that he would live on  in history as the mastermind behind what would forever be known simply as  'the great escape'.

Congratulations go to Sarah Pearson.

In 6th postion Competition entry

Here is the story judged 6th in my competition, I did think maybe the author of this piece was talking about me! I think we have all been there and done that, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Fifty Things that make me an Idiot.

In a time of little creative inspiration, I wrote a blog about the 50 things that I do to make me happy. Reading the list back I realised something astounding, something so monumentally ground-breaking and earth moving that I had to have a cup of tea with 2 and a half sugars:

I am a complete idiot.

The list consisted of things that, at the time at least, I thought sounded exceedingly quirky and intellectual. I had visions of my readers sitting at their computers saying things like 'Oooh! Wow, she's a social maverick! Look at her take convention by it's wily horns and shake it about a bit'. I think one of the 50 things went along the lines of: 'On my country walks, I breathe in the air and thank Mother Nature for her awesome awesomness and I take a leaf from a passing tree and present it to someone as a gift laaa dee loo laa laaay.'

I shuddered to read it back, shuddered I say. What a pretentious goon.

Pretty sure it was Aristotle that said wisdom goes hand in hand with knowing yourself; one of the hardest parts of gaining a tiny bit of the wise-stuff is realising that all of your life to date has probably consisted of you behaving like a bit of a twat.

I wonder if Katy Perry or some other teen-boppy person will ever look back, chuckle to themselves over a cup of chamomile tea and say, 'Oop, that hair style was a mistake and lord knows why I thought eating sushi through a straw was cool.  And no, 'Boom' doesn't rhyme with 'Moon', gawfaw.'

I resolved, after this quarter-life realisation, that I will no longer behave thus. However, even this steadfast resolve brings with it a sense of arrogance; who the heck am I to resolve anything? I have a fair few years to go before my clogs pop (I hope) and making a vow-in-stone leaves me far too much scope for making a prize idiot of myself all over again.

If being wise constitutes knowing yourself through the acceptance of your past idiocies, then I can't think of harsher life lessons than a box fringe, leather trousers and teenage poetry.

Next time I think I should write a list of 50 things that make me a Spaceman. It would provide me with just as much entertainment and I'm pretty sure my answers would be more insightful and grounded in something real than the ones I provided for my 'serious' list of 50 something-or-others. 









Congratulations to Sarah Bradley.

In 7th Position of competion entry

In 7th position but they were all great entries but as I said yesterday with any competition you can't award prizes for all. I hope you enjoy reading them all!

How P.G. Wodehouse Saved My Life

“I wish I’d strangled your neck the moment you were born,” Mom yelled at me, and threw the class-report in my face. I picked up the report, ran to my room, and went straight to the mirror.

“This time, she’s gone too far.” I said, glaring at my reflection.

“C’mon, you know she doesn’t mean it. She said this, like, 50 times already,” my reflection replied.

“Well, this time, she’s going to be sorry. I’m going to do what she always wanted to do. I’m going to kill myself.”

I went to my desk and wrote a note to my father:

“Dear papa, I am killing myself because I can’t bear mom’s cruelty any longer.”

I returned to the mirror, feeling much more cheerful.

“Before I kill myself, I’m going to read Leave It to Psmith and have lunch at Blue Nile.”

My reflection gave me a beatific smile. I took the hundred-rupee note hidden deep in the maw of my desk and Leave It to Psmith from my school bag and slipped out from the backdoor.

At Blue Nile, I sat a corner table, ordered a mutton biriyani and tandoori chicken and opened Leave It to Psmith. I love every book written by P.G. Wodehouse but this was my absolute favorite.

As I read, I became enthralled by Psmith’s resourcefulness and how he never lost his cool in spite of all the problems he faced. Though I was reading it again, I enjoyed it even more the second time.

I continued reading even after the waiter ceremoniously placed the biriyani and grilled chicken before me. I read it while I enjoyed the banquet of fragrant aromatic rice with the spicy pieces of meat. I accompanied Psmith as he impersonated a Canadian poet to enter Blanding Castle, outwitted the other imposters in the castle, prevented a necklace from being stolen, and successfully wooed the beautiful Eve Halliday.

In Leave It to Psmith, to illustrate the quality of equanimity, Wodehouse narrates the tale of an Arabian traveler who slept on a patch of grass containing an acorn and discovered when he woke that the warmth of his body had caused the acorn to germinate and he was now sixty feet above the ground in the upper branches of a massive oak. Unable to descend, he said, “I cannot adapt circumstances to my will; therefore I shall adapt my will to circumstances, I choose to stay here.” And he did.

By the time I finished the book, it was four o’clock. I was the only customer in the restaurant and felt contented and pleasantly stuffed. The bill included caramel pudding, mango ice cream and ginger tea. I left the rest of the money to the waiter, who had not disturbed me at all while I read the book.

I returned home, feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun on my back. Mom was asleep but she had left my lunch on the table. I went to the mirror and smiled at my reflection.

“Okay, so I flunked Marathi and Hindi. Papa will probably blow his top tonight.”

I held up Leave It to Psmith.

“P.G. Wodehouse says happiness in this world depends chiefly on the ability to take things as they come. And Wodehouse can never be wrong.”

I went to my desk and tore up the suicide note.

Enjoyed this I hope you do!, would love to hear your thoughts on the entries published.

In 8th Postion competition entry

I had many entries and this one I could well related to, so in 8th place!

Fifty Steps

I’ve been ill for over a decade including several months in hospital and a few weeks in Intensive Care.  Since coming out I haven’t been very steady on my feet... everywhere I go I have to have a wall, a person or, more recently, my cane or rollator/walker with me to lean on.  I’m determined to walk on my own and get my independence back but it’s starting to feel like it will never happen.

The fifty steps has to start with the first one though, I’ve just got to find the courage to try and do it.  It’s taken about 7 or 8 years to be able to walk down the stairs while holding onto the rail on one side and the wall on the other side, but at least I’m walking down them instead of bouncing down on my bum like I did when I first came out of hospital!

It’s almost like I’m a young child taking their first steps again, I’m just too big and heavy to lift onto mummy’s hip when I fall now!    I’ve got a wonderful partner and real life friend who don’t seem to mind pulling me to my feet when I fall over and that isn’t happening as much now (cue me falling over and not being able to get up now ).

So, tomorrow I start walking around the bottom part of the house without holding on to walls.  The way I see it is that if I do fall over I can crawl to the bottom of the stairs and use them to get back on my feet.  Wish me luck!  Maybe I should just aim for fifty un-aided steps without restricting myself to being in the house?  Next time I meet up with my friend I’m going to try walking around in the pub not leaning so heavily on my walker?  We’ll have to wait and see!

Maybe taking my dog for her daily walks would be a better start?  There is a wall at the side that I can wobble in to if I need to and my concentration will be on my dog more than staying upright so I won’t feel as pressured to stay on my feet either.

Am I getting ahead of myself?  Should I concentrate on being able to get around the house without holding on before I even think of walking fifty steps outside, just in case I fall over and can’t get up as well as my pup’s lead maybe coming off my wrist and her getting loose!

I’ve never been any good at making up my mind but maybe walking around the house without holding on to walls is the safest and best way forward... not exactly courageous but I’ve got to start somewhere so why not in the house where I feel safest then slowly work up to my fifty steps outside?  Safety first and all that sort of thing?  I’ll do it, I’ve just got to slow down!

Thanks Amanda for a great entry, I hope you all enjoy reading the stories as they are posted!

Now the fun begins, discover your why?

Hello again,
Well the competition is now closed and thanks and best wishes go to all who entered. Thank you also for all the birthday good wishes. I maybe only 50 and a couple of days but it feels good, so maybe 50 is a new beginning.

Your entries are now with the Judges and as soon as I receive the results they will be posted on here, so watch this space.

Some great entries, wish I could give a prize to all but then that would not be much of a competition if everyone received a prize. Do you remember when schooling became all PC and no one could lose. I don't know about you but it felt like we had become cheated somehow, not me personally, schooling in my day was not politically correct. We were taught that healthy competition was good for you but we were also taught it was equalling as important to take part.

It seems these days in some schools of thought there can be no winners or losers, well I am not getting poetical here as I do not think my blog is a place to share my political views. If there was no winners or losers, everyone was to be equal, how would that effect the Olympics for example?

What are your thoughts?

Do you think competition is healthy? or unfair?

As writers we are in an extremely competitive market, millions of new books every year, new authors discovered. Does that discourage you or encourage you?

What gives you your passion to write when there is so much competition?

What drives you to add more words to your work in progress, to build your author's platform?

In short what motivates you to do what we do everyday?

I can only answer for myself on this point, and no its not money, if it was I may have given up as many writers do, the unfinished work stuck in a drawer somewhere, forgotten. No money is a nice to have, for many writers if they were to rely solely on there writing to pay the bills, many would have given up long ago. For most, will need that  day job! I don't but it still not my driving force, maybe if it was I would write more, blog more, get more done!

My motivation is the stories in my head, I want to make sense of them, I want to share them, with my non-fiction I want to help my readers. If it is from the pain they suffer each day, a health tip, cholesterol whatever it is my motivation in my non fiction is to engage change by empowering my readers with information. In my fiction is where I sometimes struggle, because what is a great story to me maybe not so great for others, so I need to find another motivation for my fiction. My driver at the moment is that I never leave something incomplete, it may take me longer to get to the end goal but I will finish what I start.

So if you take one thing away from my blog today, what is your motivation to keep writing?

If you can honestly answer that for yourself, what your driver is, what keeps you going when all you really want is to hit the delete button!! Write it out if necessary, put it somewhere where you can see it easily, remind yourself daily to keep your why alive.

For some people they may need a visual aid to remind them of their why? Their motivation? Their drive?

If that is you, find a picture of it and keep it close. If your sole motivation is money and for many it will be, we all need to pay bills and eat but apart from letters from the bank manager it is not very exciting. So if your driver is money, or success, how do you measure you have achieved it? What do you want to do with it, once you have it?

Once you are earning enough from your writing it maybe to give up the day job, it maybe to buy a better house, lifestyle? What is your dream, discover what your why is and you will have a stronger motivation to continue writing.

Happy writing everyone. Watch this space for the short stories to be posted in next few days.

Competition update

Well when I had the idea to follow in the footsteps of my very successful friend Rebbecca Emin, little did I know what to expect!

This is my first competition run on this blog and depending on the success of this one I may do more with more prizes! The entries are now trickling in, would love to receive more to give my judges who are non writing folk, they are readers. It will be whose they most enjoy who will win. I will not judge but print them and pass them to them and await their feedback.

Whatever our genre and the topic is not age, despite my title being is 50 the new 40, no the topic is 50.
It could be a golden wedding, it could be 50 red balloons anything you fancy, yes even 50 monsters/ vampires if that is your genre, as long as 50 is in there somewhere. I am not that strict on word count, and I am certainly not going to count them, so have a go, even if you don't want a copy of my book, I am sure someone will. Unfortunately we will all know someone who lives with Chronic pain and my book is easy steps to help them gain control.

Despite all my years of assisting others to control their pain, I have needed to take my own lessons and no I am not always the best patient but I know live with chronic pain but yes I am in control, it does not control me. I have needed to work with my health practitioner to gain the right medication for me but it works. I know have a range of methods to control my pain.I am currently working on the second edition and have made the decision that everyone who has purchased the 1st edition but get the update for free.

It has been an interesting week, I attended an webinar on how to attract more attention to my blog run by Gary at Bubblecow and Freya at Bookbuzzr. If you have not come across either of this fabulous folk before, please check them out. I have hyperlinked there names. It is the second webinar I have attended and I will certainly attend more given the opportunity. If you cannot make the allotted time slot to hear it live, provided you register, you can download it and listen to it later.

I will certainly be implementing some changes to this blog baised on the excellant advice from Gary.
So my tips from this blog, one enter the competition, no seriously if you only do one thing check out the links I have included on this blog, you will learn so much as I have, afterall if you want success as we all do in one shape or another than what better than to follow and emulate successful people.

Any questions regarding this or the competion please feel free to comment below. Look forward to hearing from you soon

Is 50 really the new 40? Short Story Competition

In a few short weeks I turn 50, I was hoping to have a huge big party and celebrate with a bang. After all isn't 50 supposed to be the new 40 so life will begin again. Certainly the last 10 years have brought there fair amount of change.

I enjoyed watching felllow writer and online friend Rebecca Emin launch a competition of Flash Fiction for her recent birthday. I enjoyed the excitement it built towards her big day. She recommended I follow suit, so I thought I am useless at her skill of Flash Fiction but short stories would be more suited to me.

So I thought what does 50 mean to you?

You can write any genre and 50 does not need to mean age but I would like your story around the topic 50 and to be around 500 words.


First prize will be £10 (or equivalent) plus a copy of one of Take Control of your pain.

Second prize will be a copy of Take control of your pain.

Third prize will be a choice of a copy of Festival on Lyris Five  by Nick Daws.


Here's the obligatory list of rules:

1. E-mail your entry to sloanwriter@btinternet.com Your entry should be in word format. Please do not include your name on the word document itself. 

2. Wordcount is 500 maximum including the title but not your name. This can be plus or minus 5%

3. Please only submit your own work. Previously blogged/published/adapted works are allowed, and copyright remains with the author at all times.

4.If you enter this competition, you agree that your entry may be published on my blog after the competition closes.

5. The competition is open to anyone, until the last timezone passes midnight on 6th June 2011

6. Your entry will be disregarded if it does not include the theme 50.

7. Any genre is allowed.

8. Only one entry per person please.

9. Judging will be by a carefully selected panel of readers. Their decision will be final, whether I agree with them or  not ;o)

10. I will acknowledge receipt of every entry. If you do not hear from me within 3 days of submission, please feel free to query.

You can find an update on the competition here

Rules kindly adapted from Rebecca Emin