One night in 2006, when my son was small, I was lying on his bedroom floor waiting for the little monkey to go to sleep! Feeling a certain chill in the air I let my mind wander and before long, I had the beginnings of a poem complete with rhyming pairs and a clickety-clack railway rhythm. I sent it to my Dad, he said, “Good” (I’m tempted to send him something dire to see what he says then) and then I filed it away. Until last October. Writing Magazine had a poetry competition with a ghostly theme and I decided to send it in.
The rules stated that winners would be notified by February 15th and if we hadn’t heard by then, we could safely submit our work to other competitions/publications. February 15th came and went and I heard nothing. I also knew that runners up would get a mention in the magazine but I assumed that they would be informed and I still didn’t hear anything. So I resigned myself to the fact that my clickety-clack hadn’t impressed.
A few days ago, the April edition of the magazine plopped onto the mat. I ripped it open and went straight to the results page to see who/what had won and there, on the bottom left-hand-corner, was my name! It felt really good! I have decided to try it somewhere else and, due to the “previously unpublished” requirements of many competitions, I can’t publish it here but I will just share my little bit of joy with you.
Catherine Osborn 
Well done Catherine. It’s always encouraging to read about success stories particularly in the field of creative writing. Onwards and upwards, girl!