It’s always nice to find out your story was long or short listed for a competition (even nicer to win!) but especially when its a competition that you’d forgotten you’d entered. I got an email from Flash500 announcing the longlist in their quarterly competition, and had a ‘Hmmm!’ moment when I saw one of my titles in the list. When I send a story somewhere, I make a note in its information, in Scrivener, so a quick double check confirmed that yes, I had submitted this story to Flash500. The longlist was as far as that one got, but as I know it’s a popular competition with hundreds of entries, to make it that far is still an achievement worth celebrating.

I also got the October issue of Ephemera magazine through my door. It’s just as beautiful as the last one, and once again one of my Hour of Writes entries is in there. This time it is Life Plus 2M, a winning entry of mine, alongside the two featured entries from that week.

This week has been a quiet one for work, as its been half term and my kids have been off school, but I haven’t been slacking! I multi-tasked, taking the family to the North Pennines to do some research for Wonderling. We had a wonderful visit, and I’ve come back with plenty of inspiration for the rest of this book and beyond.

Wonderling is coming along really well. Danny or I write a section, then send it to the other who takes up the story and moves it on. We’ve written over 40,000 words so far – it’s for older children than Alfie, but I’m enjoying the different challenges that brings with it. I’m looking forward to sharing more about it with you very soon!