Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
There's been a murder in Sheffield Town Hall
I am absolutely thrilled to announce that my short story, ‘Tough Day At Work’, has been selected as the winner of the Murder In The Mayor’s Parlour crime writing competition.
The Murder in the Mayor’s Parlour project is the brainchild of Sheffield Lord Mayor, Cllr Sioned-Mair Richards, who wanted to support and develop the next generation of writing talent across the city.
The judges’ verdict on my winning story was: “Out of all of the entries, this one had the best twist. It was engaging from start to finish, deceiving in a good way and kept us gripped. It made great use of the parlour and described it in such great detail.”
The competition judges were Sioned-Mair Richards, Nancy Fielder, editor of The Star newspaper, award-winning novelist Dr Yvonne Battle-Felton and Russ Thomas, author of the Sheffield-based Tyler and Rabbani series of crime novels.
Dr Yvonne Battle-Felton, said: “I’ve always loved a good mystery. Being part of the workshop day was very special, and I loved seeing the influences and being pleasantly surprised at the different directions the authors took. It was great to see characters killed so creatively, they were a joy to read and to judge – the whole thing was really fun.”
The Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Cllr Sioned-Mair Richards, said: “The competition was difficult to judge as all the entries were great. The writers had obviously all worked hard and used the advice that they’d been given at the workshop.
“Even being killed was fine, although I’m not sure what I did to upset them!”
Russ Thomas said: “I was pleased so many people delivered a good story in such a short space of time. They all used the setting well, they listened to what the judges said and used all the advice available.”
Nancy Fielder, said: “Crime stories are my favourite and I love books which are set in Sheffield so it was fantastic to see such talent from all the writers. It was wonderful to be able to recognise places from the great descriptions.”
Fifteen Sheffield writers participated in a workshop held in the luxurious and inspiring setting of the Lord Mayor’s Parlour in Sheffield Town Hall, led by some of the best writing talent in the city.
You can read my story and all the other stories here:
