As promised, we are featuring more about the 1st place award winning book, and author of our fantastic and exciting competition for aspiring authors. It’s what we do here at Words for the Wounded: provide opportunities for writers while raising funds to help veterans in whatever way we can. So thank you all. Now I know all you want is to read more about Not a Girl, by Chris Donaldson – our winning entry:
Not a Girl by Chris Donaldson
Not A Girl is a collection of short stories reflecting aspects of the universe. They are a mix of adventure, horror and science fiction. Some are based in a world we can recognise, some are not. All are fascinating, and almost addictive.
Judge’s comment.
For me this is the winner hands down. The author has a distinctive and original voice, his writing is very accomplished and sometimes beautiful, and some of the stories are stunning. Admittedly, not all, and there are very clear influences, but I liked his ability to draw me in, to create a world in just a few words. I think he’s incredibly talented. And yes, he must have a novel in him. However, he clearly isn’t sure what direction to take, so he’s experimenting a bit. I liked it a lot.
Chris taught Skydiving professionally for 26 years, and travelled widely to pursue this. Bad weather allowed plenty of time for his writing fixation, and after two unpublished novels he turned to short fiction, finding the medium easier to clip and prune until satisfaction was achieved. Most of his stories, although generally dark and speculative, try to reflect his wonder at the wide, wild and sometimes bleak places of the earth, and of those same places inside each of us.
Chris lives in Peterborough with wife Stéphanie, where he currently works as a fundraising manager for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Any spare time is spent cycling the fens and hunting for that rarest of things – a literary agent who deals in short stories…
Chris will be telling us about A Day in his Life soon.
Not a Girl by Christopher Donaldson. pub. Troubador. £8.99 pb.
www.troubador.co.uk
www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk