Saturday 6 May 2017

'Dreaming of Steam' Celebrations!

As well as pursuing individual longer works, members exchange information on short story competitions. When the heritage line Yorkshire Wolds Railway announced a publicity and fund-raising fiction event, members rose to the challenge. Their enthusiasm paid dividends. Submissions from three members were placed, and one member was invited to submit to the anthology as a professional.

Elaine Hemingway’s The Diary of Daniel Duck – Runner-Up
Madeleine McDonald’s A Solicitous Wife – Highly Commended
April Taylor’s Smokescreen – Long-Listed

All stories appear in the anthology, along with Penny Grubb’s Sir Tatton Sykes Cooperates, submitted as one of four non-participating professionals. 

Elaine Hemingway & Madeleine McDonald with driver Graham




The prize-giving turned out to be quite an event. Lord Faulkner of Worcester, President of the Heritage Railway Association and a published writer himself, travelled up - by train of course - to present the prizes, and a heritage East Riding Motor Services double-decker bus arrived carrying no less than five Lord Mayors from the region, plus friends and official photographers, to lend support to a worthy charity project.

Much chat was exchanged, much tea consumed, but best of all were the rides in the cab of the 'Sir Tatton Sykes' diesel shunter along the short stretch of currently usable line. As everyone agreed, riding the cab of any locomotive stirs the blood and fires the imagination.

Congratulations to all our finalists.

  Dreaming of Steam – 23 tales of Wolds and Rails is available as a paperback and ebook from Fantastic Books Publishing or Amazon
 The Yorkshire Wolds Railway, Fimber Halt, near Wetwang, is open every Sunday & Bank Holiday Monday until the end of October.

3 comments:

  1. I'm so pleased that this short story competition and it's prize giving event at Fimber Halt turned out to be the success it seems to have been. I'm also happy that my short story entry, 'The Snows of Winter' made it to the longlist of entries and as such found its way into 'Dreaming of Steam', the anthology of the 19 competition stories plus the four stories from the four guest authors! Well done to the winner, runners up and all whose stories are to be found and read within the pages of this book!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Congratulations on both inclusion in the anthology and on the story itself. I nabbed the paperback off my husband last night, train buff that he is, so I could read your story in particular. I was impressed by the quality of the writing and your choice of an intergenerational storyline. Now I've laid claim I shall read the rest. I hope inclusion in the anthology spurs you to both write more fiction and enter more competitions.

      Best wishes, and thanks for dropping by.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for taking the time to comment, Alan. It's a great little book and beautifully illustrated. I happen to know that Dan at Fantastic Books was especially pleased to be able to get permission to use the photo that illustrates your story. It's probably the only aerial shot in existence from that era.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your Comment. Due to escalating spam it is, unfortunately, being sent for moderation and should be uploaded shortly. We appreciate your patience.