Longlisted for Mslexia (thank you, Kurt Cobain)

I was staying at a comic book artist’s house in San Francisco (Berkely to be more precise) and having a wonderful morning. I’d taken his dog for a walk, drank a few random teas (the Americans preferring coffee in general, I’d boiled whatever I could find in his ‘tea box’, drunk it, and hoped for the best), and listened to a few records (Tracy Chapman et al). He didn’t have a TV in his living room, which I thought was terribly artistic. I picked up a book about Kurt Cobain – I forget which – and started reading, and then inspiration struck.

I popped into his little comic book art room (sorry, studio) and set my laptop upon his artist’s desk. And then I boshed out a story called ‘Saturday Morning’ in all of ten minutes. Perhaps it was the strange tea.

I usually write one story per competition that I enter, but in this case, I entered two. And while I was delighted to find out that that very story had won the Henshaw Short Story Competition (see previous post), I am also now delighted to announce that it’s been longlisted for the Mslexia 2024 Short Story Competition!

Mslexia is an institution – one of the best and hardest to win comps out there, and a great resource for all writers. So even though I didn’t win (and their email, as a side note, wrote the word ‘Unfortunately’ way too many times), I’m really rather happy! I’ll take a longlist placement for such a prestigious competition. Woo hoo! My life as a homeless drifter pays off here and there, replacing stability with some nutty situations. As is ever so.

The secret – therefore – is to find a friendly comic book artist in San Fran, raid his tea cupboard, and read up on Kurt Cobain. My story, a hopeless tale of someone who loves a colleague, possibly does give some of that Smells Like Teen Spirit angst.