Thursday, May 25, 2006

Good news and bad news

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is: remember the Oxford Book Store Contest? Well, as predicted, they rejected my entry outright (it didn't even make the shortlist). So much for my career as the next Raymond Carver. You can see the stories that did make it here. [1]

The good news is that this means that you, dear Reader, can now enjoy these stories from the privacy of your own domicile, since I'm no longer constrained from putting them up on my blog. The first one follows below. The second one should be up in a couple of days. Enjoy [2].

[1] I, in true great-artists-are-never-appreciated-and-besides-these-grapes-are-sour fashion, feel, of course, that my not winning the contest is a gross travesty. I'm planning a letter to James Meek on the subject of how prize juries are all wankers.

[2] Do me a favour. Spare me the "why did you send this one? Frankly, your other stories are so much better" line, will you. Please. I'm just not in the mood.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So I'm assuming that you're not surprised/upset/angry at not making the cut (since it's not mentioned anywhere). I would have loved to read a rant. Night Flastaff?

Falstaff said...

pointblank: Not at all. As I said, it's not like I slaved away night and day to enter the contest - I just spruced up what I had and sent it in, so no big deal. And no rant.

Night Falstaff meanwhile is thanking his stars. He'd hate to have made the cut in a contest where the other winners wrote for Femina / Gurlz / Debonair (and actually admitted to this in public).