Be Careful What You Wish For

September was a very good month for me.  Why?  Because I won my very first short story competition.  Even just thinking about it now, makes me smile like an idiot.


I'd never actually told anyone about my rather obsessive habit of writing stories before.  Bizarrely they'd never wondered why I constantly carried around a notepad and pen and was frequently found scribbling away.  Or at least if they'd wondered, they'd never asked.

So I wrote my story in secret, sent it in and waited with baited breath.  At the end of the summer I got an email to say I was one of six finalists.  I can’t even begin to describe how stunned and excited I was.  Luckily it was lunch time when I received the email so I was able to escape from the office and have an hour to calm down, before my colleagues, who had no idea about my secret, began to wonder about the crazy woman who was smiling deliriously.  Had financial year-end finally sent me insane?

A few days later the announcement came that I’d actually won!  This time I was just too excited to keep it to myself, and my colleagues were subjected to a very babbled update from a very excited, bubbly woman who was  practically jumping up and down with delight.  I think I failed to preserve the illusion of sanity that day.

Since then it’s been even more amazing.  The competition organisers Hay-net and Lavender and White Equestrian Publishing were fantastic, providing me with feedback, encouragement, a lovely hay-net hoody and a certificate, which is hanging on my wall in pride of place.  But the best part was that they actually published my story with a custom designed cover as well.

The book is on sale now on Amazon for 77p with the proceeds going to equestrian charities.  I love the fact that my little book 'Be Careful What You Wish For' is out there and that someone loved it enough to publish it.  I have to confess, occasionally I visit Amazon just to reassure myself that this all really did happen and I actually do have a published eBook on sale. 



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