It's a rum business sending off stories. When I'm writing only short stories there's no problem - my mind is fixed entirely on the short-story world, but once I'm involved in something longer, as I have been recently, I find it hard to remember competition or magazine deadlines or even, frankly, to think about the stories I have waiting around for publication. I'll miss deadlines altogether, or will scrabble around sending something at the last minute and then promptly forget I ever sent it (even though I make notes of submissions - I forget all about the notes too!). So it was a surprise to me to open up my email yesterday to find that my story 'Looking for the Castle' has been long listed for the competition run by Short Fiction magazine - where I hadn't even remembered I'd sent it! I'm in great company: the long list includes the wonderful writers Tania Hershman and Sara-Mae Tuson, and Graham Mort, winner of the Edge Hill Prize.
Short Fiction, produced annually from Plymouth University and edited by Anthony Caleshu and Tom Vowler, carries the subtitle The Visual Literary Journal: special care is taken over presentation and illustration of stories, which makes it a great treat to read. It's pretty prestigious, too, and guest editors have included Ali Smith, Toby Litt and Jayne Anne Phillips, so I'm thrilled to have got to this stage in a competition associated with it.
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