Pick and Choose

This anthology has been amassed over a decade. It’s designed for the ‘dipper’, for the reader who likes, in fact, to ‘pick and choose’.

The twenty two pieces in this collection cover a variety of genres: short stories; short pieces of fictionalised history; some reflections on travel and our changing world; and some conversations, all of which could one day find themselves at the core of a novel – these give the reader a glimpse of how and where authors find their plots. Writers are thieves: we’re always on the lookout for nuggets of character and plot to seize, mull over, disguise and, eventually, recycle in our next opus. Beware the casual conversation!

Several themes have emerged from this collection. Happiness is one – are we all responsible for ourselves, for making choices that lead to our personal happiness, however we might define that? The changing lives of women, and the options available to them, is another theme. Then there’s the world beyond the world we know – can there be other dimensions that we don’t yet comprehend?

Some of these stories have been published elsewhere. Some have won awards in competitions, while others have not. Now that the author has judged many writing competitions, she has a much better appreciation that not finding your story in the top three or four should definitely not be a crushing blow! Nevertheless, writing competitions are an excellent way for aspiring writers to develop goals, work to deadlines, pump up the motivation, and polish, polish, polish. Excellence is rarely in the writing – it’s almost always in the rewriting, and the re-rewriting - and beyond.

The author hopes that this anthology includes something for everyone.