An Evening in Celebration of Short Fiction
‘AN EVENING IN CELEBRATION OF SHORT FICTION’
The Friends for Upton Library (F4UL) presented the results of their inaugural Short Story Competition at the Upton Library on the 29th March, 2012, with readings of the short-listed entries and a Guest Speaker’s address by Nick Allen, founder of Dorset Scribblers.
Forty-nine people were present for what turned out to be an enjoyable (if slightly long) evening’s entertainment.
Chaired by F4UL chairman, Cllr Fred Drane, with Adrian Ford as MC, the celebrations began with a special award to a group of literary youngsters, from three years of age to ten, and their leader Mrs Jan Cooke, who read out several of their excellent stories.
Nick Allen gave a splendid and witty talk on how new authors could help themselves to be published or win competitions, such as reading the variety of magazines that take short fiction. Choose your market; familiarise yourself with what is being published and tailor your work to that template. He went on to say that your work should be meticulously checked and edited; don’t exceed the word count required; check your punctuation and grammar. Once you have written a story, polish it by choosing the right word or phrase, using metaphors and other literary devices; finally send it off. And whilst you are waiting for an answer, start another story. Nick suggested some websites to try, for example Microhorror, The Pygmy Giant and Duotrope, and urged authors to join a Writing Group and visit various blogspots, for example .
The Under 18s competition produced a smaller entry than anticipated but the quality and originality of the entries was noteworthy, with subject matter includingthe trials and tribulations of a fairy who could not fly, a teenager who finds the Achilles’ heal of a race of Aliens bent on eating their way though the Earth’s population, and the reconciliation with her mother of a child of a broken marriage.
The Under-18s winner was:
Eloise Orchard (age 10)
‘There’s a Wolf in our Oven’
'For a ten-year old to produce a well-thought out and original take on a theme that has almost been worked to death, from Disney to Hanna-Barbera to Tele Hachette, is amazing. The plot is not uncomplicated but the author knows where she is taking us and does so with panache - and in the end with humour, reminiscent of many music-hall greats.'
Mrs Nia Nebel, F4UL Treasurer, awarded the winner’s prize of £26 to Cllr Fred Drane on Miss Orchard’s behalf as she was unable to attend.
The Open competition received fifty one entries with subject matter ranging froman allegorical budgerigar and other birds on the wing to peeping-Tom building workers manipulated by a canny gaffer, from teenage angst to a very local love affair and from a study of the one women’s later stages of pregnancy to an elderly lady’s poignant and enduring knick-knacks and associated memories.
Adrian Fordexplained that the judges were looking for intriguing subject matter, stories that were well-constructed, in good English, using metaphor and other literary devices, and that lifted the spirit,or would make them cry or say, ‘that’s clever’ or ‘we did not expect that to happen’ , yet be believable in their contexts.
The Open winner was:
Richard Nicholson
‘The Ferryman’s Wife’
‘For ingeniousness of plot, skilful under-played presentation of characters and scene leading to increasing tension and apparent inevitability of conclusion, the author’s ability to maintain suspense to the very last sentence, when the cunning resolution surprises the most analytical of reader, is awesome.’
Mrs Jean Tanner, F4UL Committee Member (Publicity), awarded a cheque for £51 to the winner.
Mr Nicholson said he was delighted and humbled by his story being chosen as the winner from such high quality entries as witnessed by the audience that evening.
Special Award
On the Friends’ behalf, Mrs Nia Nebel also awarded anF4UL donation of £20 in W & H Smith vouchers to Mrs Jan Cooke and her young children’s literary group who had submitted six wonderful computer-produced bespoke booklets from children aged 3 to 10, working together.
On behalf of the judges, Adrian Ford commented that coming to decisions on the final winners for each category was extremely difficult given the very high standard of work produced. ‘Overall we had entries from age 3 through to over seventy-nine, across genres including Science Fiction/Horror/Fantasy, Romance, Crime and Historical. We also had a fine example of a Literary Critique.’ One story lent itself to adaption to a play. With the author’s permission (Bob Hitching)this was done and acted out by guest speaker Nick Allen and Adrian, under spotlights in a darkened auditorium.
Where authors were present, they read out their stories; most of the other stories were beautifully read by Mrs Fiona Tait. Nick Allen and Adrian also helped out with the readings.
Cllr Drane reminded the audience that F4UL’s objectives included increasing awareness in the community of the benefits of having a local library and supporting events at the library including those for children. F4UL has a small committee that, to help meet their objectives has a programme of action, such as painting competitions (Nia Nebel), quizzes (Jean Tanner) and talks (Alan Burridge). F4UL hoped more people would support them by joining as Friends, and accordingly application forms were made available.
Refreshments were provided by the F4UL committee, Nia Nebel, Jean and Peter Tanner and Peter Rusling. The PA system was kindly loaned by PLUM with technical expertise from Ron Burns. Extra chairs were kindly provided by DCC. F4UL thanks Mrs L Prince, Library Manager, for the use of the facilities at the library.