It’s been a long time since my last acceptance, and I couldn’t be happier that I have another story out in the world!

The Green Grave is a work of flash fiction (a story under 1000 words) and it is a short tale of a fantastical shipwreck. I originally wrote it for a writing and art competition with the writing community Globe Soup. Writers could choose one of the paintings and create a story around it.

I chose a painting of a humpback whale carrying a lifeboat into the northern lights. It was such a strong image of nature and art coming together – the power of the animal and the beauty of the sky. It immediately got me thinking about life after death, and the idea of the whale being a custodian who takes sailors on to the ‘green grave’.

For the competition we only had 500 words, and it was a challenge to condense action and imagination into such a restrictive word count. I have only three characters – the captain, a sailor and the whale. When you have so few words, you must begin ‘in media res’ (in the middle of the action) and add some context to what happened before while driving the story towards the end. My protagonist Niamh faces a difficult choice when the sailors come across the humpback whale, and her choice has fatalistic consequences for everybody onboard.

My story didn’t win the competition, but I was left with a new idea that I could submit elsewhere. Many months later it was finally accepted, and is available to purchase through Amazon (Livina Press, Issue 11 – click on picture for link).

Having work published is so important to me, and always gives me a boost to create again. I am always working on my novel, but the short stories provide a welcome respite in between drafts and editing. I have just written a new one that I am excited about.

Hopefully I will be able to find a home for that one as well. For now, back to the novel!