Winners' profiles: Sharon Boyle
Now that the 2018 Exeter Writers Short Story competition is open for entries, we thought we'd get you chomping at the bit with a series of blog posts around story craft. Today we're profiling last year's first prize winner Sharon Boyle, whose story 'Celluloid Job' can be viewed here.
Hi Sharon! Thank you for letting us profile you. Tell us, what do you write?
Short stories, flash and the occasional poem. I have two finished YA
novels in a drawer which when written were destined for Kindle but when
recently reread were demoted to kindling.
When and where do you write?
When not working or involved in family life, I write at the dining
room table surrounded by washing, homework and other mess. The dining room is a
thoroughfare to the kitchen so I am bothered by other folks’ chitchat - a lot.
O, for a heated shed.
Best writerly moment?
Winning the Exeter Writers Short Story comp, of course! Apart from the
kudos it is my most lucrative win.
How did you come up with the
idea for your winning story?
My nana (93 and still going strong) loves watching B&W films and
tells ‘during the war’ stories on a loop. (She never drove a tank but she did
dance with dashing Americans.) I like injecting a bit of quirkiness or humour
into a story and Stanley came naturally as a stooge to Mrs Dewhurst.
Not a lot of people know
this...
My first dream job was not to be a writer but an astronaut. I told my
secondary school guidance teacher of my plans and, after completing a
questionnaire, left his office with a piece of paper suggesting chiropody.
Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?
CS Lewis. I adored the Narnia series as a child, especially The Voyage
of the Dawn Treader and wanted to write a stonking set of books like that. I’ve
always had the romantic notion of sitting at a desk overlooking an enviable
view, sipping wine and gently tapping out a novel that needs no revision or
editing. That fairy-tale bubble burst in the first year of serious scribblings.
What's the best writing advice
you've ever been given?
To have a few writing projects on the go at once. That way, if I get temporarily
frustrated/blocked/fed up with one project I switch to another.
Give us a few last lines about
yourself.
I’m very reticent on the
self-promoting front, a mix of laziness and cluelessness, and have only just
started a blog (really, there are just four posts). It can be found at:
Thank you, Sharon!
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