Thrilled to have my story, ‘Not Working’, in The Best of CaféLit 12. For a writer beavering away in her garret (spare bedroom, actually), it’s vindication twice over: first, to see it on the CafeLit website; second, for it to be adjudged one of the better ones, fit for the anthology.
What inspired me to write ‘Not Working’? Being set ‘Jubilee’ as a prompt in my online flash fiction group. When you’re composing a story during a group session, from a prompt you haven’t seen until a few minutes ago, you have to think hard and quick. Often you start the first sentence with no clear idea of what the next one will be, let alone the ending. So, very rapidly, as I was writing, there came into my head this gung-ho older woman, attempting to drive a temperamental old Rolls-Royce in the late Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee procession, while her ex-pop singer husband had disappeared into the loo. Humour is my first resort when I’m writing against the clock.
How did I get to find out about CafeLit? I’m not absolutely sure. I have been submitting stories to CafeLit since 2011, during previous editor, Debz Hobbs-Wyatt’s, time, with a break in the mid-teens of this century when work (the horrid paid kind) became overwhelming. Another writer must have recommended CafeLit. It is a warm and friendly place and I enjoy choosing a drink for each of my pieces.
Do I enjoy reading short stories? Yes, because they are short and therefore a manageable read when you have little time. I admire stories which flow, not necessarily with a formal plot, but with a discernible thread, and where authors have found the space, within a limited word count, to create and communicate distinctive characters. I enjoy it when a character gets his come-uppance, and I like to be made to laugh.
You want to know about my writing? Deep breath! My novel, Wodka, or Tea with Milk, set during the Solidarnosc years in 1980s Poland, is about to be published, and I really do mean ‘about’. In two to three weeks’ time. Very exciting!
Rosemary’s blog is WriteOn at https://rosemaryreaderandwriter.wordpress.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment