The clocks go back today, and Shoreline of Infinity moves forward.
We were absolutely delighted with the response to our first Flash Fiction competition for our readers – thanks to all of you who spent time over the summer crafting your 1,000 words. The judges, Eric Brown and Pippa Goldschmidt were mightily impressed with the overall quality of the stories, which, of course, made their task delightfully difficult. With me along to hold their coats and to ensure no soup was spilled in the intense discussions, we are now pleased to announce the shortlist (in alphabetical order of writer):
| Author | Story Title |
| Cammie Campbell | Seeking Water, Seeking Sky |
| DS Camperdown | The Last Enchantment |
| Matthew Castle | A Choice for the Golden Age |
| Barry Charman | Matter |
| Neil Chue Hong | Time Of My Life |
| Laura Duerr | The Quantum Window |
| SK Farrell | Pauline and the Bahnians |
| Simon Fung | A Game of Dolls |
| Kirsty Hammond | Glorious |
| Maria Haskins | In The Rose Garden |
| Art Lasky | A Modest Proposal |
| Katie Gray | My House |
| Brian M. Milton | The Oculus at the Edge of the Universe |
| Marija Smits | ATU334 The Wise |
Congratulations to you all, and thanks for your wonderful stories.Now the judges will get back to work, and will be whittling down the list to a shortlist of six. We will be announcing this list on 30th November.
The top three stories will be published in Shoreline of Infinity 10, due out early December, and the winners will be announced by the judges at our Event Horizon in Edinburgh on the 7th December.
The Flash fiction collection
We will be publishing a collection of the best stories from the competition submissions in 2018. All those longlisted here will be appearing in that edition, plus other stories that were oh so close.
And next year
We were so pleased with the response that we have decided to make it an annual event, and with an increase in the prize money. Now see what you’ve done.