We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.
Anais Nin
Over years of teaching, I’ve come to realise that my students write for a variety of reasons. Some just for the joy of playing with the written word, some because they are instinctive ‘story tellers’ and want to entertain, some because they want to ‘leave something behind’ and to write memoirs for their children and grandchildren, some who write for cathartic reasons, some who just want to experiment with a new ‘craft’. Many are satisfied with writing for themselves, many would like to share their writing with their friends, peers or family, but also many would like the validation of a wider audience.
My courses are designed to offer advice and encouragement and to facilitate all these different aspirations.
Many of my students have had publishing ‘success’, and have had their stories placed in competitions, or printed in magazines or have had their novels published.
This is the page that celebrates those publications.
Published Novels/Memoirs:
Helen Matthews debut novel 'After Leaving the Village' won first prize in the opening pages category at Winchester Writers' Festival and was published in October 2017. Her second novel 'Lies Behind the Ruin' - contemporary suspense and domestic noir, set in France, was published in April 2019. Her latest novel 'Facade' was published by Darkstroke Books. A fourth book is in progress. Her short stories have been shortlisted by Flash 500, 1000K Story and published in Artificium; in the Reflex Press anthology 'The Real Jazz Baby'; in EllipsisZine and in Love Sunday magazine. She has published an eBook collection of stories and travel writing 'Brief Encounters' and this is available on Amazon.
Susanne Goldring has written a number of historical best sellers - ‘My Name is Eva’, ‘The Girl Without a Name’, ‘The Shut Away Sisters’, ‘Burning Island’ and ‘The Girl With The Scarlet Ribbon’
Gill Thompson: Again, a series of historical best sellers – ‘The Oceans Between us’, ‘The Child on Platform One’, ‘The Lighthouse Sisters’
Kari Gillespie has just released her memoir ‘Pilgrim’ (Dec 2021), and her work has appeared in Molecule Tiny Lit Mag, The Crank, Oddity magazine, Coin Operated Press’s Poetry zine and Scotland Outdoors. She has been shortlisted for the Soutar, Wells and Fish prizes and was Highly Commended in the Wells Festival of Literature.
Richard Wright's psychological thriller ‘A Razor’s Edge’ was released in December 2021.
Christine Tranter – memoir ‘The Last Mulberry Tree’ (2021)
Jacky Power - published her poetry collection 'Stop the World I Want to Get Off' in February 2023.
Richard Buxton's first novel, Whirligig, (set in Tennessee in the pivotal Civil War year of 1863) was released in 2017; his second novel, Copper Road, came out in 2020. He is also compiling a collection of short stories that explore the long shadow of the Civil War. Many of his stories have won awards or have been published. His story Battle Town won the 2015 Exeter Story Prize. Roller Coaster won the 2015 Bedford International Writing Competition. The Bread Man won the Fabula Press Nivalis 2016 Short Story Competition.
Paul Somerville has just been offered a contract with Hookline Books for his YA fantasy novel
Patrick Larsimont has just signed a five year, five book deal with Sapere Books for his aviation thriller. In addition, his novel ‘Brookwood Boys’ was long-listed for the 2021 Morley Prize for unpublished writers of colour, and two of his flash stories featured in the Farnham Flash Book.
Chris Arthey's memoir has just been released (March 2022): Highway 35 - Meeting Disaster Head-on with Hope
Tracy Fells' book 'Naming of Moths' is due out November 2023 with publisher Fly on the Wall Press
Emmanuel Lachlan's epic fantasy adventure Ocellus is available now on Amazon and at Waterstones. He is currently working on volume two of the series.
My courses are designed to offer advice and encouragement and to facilitate all these different aspirations.
Many of my students have had publishing ‘success’, and have had their stories placed in competitions, or printed in magazines or have had their novels published.
This is the page that celebrates those publications.
Published Novels/Memoirs:
Helen Matthews debut novel 'After Leaving the Village' won first prize in the opening pages category at Winchester Writers' Festival and was published in October 2017. Her second novel 'Lies Behind the Ruin' - contemporary suspense and domestic noir, set in France, was published in April 2019. Her latest novel 'Facade' was published by Darkstroke Books. A fourth book is in progress. Her short stories have been shortlisted by Flash 500, 1000K Story and published in Artificium; in the Reflex Press anthology 'The Real Jazz Baby'; in EllipsisZine and in Love Sunday magazine. She has published an eBook collection of stories and travel writing 'Brief Encounters' and this is available on Amazon.
Susanne Goldring has written a number of historical best sellers - ‘My Name is Eva’, ‘The Girl Without a Name’, ‘The Shut Away Sisters’, ‘Burning Island’ and ‘The Girl With The Scarlet Ribbon’
Gill Thompson: Again, a series of historical best sellers – ‘The Oceans Between us’, ‘The Child on Platform One’, ‘The Lighthouse Sisters’
Kari Gillespie has just released her memoir ‘Pilgrim’ (Dec 2021), and her work has appeared in Molecule Tiny Lit Mag, The Crank, Oddity magazine, Coin Operated Press’s Poetry zine and Scotland Outdoors. She has been shortlisted for the Soutar, Wells and Fish prizes and was Highly Commended in the Wells Festival of Literature.
Richard Wright's psychological thriller ‘A Razor’s Edge’ was released in December 2021.
Christine Tranter – memoir ‘The Last Mulberry Tree’ (2021)
Jacky Power - published her poetry collection 'Stop the World I Want to Get Off' in February 2023.
Richard Buxton's first novel, Whirligig, (set in Tennessee in the pivotal Civil War year of 1863) was released in 2017; his second novel, Copper Road, came out in 2020. He is also compiling a collection of short stories that explore the long shadow of the Civil War. Many of his stories have won awards or have been published. His story Battle Town won the 2015 Exeter Story Prize. Roller Coaster won the 2015 Bedford International Writing Competition. The Bread Man won the Fabula Press Nivalis 2016 Short Story Competition.
Paul Somerville has just been offered a contract with Hookline Books for his YA fantasy novel
Patrick Larsimont has just signed a five year, five book deal with Sapere Books for his aviation thriller. In addition, his novel ‘Brookwood Boys’ was long-listed for the 2021 Morley Prize for unpublished writers of colour, and two of his flash stories featured in the Farnham Flash Book.
Chris Arthey's memoir has just been released (March 2022): Highway 35 - Meeting Disaster Head-on with Hope
Tracy Fells' book 'Naming of Moths' is due out November 2023 with publisher Fly on the Wall Press
Emmanuel Lachlan's epic fantasy adventure Ocellus is available now on Amazon and at Waterstones. He is currently working on volume two of the series.
Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well.
Stephen King
Short Stories:
A vast number of my students have had success in local and national competitions and have had the pleasure of seeing their work published in the prize winner anthologies: Lisa Daly, Julie Evans, Patrick Larsimont, Alan Goodchild, Dee Holmes, Poppy Newton, David Rowlandson, Len Davis, Charles Warren, Irina Mukhina, Susan Corfield, Katrina Dennison, Amanda MacLand, Lesley Evans, Roy Ingamells, Jacky Power, Roger Shadbolt, ... (there are many others, so please tell me if I’ve missed you off the list)
Julie Evans was selected by Val McDermid as the winner of the Daily Mirror Crime Story competition 2020 with her story Pink on Black, which was published as the centrefold of the Daily Mirror. She has won the Frome, Bibliophone, Winchester Festival and Farnham competitions with her short stories and flash fictions and was runner-up in the Val Wood, Solutions, Northumberland Coast and Farnham Flash competitions. Her shortlisted and Highly Commended placings include the Historical Writers’ Association, Oxford Flash, Edinburgh Flash, Henshaw, Ink Tears, Writers’ Bureau and Writers’ Forum competitions and she has been longlisted in - amongst others - Bridport, Bath, Exeter, MsLexia, Cambridge and Segora, and her flash pieces have been longlisted eleven times in Reflex Fiction.
Julie’s printed publications include a short story in Writer’s Forum and pieces in a number of anthologies, including A Meal for the Man in Tails, Beguiled by a Wild Thing, A Girls’ Guide to Fly Fishing, The Real Jazz Baby, Barely Casting a Shadow and With One Eye on the Cows, plus her work features in three volumes published by Farnham Flash Fiction, in the Historical Writers’ Association anthology, the Winchester Festival anthology and twice in the Farnham Herald. One of her pieces was performed on amateur stage and another has been recorded on audio. Her story, Ice Finger, will feature in the Oxford Flash Fiction anthology to be published in 2022.
Charles Warren has been published four times in Writers' Forum, having been placed first, second and third (twice) in the magazine's short story competition. He has had three stories published in the Scribble quarterly magazine, but has yet to win the readers' vote. Two of his stories have appeared in competition anthologies by the Earlyworks Press after being shortlisted. He came first in the 2020 Bridgend Writers' Circle Short Story Competition and second in the Southport Writers' Circle SSC in 2016. In the US he won the 2020 $500 first prize in the Living Springs Baby Boomers' SSC and was shortlisted and published by the Tulip Tree Review in their 2019 genre SSC.
He has been shortlisted in the Farnham Flash Fiction Competition, the Frome SSC, the Segora SSC, the Writers' Bureau SSC and Writers' Forum. He has been longlisted in the Flash 500 SSC, the Bedford SSC, the Doris Gooderson SSC, the Erewash SSC and the Exeter Short Story Prize.
Wendy French’s poem was featured in Hampshire Life 2022
Janet Williams has poems published by Surrey Hills Arts (January 2020), Writers' Forum magazine March 2020 and in the April 2022 quarterly newsletter called Ring by the Guildford Diocesan Guild for Church Bell Ringers, Guilford district.
(Godalming parish church).
Mary Ormond was shortlisted with commendation in the Hammond House international literacy prize for my story ‘The Survival of the species’ and long listed in the Grindstone Flash Prize for ‘The Blood on Audley Street.’
Lisa Hart was the winner in the Flash Fiction Featuring Farnham category in 2019 and 2020.
Susan Corfield has had several ‘flash fiction’ wins including the Daggerville Crime Prize.
Laura Kyle has had the following successes:
Fish Memoir Competition - Long listed 2022
Fish Flash Fiction - Long listed 2021
Bath Flash Fiction - Long listed and published in their anthology 2021
London Independent Story Prize - Finalist in the Short Story Competition - 2021
Emmanuel Lachlan has the following successes:
2016 FlashFloodFiction Sixteen 100 words
2016 101 Words The Tooth 101 words
2017 Three Drops of a Cauldron The Writing Desk 500 words
2017 101 Words Silver Rock 101 words
2020 Paragraph Planet Andromeda 75 words
2021 Winchester Writers Festival The Lighter 230 words
2022 The Phoenix Theatre & Arts Revelation 15 minute play
A vast number of my students have had success in local and national competitions and have had the pleasure of seeing their work published in the prize winner anthologies: Lisa Daly, Julie Evans, Patrick Larsimont, Alan Goodchild, Dee Holmes, Poppy Newton, David Rowlandson, Len Davis, Charles Warren, Irina Mukhina, Susan Corfield, Katrina Dennison, Amanda MacLand, Lesley Evans, Roy Ingamells, Jacky Power, Roger Shadbolt, ... (there are many others, so please tell me if I’ve missed you off the list)
Julie Evans was selected by Val McDermid as the winner of the Daily Mirror Crime Story competition 2020 with her story Pink on Black, which was published as the centrefold of the Daily Mirror. She has won the Frome, Bibliophone, Winchester Festival and Farnham competitions with her short stories and flash fictions and was runner-up in the Val Wood, Solutions, Northumberland Coast and Farnham Flash competitions. Her shortlisted and Highly Commended placings include the Historical Writers’ Association, Oxford Flash, Edinburgh Flash, Henshaw, Ink Tears, Writers’ Bureau and Writers’ Forum competitions and she has been longlisted in - amongst others - Bridport, Bath, Exeter, MsLexia, Cambridge and Segora, and her flash pieces have been longlisted eleven times in Reflex Fiction.
Julie’s printed publications include a short story in Writer’s Forum and pieces in a number of anthologies, including A Meal for the Man in Tails, Beguiled by a Wild Thing, A Girls’ Guide to Fly Fishing, The Real Jazz Baby, Barely Casting a Shadow and With One Eye on the Cows, plus her work features in three volumes published by Farnham Flash Fiction, in the Historical Writers’ Association anthology, the Winchester Festival anthology and twice in the Farnham Herald. One of her pieces was performed on amateur stage and another has been recorded on audio. Her story, Ice Finger, will feature in the Oxford Flash Fiction anthology to be published in 2022.
Charles Warren has been published four times in Writers' Forum, having been placed first, second and third (twice) in the magazine's short story competition. He has had three stories published in the Scribble quarterly magazine, but has yet to win the readers' vote. Two of his stories have appeared in competition anthologies by the Earlyworks Press after being shortlisted. He came first in the 2020 Bridgend Writers' Circle Short Story Competition and second in the Southport Writers' Circle SSC in 2016. In the US he won the 2020 $500 first prize in the Living Springs Baby Boomers' SSC and was shortlisted and published by the Tulip Tree Review in their 2019 genre SSC.
He has been shortlisted in the Farnham Flash Fiction Competition, the Frome SSC, the Segora SSC, the Writers' Bureau SSC and Writers' Forum. He has been longlisted in the Flash 500 SSC, the Bedford SSC, the Doris Gooderson SSC, the Erewash SSC and the Exeter Short Story Prize.
Wendy French’s poem was featured in Hampshire Life 2022
Janet Williams has poems published by Surrey Hills Arts (January 2020), Writers' Forum magazine March 2020 and in the April 2022 quarterly newsletter called Ring by the Guildford Diocesan Guild for Church Bell Ringers, Guilford district.
(Godalming parish church).
Mary Ormond was shortlisted with commendation in the Hammond House international literacy prize for my story ‘The Survival of the species’ and long listed in the Grindstone Flash Prize for ‘The Blood on Audley Street.’
Lisa Hart was the winner in the Flash Fiction Featuring Farnham category in 2019 and 2020.
Susan Corfield has had several ‘flash fiction’ wins including the Daggerville Crime Prize.
Laura Kyle has had the following successes:
Fish Memoir Competition - Long listed 2022
Fish Flash Fiction - Long listed 2021
Bath Flash Fiction - Long listed and published in their anthology 2021
London Independent Story Prize - Finalist in the Short Story Competition - 2021
Emmanuel Lachlan has the following successes:
2016 FlashFloodFiction Sixteen 100 words
2016 101 Words The Tooth 101 words
2017 Three Drops of a Cauldron The Writing Desk 500 words
2017 101 Words Silver Rock 101 words
2020 Paragraph Planet Andromeda 75 words
2021 Winchester Writers Festival The Lighter 230 words
2022 The Phoenix Theatre & Arts Revelation 15 minute play
Writing is its own reward.
Henry Miller
