Sunday, April 01, 2007

My first short story

As you might know, I love writing and my dream is to write a book. So a couple of months ago I started writing one, just to try, just to see what would come out.
I quickly realised that maybe I should start with short stories....it just seemed a gigantic task to write a book and I didn't feel ready for it I think. So, I changed genre and format and I ended up writing a thriller story. I wrote it in a week, mainly in the evenings before falling asleep and after a few days I was satisfied with the ending and showed it proudly to my husband. He loved it and proofread it for me, my grammar is not always up to scratch, and I left it at that.

After a few days, I didn't really know what to do with it, I wanted to share it with other people to see what they thought, and I decided to browse the Internet for websites about short stories and came across a short story competition. It was free to enter and so I thought, why not! There wasn't a cash prize, not that I hoped to win anything, but if you got into the top twenty your story would be published in a printed booklet.

So I sent out the story, and after 4 weeks I got an email on Friday from the editor:

'Congratulations! Your story has made it into the top twenty entries this month!'

I was over the moon! I could not believe it, I smiled and smiled until my cheeks were hurting! The booklet will arrive in the post in a couple of days and it doesn't matter that it's probably just a piece of A5 paper strung together, I will still be so happy to see my words printed!! I share this booklet with the other top entries - I can't wait to read their stories!

My story is not published on the website, only printed in the booklet, but if you want to check it out and you are into this genre, you can do so at the following link:

Revenge

I can't wait now to start on my next story!

13 comments:

Rachel said...

Wow..that was really good. Totally not what I expected but I was completely caught up in the story.
I can't wait to read the next one.

Cheryl said...

Congratulations! That's great news:)

Pam said...

This is awesome! Heartfelt congrats to you!

I admire your determination and passion : )
You are an inspiration!

Erica said...

Rachel - you read it!! Thank you for your compliments, it means a lot!

Cheryl and Pam - thank you so much!!!

Rob Windstrel Watson said...

Well done Erica. Keep the writing rolling

I look forward to seeing more of your work

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author)

Betty Carlson said...

Congratulations on your success! It's a great feeling to get some sort of acceptance.

Thanks for the shopping advice. We spent a lot of time at Harrod's last time (with a different daughter and different friends) --which was "brilliant," as you British put it. But also very expensive and this time I'm taking real buyers with me! We'll try out Selfridge's -- I've never heard of it! I assume it isn't as pricey as Harrod's.

Tinsie said...

Well done, Erica! Looking forward to the next story :-)

Betty, Selfridges is way better than Harrods, and it's where real Londoners shop. I took my American cousin there and she loved it. Also, if you've seen Love Actually, the shopping scenes were shot at Selfridges.

Erica said...

Thanks Rob! I will definitely check your stories!

Hi Shelly, I will check out your blog directory!

Thanks Betty, it does feel nice to be getting some acceptance, but I am still making my first steps into a very competitive world, it's daunting really! And yes Selfridges it's cheaper than Harrods!

Hi Tinsie! Thank you! Today I got my printed booklet through the mail, I can't wait to read all the stories.

Marissa said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! That is soo wonderful and exciting. You should be VERY proud of yourself!!!!!!!!

Mirra Fine, Graphic Designer said...

OMG! Thats so wonderful!

Erica said...

Thank you Marissa and NYDD!!! It feels great! I hope to start writing again soon, there are never enough hours in the day to do everything!

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