Exciting news! A short story of mine has been short-listed in a writing competition 🙂

It’s the first time I’ve had a fictional piece recognised and I’m very proud to be one of the short-listed in the Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards 2017. The winner was announced in a ceremony in Albury yesterday afternoon. My husband and I couldn’t make it due to time and cost restrictions (it’s a five hour journey via train or car) but I’m happy that my story Goldie will be published in a booklet with all the shortlisted entries.

I read Elyne Mitchell’s Silver Brumby books to pieces as a kid. They were incredibly imaginative stories of wild horses in the mountains of NSW – told from the horses’ point of view. Elyne knew the mountains very well as a skier, amongst other sporting pursuits, and she obviously knew a lot about the social politics of a herd of horses. The books were fascinating reads.

When I wrote my story, Goldie, it was not meant to be a homage to one of the horses in the stories (a mare named Golden), nor even a homage to the series, but there’s perhaps a little similarity in the descriptions of the Australian bush. The story was entered in quite a few competitions, in various drafts, but it wasn’t until this year that the timing was right to enter it in this award.

Here’s a link to my story if you’d like to read it: GOLDIE Elyne Mitchell