Closure
8 October 2007
A few weeks ago, I announced a short story writing competition. It is now closed. (If you are interested, you can see the details here.) Next Monday, I will publish the winning entry. I'll notify the winner in between times.
The winner's prize is a ticket to the second Chichester Writing Festival at the beautiful West Dean College, an extraordinary 'Eden for the arts', bequeathed by the surrealist poet and philanthropist Edward James.
The Chichester Writing Festival - like this website and its predecessor www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk - is focused on the craft of writing. There is a core audience of 40 students who attend all panel discussions over the course of three days from 9-11 November.
In addition, there are four 'An audience with' interviews, open to the general public, where I will have the great pleasure of talking to:
- Marian Keyes, the brilliant, best-selling, darkly-comic Irish author
- Sarah Waters, an exceptional author of extraordinary range
- Joanne Harris, another author of startling variety, empathy and confidence
- the former Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson
Tickets for these events are available from West Dean College.
I was pleased this week to receive an email from a blogger - http://jimmymacsnovelblog.blogspot.com - who is writing a novel and publishing a diary account of his progress. It was a courteous request to reference the Advice to writers tips from the Labyrinth website.
No problem, obviously.
It was a wrench to have to stop maintaining and growing Labyrinth - now an archive - but we wouldn't otherwise have had any time to give this site.
The last thing you want, though, if you write for the web, is finality and closure. The nature of the internet is that the value is in the links - illuminating, unexpected, amusing or profound - not just in the flat pages.
But it is nice to move on, too. Like all authors I have ever met, however hard I am working on my current project, when my mind wanders, it drifts away to future books, future websites, perfect in my imagination, untested by the writing.
So I salute the bravery of those who have taken the plunge and submitted a short story to our competition.
Good luck in the Sepulchre.
