Exeter Story Prize

I’m delighted to have won the Exeter Story Prize with my story ‘Time to Come Home’ (a link to the story can be found here). It started out as a simple ‘warm up’ writing exercise where we were asked to write continuously for 10 minutes on a physical/sense-based memory and I wrote a paragraph or two about journeying up to lectures at Edinburgh Uni on the 27 bus smoking Old Holborn roll-ups. Later on I picked this up and wove a story around the memory (entirely fictional in case you’re wondering), a story I wanted to write about the ‘two Edinburghs’.  Further encouragement that I should take my writing more seriously after my success a couple of years back in the Costa?

Getting the news last week, just before I was offered a last minute place on a Cove Park writing ‘masterclass’, encouraged me to take up the place. Knowledgeable tutors and a supportive group of fellow writers made for a good learning environment and I’m motivated to get writing again.

Coming back  into this blog after a long absence (only 3 or 4 posts in the past couple of years), I realise how much Twitter (@DannySMurphy) and whatsapp (mainly family groups) have replaced this blog as a place for online reports and musings.

It’s a beautiful morning here in Stirling, the River Forth heavy with the weekend’s rain.

Time to get writing.