It seems that my Halloween SMS story went down very well with the voters and was awarded second place!
In the short-term I shall bask in the glory of producing something appreciated by people who know their subject matter (children’s literature, usually abbreviated to ‘kid lit’) – some of these fine, upstanding people are published authors! Gosh.
In the medium term I think it shows that I need to write more and not simply produce one or two small things every couple of years which are never really released onto the general public.
In the long-term… well, let’s see how well the writing goes. Maybe a few more competitions, a bit more focused thought and planning, and hopefully the release of a series of Adventures of Babbit and Pinky.
The ultimate aim is The Novel. It’s been brewing in my head for several years and has fermented quite well. But there are some complexities involved which means I need to do a LOT of research before it’s going to get anywhere.
But at least I feel like taking the first step is a worthwhile venture. Onwards and upwards…
babbitman 
Congratulations! Second is awesome in Susanna’s contest. Get writing that novel!
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Thanks Catherine. I’m feeling very honoured & humbled. I WILL get cracking and get the kid’s stories finished. And start fleshing out what I still need to do for my novel research. Learning some Old English (Anglo-Saxon) is one daunting element…
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Oh how fun, you must look for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. That’s old English and some of those stories are hilarious! I used to live in Canterbury.
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Yes, I’ve read a tiny bit of Chaucer and it is difficult but you can get the gist. I need to go a bit further back (by another 300 years or so). Not quite full-on Beowulf but it is a lot more opaque – it doesn’t help that there are extra letters in the alphabet to denote things like “th” (two versions for use in soft sounds like ‘thrush’ and hard sounds like ‘this’). This is where the “Ye Olde” comes from – it’s supposed to be a “th” not a “y”. I’ve had a few holidays in Kent but can’t recall if I’ve ever actually properly visited Canterbury.
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