Competition season

It's that time of year again when all the literary competitions come out in force and all my unpublished stories go out, hither and thither (no one uses that expession anymore - I wonder why??). Of course, there are competitions throughout the year. but for some reason, as soon as the sun comes out, everyone wants to hold one.

I'm not sure I enter into the spirit of the thing properly. I know, judging from the comments that organisers make in their rules of entry, that I am expected to write a new story - some competitions force me into this by having a theme. I, on the other hand, cannot write to order, so I rifle through all my old stories and send off the most suitable. If there's no suitable entry, I don't enter.

Which means, at this time of the year, when my muse is playing in the garden - happily skipping up and down and spouting all kinds of new ideas - I am to be found in a dark study making lists of what should go where, and when it should be there. Which is exactly what I am doing now - or, should be doing now when I stop writing this.

On a slightly different note: I would like to announce that a new novel has just been conceived!! Well, I say novel. It ought to be a novel, but at the moment reaches about 5000 words. I haven't written a novel for a while, so this will be an interesting experiment, if nothing else.