Tag: Short fiction

One year anniversary

Three weeks back at work and totally knackered 😴 I thought about posting something about the experience, and even had a few paragraphs drafted, but writing a blog about being an NHS psychologist is a very different track from the one I had planned when I started this. Suffice it to say, there are too many patients, not enough staff and not enough time. I spend my days trying to prioritise as well as I can and always leave with a list of more things to do the next day, that would ideally have been done already 🤷‍♀️

In terms of writing, I’m working on a story about grief that was originally for a particular magazine but ended up longer than their word limit, so now will need to find a new home. My productivity won’t be what it was last year, but I have plans for a magazine in June; a contest in July and then another contest in September. Wish me luck keeping to those plans!

I also had some good news in that one of my flash fiction stories, called ‘The Unicorn in the Garden’, was accepted for Flash Flood 2023. The Flash Flood Journal will be posting a new flash fiction piece every 5-10 minutes for twenty-four hours on the 24th June in celebration of National Flash Fiction Day. My story will appear at 6.40am BST 🙂 This story was written for a contest where it didn’t even reach the longlist so it’s nice to know that someone out there liked it – hopefully readers will appreciate it too!

I also plan to start a blog called “Storytelling”, stylised with a psi symbol for the ‘i’, just to be all fancy like.

I have drafts for the first 3 posts and I plan to post on a monthly basis, a couple of weeks after each chapter of George Square. I’m not really one for blogging but my hope is that the more I say the more readers might find my work. The blog will be an attempt to combine my two interests of psychology and writing in various ways – hopefully I don’t run out of ideas too quickly! I’m still working out how to make it look all nice on the website but hopefully I’ll get that figured out in the next couple of weeks 🙂

Check out my published fiction here.

Continuing to progress with my writing

I’m feeling rather proud of myself and my writing this month. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been entering writing contests through Globe Soup, who have a wonderful supportive Facebook community. Due to the regularity of their contests, I’ve been writing roughly one short story and one flash story per month since I joined. The regular practice has definitely led to an improvement in my writing skills and writing flash in particular has given me a new appreciation for how much weight and meaning a single word can carry in a story.

On the 31st, Globe Soup announced the winners of two contests that I had entered. For their Open Short Story Contest, I received an honourable mention and for their 7 Day Story Challenge (where you write a story in your allocated genre in 7 days) I was a finalist and top three in the genre that I had been allocated to write in. Being named on the winner’s page means being in the top 10% of submissions and I know every one has several hundred entrants, if not more, so I’m rather proud of the progress that I’ve made in just six months.

I don’t plan to share either story on my website at the moment, because I’m looking into options for publication in online magazines or possibly entering a different contest. If any friends are interested enough to want to read them, you can always get in touch and I’ll email a copy to you 😊

Due to Globe Soup being very kind to their members, I also received a free ticket to their latest contest, which was historical fiction. Ended up writing a fairy tale-esque story set in World War 2. Historical fiction isn’t generally my cup of tea and I wasn’t a fan of all the research I had to do so I don’t think I’ll repeat the experience any time soon 😂 Globe Soup plan to announce the winner for that contest at the end of November so fingers crossed!

In terms of writing George Square, that has taken a bit of a back seat this month but thankfully I was a couple of chapters ahead of myself anyway! When I started, I was far enough ahead to be able to review a few chapters together and move things about if needed. Currently I’m not far enough ahead to do that but I’m going to make a concerted effort to get a couple of chapters drafted this month so I’m ahead of myself again. I promise I will keep going!

Have a wee look at my short fiction if you haven’t already.

Another wee publication

I entered a contest through Globe Soup which was to write a story of up to 100 words on the theme of Darkness. I didn’t win the contest but my story is now published here for you to read. With many thanks to The Drabble for publishing it 🙂

The story is called The World Without Stars and is about how the world might react if the stars all disappeared.

I’ve only recently started turning my hand to flash fiction and it’s an even tricker endeavour when your story is limited to just 100 words. However, I do think it’s teaching me a lot about making every word count and really considering which words are best at communicating my ideas. I do think it’s helping to hone my general writing skills, which will hopefully mean improvements in my short stories and longer fiction over time.

I hope you enjoy my story and if you’re just discovering my website please do check out my other work. I enjoy writing fantasy in particular and my current work in progress is a serialised young adult fantasy novel called George Square 🙂

My first publication!

Click here to go to my story, Catriona Banks, on Spillwords 😀

I think I mentioned in a previous blog post that I’ve been working on short stories and flash fiction along with continuing to update George Square. Most of my work has been entered into contests with Globe Soup, who you should definitely check out if you’re interested in writing because they have a very active and supportive Facebook community as well as regular free to enter contests.

Once I inevitably don’t win the contests (😅) I have started to submit my work to online publications. Most of these take a while to reply but I’ve now had my first acceptance! ☺️

Spillwords have published my short story, Catriona Banks – a modern fantasy tale about a thief who steals one of the Fae’s greatest treasures. You can read my story here as well as checking out the other work on their site.

I have submitted other stories elsewhere so fingers crossed there will soon be other updates about successes with my work! 😄

The Amber Genie

Since starting this website I’ve been going through my work to see which stories I would be happy sharing with the world. It’s taking time because I’m often interrupted by a baby deciding they’re hungry or a toddler needing my attention!

However, I’ve recently added The Amber Genie – click here to check it out.

This is a story that I wrote with the intention that it would be part one of a three part novel/novella, with each part focusing on one of three women who were known as the amber genie. I haven’t managed to finish parts two and three as yet, but the first part can also be read as a standalone story, so I figured I might as well upload it.

The idea for the amber genie started with me learning more about the myth of the djinn. The myth originated in the Middle East, though my understanding is that the origins are a bit muddy. They’re referred to in the Quran but also in pre-Islamic literature and it seems that the ideas about them mixed up with various different beliefs about spirits over time. They were powerful spirits who were worshipped but also seen as being similar to humans, and they could be both benevolent and malevolent.

My understanding (feel free to correct me, any experts out there) is that djinn, or genies, became associated with wish granting after the publication of One Thousand and One Nights and our notion of the wish granting genie in a ring is a largely Western concept that’s become more developed over time with popular fiction.

With The Amber Genie I wanted to capture a bit of a mix of the modern Western concepts with the older ideas. Dembe, the focus of this story, is both a benevolent nature spirit and a genie in a ring, offering humans the possibility of vast power. The setting is a world where the djinn live in another realm but are known to appear in our own, with their appearance being common enough for the narrator of the story to not be hugely surprised when he finds her ring.

My hope with parts two and three would be to expand this world further, showing more about the realm that the djinn come from and the impact their power has on humans and on our world.

But for now, please take some time and read Dembe’s story. I hope you enjoy it and, as always, comments and feedback about the story are always welcome.