I'm a Published Author!

I've been wanting to share this news for a while, and today I can. Today, my short story - The Death Strike was published by the amazing Northern Gravy!

You're excited? I'm excited!

I've only ever written 3 short stories during my children's writing journey and The Death Strike is my second. My first one - Again, was short-listed for the Write Mentor Short Story competition last year and my 3rd - The Storm, recently got through 2 rounds of The Winter Writing Battle.

I am going to say it - I am proud of myself.

When I came up with the idea after receiving 3 prompts from the NYC Midnight competition, I knew I was on to something special. It felt important to me. Like I needed to tell this story. It's relevant. Exaggerated, yes very, but relevant. Our NHS is struggling and something needs to be done.

But, please do not do this. Not by any means am I, nor my story encouraging a Life (Death) Strike. Do NOT do it. I repeat - DO NOT DO IT.

Anyway, back to the story of this story. The prompts I received were -

Genre: Political Satire - Nooooooo! I did NOT want this genre! It scared the hell outta me!

Character: A mama's boy - I thought, OK, I can work with this.

Theme: An Olympiad - What on earth is an Olympiad? Research. Research. Reasearch.

First I came up with a pitch and then the story unfolded:

17y/o JJ is about to test at the UK Mathematics Olympiad, but when his beloved mother begs him to go with her to the Death Strike, James must decide between his love for his mother, or his love for math’s.

An exaggerated tale about what could happen if humans stopped using the NHS in order to save it.

Thank you to Jonny and the team at Northern Gravy for believing in my story. You guys rock!

A little word from me:

THANK YOU TO ALL NHS AND KEY WORKERS FOR YOUR CONTINUED HARD WORK AND SACRIFICE DURING NOT JUST THE PANDEMIC, BUT ALL THE YEARS BEFORE AND ALL THE YEARS YET TO COME. <3

Read my short story here:

https://northerngravy.com/the-death-strike-by-arden-jones/