An eventful July... and hello August!

It's been a very eventful July for me and my writing. I had 3 pieces published: 'Hollow' in Flash Frontier (which was also long-listed for the 2019 National Flash Fiction Day competition); 'Infestation' which was published in Ghost Parachute and illustrated with another image I won't be able to get out of my head (!); and 'First Crush' which will be published soon in Hot Flash Fiction.

I've also been working on a short story that started as a flash piece and is now, possibly, morphing into a choose your adventure long story told in flash. I need a day or two to set aside and really go hard at it. Unfortunately, there's a bit too much work on at the moment to set aside a day or two for that. So it will have to keep coming together bit by bit, early morning before early morning.

On the work front, I landed the inaugural Communication Professional in Residence at the University of Canterbury. This is a 6-week secondment that will see me working alongside professors, mentoring Communication degree students, giving a public talk (topic: Thinking, Doing, Reflecting: university education and professional practice), and researching for my own internal communication thought leadership needs. I'm really looking forward to it.

But by far, the most exciting day in July was the very last day when Frances Plumpton became my agent! She is now representing Year of the Hawk and my future YA/children's books. To say I am thrilled is an understatement. And once I finish this choose-your-adventure-in-flash story, I am getting straight to work on banging out a solid draft of a second novel which I am converting from an existing short story.

And now suddenly it's August and there is a ton on offer for poets this month. I have never seen so many competitions and opportunities in one month, many of which are free to enter. I encourage you to get involved and enter something. You never know what might happen!