Yesterday I received an email telling me that my short story, Mr Crickfarthing’s Emotion Emporium, has been shortlisted for the Wicked Young Writers’ Award 2010 in the 17-25 year old category. Hip hip, and indeed, hooray.

That’s “Wicked” in reference to the musical Wicked, by the way, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel, a prequel/”re-imagining” to The Wizard of Oz. Gregory Maguire is one of the judges, along with Michael Morpurgo, former children’s laureate.

Being shortlisted means that my story will be published in the anthology of entries. I’ve also been invited to the Awards Ceremony in London in November at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, where the winners will be announced.

The competition closed back at the end of July, and not having heard anything for a couple of months, I’d pretty much forgotten about it, so it was a very pleasant surprise to receive the email telling me I’d been shortlisted! I’m looking forward to the trip to London.