Sitting up in bed with a painful, swollen face after an unexpectedly traumatic visit to the dentist, I felt well enough to catch up on some of Simon Savidge's always excellent "Savidge Reads" book reviews on Youtube. Simon is the UK's foremost book blogger, and has praised my collection in the past. In this particular episode he was celebrating the five year anniversary of his hugely successful channel, "Savidge Reads". I got such a shock when he held up my book, THIS TASTE FOR SILENCE, and said it was the only short story collection on his five-year favourites list, and that the book was "the best collection [he'd] ever read...possibly ever."
​Wow! Horror dental trip forgotten. What a great feeling! 

​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO73F7SxiVg

Delighted to have two of my flash fiction stories make it to the shortlist of the 2022 National Flash Fiction Day Microlit Competition. It's very far from easy to tell a story in less than 100 words, so it was great that two of my pieces made it to the final 27 entries. 
​https://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/2022/02/27/national-flash-fiction-day-2022-microfiction-competition-shortlist/

Delighted to have my flash fiction shortlisted in 2021 Elemental Flash Contest in The Molotov Cocktail (US). This is an excellent journal for flash fiction writers and they always have great (paid!) contests. 

Always great to have a piece chosen to appear in the UK's National Flash Fiction Day 2021 Flash Flood. 24 hours of flash stories from around the world published on their site. Some great reading from the best flash writers across the globe. 
​https://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/flash-flood/
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Delighted to have one of my stories make it to the longlist of the Fractured Lit Anthology Prize in the US. These are hard lists to get on, so it's always a thrill to make it through to the short pile.