trumpet – Miriam Drori, Author

Ah, there it is.

HEAR YE!

Do I have your attention?

Right, I have three things to tell you.

Firstly, and secondly, I’m going to blow my own trumpet. Oh, I just did.

I’m delighted to have had two recent acknowledgements of my hard work. The first is from the Australian Writers’ Centre. They run a monthly feature called Furious Fiction. Authors have 72 hours in which to produce an up-to-five-hundred-word story that meets their criteria. It’s not easy to “win”.

This time, the stories had to begin in the middle of something and include the words “locket” “pocket” “rocket” and “socket”. And they featured my story on their site! (You can scroll down or search for me.)

And my fifty-word story was accepted by Vine Leaves Press for their 50 Give or Take feature. These are flash stories that are sent out to subscribers once a day and will eventually appear in their annual print anthology. You can subscribe here.

By my reckoning, my story will be sent out nearly a year from now, and will appear in print in nearly a year and a half. But the acceptance arrived yesterday and I’m up in the clouds, as it happens, literally as well as metaphorically.

The other piece of news is that in August, I’m starting a new series of guest posts on this blog. Those guests I’ve approached so far all agree that the topic is interesting. What’s the topic? I’ll reveal that once I’m down from the literal clouds.

Enjoy your summer if you’re in my half of the world, winter if you’re not.

Saturday night folk dancing sessions in Jerusalem are run by Ofer Alfasi.

Ofer is very talented and diligent. He knows all the dances very well. He invests a lot of effort, demonstrating from the centre of the circle and watching to make sure we’ve learnt properly.

But he’s not good at blowing his own trumpet. He’s reticent about introducing the dances he choreographed. Fortunately, another Ofer, who also has a dance to his name, has been championing the first Ofer’s dances recently, and they’re really good.

I’m no better at blowing my own trumpet, but I need to say this, so please forgive me:

I recently reread my novel, Cultivating a Fuji, making very minor changes to it. And as I read it, I realised how good it is, and how much I’d love it to be read widely, firstly for enjoyment – the story mixes poignancy, humour, sadness and hope – and also to increase understanding in our crazy world.

The reason why I reread it was that it’s now being republished through Ocelot Press. Here’s where you can read about it at Ocelot Press.

And then, on Facebook, someone asked, “What are your writing strengths?”

I replied, “I think I do have strengths, but I’ve never owned a trumpet or blown one.”

But this is the time I need to fight my inclinations and blow my own trumpet from the rooftops! (And mix metaphors.)

To find out more about Cultivating a Fuji, watch these short trailers:

Cultivating a Fuji is available to pre-order ahead of the 19th January release on Amazon.