Authonomy.com announced a competition, run by Harper-Collins and
Act on CO2, to write a short story or fairytale to help educate people about climate change and encouraging them to take responsibility and to make changes in their lives that reduce their carbon footprint. It felt right that I should attempt a fairy tale, especially as as friend of mine has been writing one (on a different subject) and as I received a copy of Grimm's fairy tales for Christmas. The language, imagery, blood-thirstiness and general insanity of the stories appealed. So I set out with a tale of Rat, Mouse and Gerbil adrift in a lifeboat. Rat's greed, arrogance, violence and thoughtlessness causes disaster. It was great fun to write an allegory and I hope the tale will appeal to adults and children and, most especially, the judges. I read it out at
Writers in the Brewery and the response was promising.
Notes
- Authonomy.com is a website run by Harper-Collins for writers to load their books (partial or complete) and comment on the work of others, with a chance of the book being reviewed by Harper-Collins editors.
- The chapters (or entries) for Act on CO2 can be seen by looking at that book on their website (you do not have to be a member on authonomy.com to look).
- Writers in the Brewery is a monthly meeting at the Brewery Arts Centre in Cirencester where, in addition to there being a guest speaker, local writers have the chance to read their work.
PS. Authonomy.com is no longer active.
