My short story, “The Silence of Clockwork”, picked up third prize in the Conflux 9 short story competition. I’m especially pleased about this as the story works as a prequel to my unfinished novel, Heart Fire, by showing some of the history of its male protagonist, Ruk, a bold, daring shapeshifting spirit who plots to escape the human word, but his shifterness prevents him.
Conflux 9 was held in Canberra in late April. It’s theme was steampunk (angels, junk and steam), an added bonus.
I wrote and edited the “Silence of Clockwork” at the same time as I was madly finishing my PhD, squeezing it in before bed over 5 days — the quickest 3000 word story, I’ve completed ever! It was subsequently published in the Conflux 9 Convention Programme book (page 37).
Many thanks to the Conflux 9 judges, Joanne Anderton, Jenny Blackford, Dirk Flinthart, to Elizabeth Fitzgerald for her fine editing, and also to the convention organizers for putting on such a great convention.
CAROL RYLES 
More congrats, dear Carol. So well deserved, and I know how brilliant you are at writing fast, under pressure, and turning out wondrous characters and plots! Love xoxo
Wow, well done Carol!! I remember you telling me about this one when you were in the midst of writing flurry, and that you had a ‘good feeling’ about it. Well it seems you were right!
Thank you Venetia. I’ve been writing in a flurry ever since 😉 But the novel rewrite is finally done. Fingers crossed.
Yay!!! Well deserved. And I had absolutely NO idea which of the stories was yours when I was reading the entries (or, indeed, until I got a copy of the program book at the Con).
Thank you Jenny. I was bursting to tell everyone, but had to keep it a secret for months.