Hysteria 6 Anthology

I am delighted that my story, Still Life, won the Hysteria short story competition and is published in the 6th Hysteria Anthology. This, along with the five previous anthologies, is full of stories, flash fiction and poems from many writers whose work I have read and hold in high esteem so I feel honoured to be among them. This year's winning flash fiction is Stephanie Hutton's You Don't Have to Talk About Your Daddy in Counselling if You Don't Want To. The winning poem is Jane Doe #503 by Sarah Jane Potts.

My story is one I started many years ago - it's been tweaked quite a bit since then but one scene that stayed pretty much intact is the scene in the artist's studio.

The house and its studio was based on that of my grandmother-in-law. One of her daughters was also an artist and has work exhibited in various galleries including two in Cornwall where the family spent a lot of time in the artists' colony in the 1930s. The characters in the story, however, are all from my imagination.

Almond Tree in Blossom by Bonnard

The tree mentioned in the story is an apple tree but it was Bonnard's almond tree which inspired it. There used to be a street tree on my road that reminded me of this picture. It was so beautiful and its early flowering of delicate pink flowers in late January or early February was always the harbinger of a long awaited spring. The council cut it down. Like the tree in my story it will live forever in my mind!

The anthology is now available in e-book format from Amazon  and in print directly from The Hysterectomy Association .