Southam Book Festival
Flash Fiction Competition 2020
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The winning entries are
1st - Untitled by Rebecca Kinnarney
2nd - 'Sea Goddess' by Lesley Evans
3rd - 'Taken at the Flood' by Marilyn Timms
Congratulations to Rebecca, Lesley and Marilyn.
A comment from the judges
'These top three were clear winners and really stood out. It was difficult to rank them as 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and in the end was a very close call.
However, the judges would like to also comment on the very high standard of entries. Even outside of our top 19 shortlist, there were some very original entries and some that really made us laugh.
Thank you all for a very enjoyable 26,100 words.'
Southam Book Festival is grateful to all involved in judging this competition.
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The winning stories are published below
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Congratulations to all three winners and to all who entered this very well contested event.
FIRST PRIZE
The first prize of £50 goes to Rebecca Kinnarney of Wendover for her untitled story.
Untitled by Rebecca Kinnarney
“Well?” Sal stood outside my space. Her force-field repelled me.
“Did you know there’s a people in the Amazon, the Pirahã, who have no concept of numbers? No words for them?” Her shoulders lifted. I knew this was no answer to her question. I went on, “They just have ‘a few fish’, ‘some bowls’. I read it in a magazine while I was waiting.”
“What did Dr. Kenwood say?” Her throat was tight.
“She said…six months.” I tripped over the words.
Sal’s invisible shield crumpled. Sal crumpled.
I touched her damp cheek. “We’re going to call it ‘some moons’.”
SECOND PRIZE
The second prize of £30 goes to Lesley Evans of Cheltenham
Sea Goddess by Lesley Evans
When the gathering breeze quickened me to whitecaps, I went looking for trouble. The beach was deserted but for Old Rufino, warming his back against the sun-soaked boards of his shack, watching me steadily.
“I see you,” he muttered, drawing on his cigarette, “Shadowy there at the shoreline, mithering up your mischief.”
The old fisherman sniffed the wind, sensing that I would be dancing up a storm that night. I wanted to take him with me, but as the evening tripped over into night, I let him be. We both knew it was not his time. Not yet.
THIRD PRIZE
The third prize of £20 goes to Marilyn Timms of Cheltenham
TAKEN AT THE FLOOD by Marilyn Timms
Sky disintegrates through orange and green to blackened turbulence, compresses the hills. Birds become invisible. Rain scythes the land, spurs the watcher in the bushes to action. For days, he has crouched outside her house. Once, he almost breached her door but tripped over unexpected sandbags. He will not make that mistake again. The girl knows he’s waiting. As her bedroom light winks out, the watcher finally forces an entry. He takes up squatter’s rights on the seventh stair, like a malevolent Christopher Robin, content to wait until morning. Old Man Severn has come to breakfast.
The 2020 Flash Fiction competition has now
CLOSED
Watch this space for names of shortlisted stories and authors
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Flash Fiction Competition 2020
Short Listed Stories with Author Names
( First posted October 10 2020)
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13 Rigoroso Diane Broughton
25 Nogi Kim Pearson
29 Unrequited Love Patrick (or Hilary) Feeney
43 Homeless Jackie Hales
45 Guard Duty Stephanie Rybak
56 Burythorpe Manor Robert Rayner
59 Monday Trip Kathryn West
72 Love Tina Pritchard
119 Some Moons Rebecca Kinnarney
135 A Sinking Vessel Rebecca Kinnarney
145 Taken At The Flood Marilyn Timms
149 Miscarriage Of Justice Marilyn Timms
152 Granny’s Old Piano Laura Tapper
162 Ouch Stella Truby
179 Heartbeats Jessica Bird
189 Murder John Maskey
191 Sea Goddess Lesley Evans
208 Write What You Know Alan Vickers
255 Lilou Jean Harper
OUR 2020 FLASH FICTION COMPETITION IS NOW OPEN FOR ENTRIES VIA EMAIL ONLY
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RULES CONDITIONS AND HOW TO ENTER
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1 The competition is open to anyone who is 16 years and over.
2 The competition is for an original work of fiction no longer than 100 words in length. Any title must be included in the word count. Hyphenated words count as one word.
3 The work must contain the words "tripped over”
4 The work must be previously unpublished and not be simultaneously entered into any other competition. It must be the work of the person entering the competition.
5 Closing date is Friday September 4th 2020 at 12 noon.
6 The entry fee is £2 per story. Competitors may enter as many stories as they wish. Up to six stories may be entered for £8.
7 Entries must be made electronically.
8 The judges' decision is final. Judges will not enter into any discussion.
9 The names of short listed competition entrants will be published on the Southam Book Festival web site on Saturday October 10th 2020
10 The names of winner and runners up will be published on the Southam Book Festival web site on October 18th 2020 and listed on the Festival social media page. Winners and runners up will be contacted individually.
11 If possible, the winning entry will be published in the Southam Advertiser.
12 Submission of work will be taken as acceptance of rules and conditions.
13 Copyright of each story remains with the author, but Southam Book Festival reserves the right to publish a selection of the stories at some point during or after the Book Festival
HOW TO ENTER
Hard Copy
We regret that, because of the pandemic, for the 2020 competition we cannot accept entries in hard copy. All entries must be made via Email.
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BY E MAIL
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Choose the £2 or £8 PayPal button below
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Next email your story or stories to southambookfest@gmail.com.
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Please put Flash Fiction Comp in the subject box.
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On the email sheet please give details of your name, address, the name of your story/stories and your PayPal transaction number.
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Your story should be included as an attachment. If you are submitting more than one story, please use a separate attachment for each story.
£2 Paypal button for one entry
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£8 PayPal button for up to six entries
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2019 - "WATER DRIPPED"
We received over 80 entries from all four corners of the world. There was no restriction on style or content, only that it was no more than 100 words and the phrase "water dripped" had to appear in it.
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Our second 100 Words competition brought us over 120 entries from all around the UK. Winning and runner up entries were announced at the Festival and the winning entry was also published in the November edition of the Southam Advertiser in 2019.
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FIRST PLACE
'What's That Son? You've Entered a Fast Friction Competition?', by Mark Robinson
‘What do you mean, Walter tripped?’ asked dad.
Andrew face palmed as he held the phone. ‘No, dad, –’
‘I saw him this morning,’ dad continued. ‘He was walking around without any problems.’
‘Not Walter, dad, water! Water dripped, from the new shower. All night long.’
‘Walter tripped in the shower? Oh dear. Is he okay?’
Andrew sighed. Dad’s hearing was getting worse. ‘Yes, he’s fine. No harm done.’
‘Ah, good. Here, talking of showers, how’s the one I fitted at yours last week?’
SECOND PLACE
Prison of My Own Making, by Zoe Critchley
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Water dripped from above and rolled uncomfortably down my neck. Goosebumps trailed in its wake and I shivered uncontrollably. I had been here for a week now. It felt like much longer.
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I had been made to walk for miles. My whole body ached. I could not remember the last time I had slept properly, or what it felt like to be clean and warm. I was miserable, hurting, hungry, tired, freezing, dirty; suffering.
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More water found its way through the leaking canvas of the tent and landed on my head.
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I truly hated camping.
THIRD PLACE
Adonis, by Lindsay Woodward
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I was no longer just fanning myself from the heat of the sun. The Adonis before me was ramping my temperature up. The waves appeared to move aside as he strode out of the sea. They too seemed in awe of him.
He swept his wet hair away as his eyes became locked with mine. My heart pounded as he approached my sunbed. Water dripped from his fingers on to my hot skin, tingling me with excitement.
‘All right, chicken?’ he said, in a strangely high pitched voice. ‘You’re well fit, you are.’
Oh well. Beggars can’t be choosers.
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The 2019 short listed stories, in no particular order, were:
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Unthinkable, by Deanna Allan
Adonis, by Lindsay Woodward
Twiddle, by Anne Warburton
Relief at Last, by Kristian Rose
Water Torture, by Mark Robinson
Prison of my own making, by Zoe Critchley
What's that Son? You've entered a Fast Friction Competition? by Mark Robinson
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There were no local prizes award in 2019
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2018 - "THE DOOR SLAMMED"
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We had an amazing start to our 100 WORDS competition at our first festival. We received over 80 entries from all four corners of the world, with topics ranging from holidaying in foreign lands, to mortifying eye tests. There was no restriction on style or content, only that it was no more than 100 words and the phrase "the door slammed" had to appear in it.
Winning and runner up entries were announced at the Festival and the winning entry was also published in the Southam Advertiser late last year.
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We'd like to thank Reynolds Insurance, TM &JM Grey and Writers Magazine for sponsoring the competition.
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FIRST PLACE
Molly’s Dream Holiday, by Christine Eddison
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Christmas in Mombasa! Sweat gathers on my lip and prickles my armpits.Musky pawpaw and sweet jasmine scent the air, noisy with cicadas and hummingbirds.
Tomorrow I’ll ride the glass-bottomed boat to the reef and gaze covetously towards exotic Zanzibar. Back at harbour, I’ll admire the busy throngs of white-garbed women and listen to the mesmeric murmur of the muezzin.
The door slammed. ‘Morning, Molly. Myra here. Time to get you dressed.’ I startle as my bed hoist begins its creaking grind. I sense the wheelchair waiting to transport me towards another sightless helping of daytime television.
JOINT SECOND PLACE
Yo-Yo, by Adam Stewart
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Adam was the greatest. What that man couldn’t do with a yo-yo wasn’t worth doing. At the height of his powers he performed his own brand of yo-yo magic to sell out arenas all over Warwickshire. He was a God and his legend was told in school playgrounds from Stockton to Stratford.
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As the fame and fortune rolled in, Adam could even afford to buy his dream car. Then, all too quickly, it ended.
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“That’s my car” he yelled.
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He reached out, the door slammed. His index finger fell to the floor. It was all over for Adam.
Supernova, by Charles Adey
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Fifteen thousand light years from Earth, a star collapsed. Gravity intensified, crushing the surface inwards towards a point of infinite density, bending light rays and muting all noise into absolute black nothingness. Unable to collapse further, time reversed itself, and everything the star ever was exploded into white and pink eternity, stretching for millions of miles in every direction. I watched the tiny speck of light from my bedroom window, a little brighter than the others. A breeze came through the house and behind me the door slammed, bringing me back to planet Earth.
THIRD PLACE
The Eye Test, by Mairead Rawal
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Hannah sat and waited. It’s just an eye test, she reassured herself. The ophthalmologist
whipped into the room, the door slammed behind him, making her jump.
‘Good morning, Mrs Smith’, and they began.
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It was proceeding smoothly until she was asked to read the letters chart. First line; easy.
Second line; trickier. The third line was indistinct – C, O, C and… was that a K? It couldn’t be! Hannah broke out in a cold sweat. He was waiting.
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‘K.’
The K hung there. Nobody spoke. She couldn’t quite meet the ophthalmologist’s eye.
‘R, Mrs Smith, R.’
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