Short story featured at Twisterpalooza

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Submitting to literary journals and participating in competitions was how I started out writing. We all start somewhere, and I can remember my frequent walks out to my physical mailbox, eagerly seeking acceptances and results. The postman thought I was cuckoo - no one waited for mail in the country town I lived in at the time. We chatted often. He was amazed the town had an author. I was amazed too - especially when something I wrote and sent out actually found a home... or brought home a prize.

It happened every now and then - I published close on eighty short stories that way. I was happy, but the country was not for me. It was in one of those 'Shall I move closer to the sea' periods that I got the idea for a short story. It was not until a full six years later that I wrote it. Today, it resides in my collection Making a Name, which is available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon and wherever good books are sold online.

I was asked recently to take part in the Twisterpalooza contest, held to mark Mark Hunter's launch of his book Stormchaser. So I sent him "Rainstorms" since he wanted something weather-based. He announced the results just after his publisher released Stormchaser, and voila - I did not win, but he still posted my story and I am very proud to see it aired like that. Please feel free to go and read it at Slightly off the Mark.

I must add a note here about following authors: do keep in touch with your favourite authors. What can you do to spread the word, or otherwise support the writer of your favourite works? All writers - established, emerging and just starting out - need support. Do it by subscribing to their newsletter, frequenting their blog, commenting on their columns, and buying their books, of course.

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