OK, question first: I’m thinking of entering a writing competition that entails writing a short story on any subject and in any genre that doesn’t exceed 750 words. I have a suitable idea and I think it will be within the word count but what exactly is a short story? With something that short, you have little room for character development and will have a difficult time with a beginning, middle and end so does it have to be resolved do you think? The idea I have will end up being open ended and there is definitely potential for a longer story there but if I stop it on the twist, will that be adequate? Am I making any sense? Can anyone point me in a direction of similar length stories so I can get an idea of their structure?

Anyway, on to the announcement! I have learned that I am going to be published…in a real book! For poetry, of all things. Anyone that has been following me for ages might remember a poem that I posted here for a book to promote the Save Undershaw campaign. Well, after a lot of back and forth, the book is finally being published two weeks today and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk! It’s actually sitting at #1 in Sherlock Holmes books which is amazing to me. I think a large amount of the content seems to lean towards the BBC version but there are probably many other pieces (mine included) that are more canon related. I’m very excited to receive it and see my name in print for the first time and have also been informed that it will be available on Kindle at some point. I hope people will check it out if you have an interest in Sherlock Holmes.