I was thrilled to be longlisted for the Adaptable program through Queensland Writers Centre this year. And while I didn’t make it to the shortlist, I still feel like I have won. Why? Because the story that made it to the shortlist, The Handyman, has had a heck of a journey.
The Handyman started as a short story submission for the monthly Queensland Writers Centre Right Left Write competition, for the August 2019 theme of Landscape. It didn’t win, but it did spark an idea. I took that 500 work entry and turned it into a slightly bigger story, and entered that in the Stringybark Stories Tales with a Twist competition in 2020. It was the first time I had entered one of their competitions so I had no idea what to expect. Out of the 203 entries they received, I received a highly commended and the story was one of 33 published in the anthology Just Alice later that year.
To then enter that short story, and have it make the longlist is a pretty good feeling. From little things, big things grow. I am only at the beginning of this journey.
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