With all the furore over the printing and submission of “Bloodie Bones” last week it completely slipped my mind to declare (in big letters, with a smattering of fireworks and a fanfare of trumpets)
I have won a literary award!
I hear you ask, “how could you forget to mention this?” I also hear you cry “but the Booker shortlist is announced in September and your name isn’t on the BFS awards.” True. Very true.
My prize ladies and gentleman, was first place in a writing competition at my son’s school! It looks a little like this:
(I also received a book voucher.)
Now I hope it doesn’t come across that I am in any way belittling my prize - because that isn’t the case. I was absolutely thrilled to win and I sat in the hall in one of those tiny seats that you sit on at parents’ evening, and when my name was called I proudly went up to collect my award.
Which brings me onto where this post is going; Validation! It’s very difficult to develop objectivity when writing - is it good? is it bad? is it brilliant? is it terrible? Quite often the stories that I have thought were my best work have been rejected by many publications, whilst stories I thought were just okay have been snapped up as soon as they reach the editor’s hands.
It’s for this reason that getting published (or winning an award!) is as much about the validation of what I have written as revelling in the financial rewards (although I will thoroughly enjoy spending the book tokens). Obviously it’s also about raising my profile and getting the name “Richard Farren Barber” (Did you see what I did there? notch up another hit on the Google-ometer) more widely known and adding to the list of credits on my writing CV.
And for any of you out there wondering - no, I didn’t win at the expense of some six year old who went home weeping and clutching their crumpled sheet of paper to their chest, there was a category for parents.
