It's official - I'm a runner up

I can't say I have done any work today, because I keep having to upload the Mslexia novel competition page to prove to myself - again - that it wasn't a mistake and Rebecca Allison's Borrowed Wine wasn't actually the runner up. (Apologies to Ms Allison's and her fine book, if in fact she exists, and worse, if she entered the competition with Borrowed Wine. But if she checks the relevant page, she will see it was me and my book that was shortlisted!)

I am now on a complete high and can't wait for my copy of the magazine, so I can carry it around with me and show people at bus queues and DIY shops. Can I suggest that if you shop at Tesco, Ilfracombe, that you might avoid certain evenings for the next few weeks.

I also noticed the children's novel competition slipped in underneath the big announcement. Last year I wrote a kids' book called Marley and the Crow, and it did have some problems (mostly that all the characters except the central one were strongly written) and I think I can fix them by September. Worth a try! I have entries ready for the poetry competition, but I notice Mslexia are introducing a collection competition as well, so there's a thought. I have a whole sequence of a dozen poems about my sister already... but novels have to come first. For me, poetry not only improves my precision of choice of words, but keeps my imagination awake. The downside is, I seem to use completely opposite sides of the brain to do them: I'm either writing poetry or prose and take a few days to change gear. Maybe I should set aside a week's holiday from fiction to concentrate on poetry.