A few years back I won the Queensland Writers Centre short story competition with my story Smooth. It was totally unexpected because the original story I’d planned to send in pulled up about 400 words too long. Yes, it happens.
The deadline was knocking on the door, with no time to pare back the extra words, so I cast around for something else to send in, instead. I found Smooth, a short story that I’d had fun writing, but hadn’t decided where to send it off to.
I read it through once, shot it off to the competition and promptly forgot about it.
Imagine how excited I was to find out I’d won! And that’s not even the best part. Patrick Ness (yes, the Patrick Ness, writing-royalty) read it out at the GenreCon Launch Night. The crowd laughed in the right spots, they gasped in the right spots. And Patrick even told me how good it was! It was a cloud-nine moment.
But, of course, the test now comes down to… do you like it? Please, be my guest. Read Smooth and send me a message telling me what you think.
Believe me, writing can be a solitary occupation, and I would love to hear from you.
