Fame at Last...

Yesterday morning, in the misty haze of too late a night and an excess of tipple, my phone rang. It showed an unknown number and I immediately thought, cold call. I let it go to voicemail. Voicemail then rang me back and I heard a very chirpy voice say "Oh hello, this is Lesley, I've been trying to reach you for a few days and have sent an email already. I do hope I have the correct details, please give me a ring on...". My interest peaked I checked my emails but couldn't see anything from a Lesley so I rang the number. An even chirpier voice answered and Lesley very excitably explained that I had won their short story competition. Oh My God. My fuzzy head instantly cleared but all I could reply was "Oh My God" and "What?". This was a story I had written the first week of my creative writing class and over the next 2 months, my teacher had encouraged me to send it off to this Daphne Du Maurier short story competition, as well as editing it for me and making me rewrite it 6 times! Agony! I never really thought about it again. So I am completely in shock but really thrilled and once it is published and put up on their website I will send a link and people can have a read if they desire. The other thing is... The short story thing is one part of the Daphne Du Maurier literary festival starting next week in Cornwall. Lesley asked if I was attending so that I coul be presented with my prize. Prize... What? I suddenly pictures a new kitchen, laptop, holiday and so on, until she said "or if you can't come to the festival, we can put the cheque for £100 in the post." ha ha... This is obviously prestige rather than financial gain! So I had a think and thought, crikey, a 5 hour drive, it's a long way to go to just pick up a £100 and get a handshake, but then Lesley Got saucy, and I'm a complete sucker for a bit of emotional blackmail. She sent me an email saying "Juliet, we really would love to see you down here, the runner up will be attending but don't feel obliged. Just to let you know, if you do attend we will slot you into the festival timetable, maybe have you read it out and we will get a celebrity to award you your prize." Oh Lesley, me thinks you already know me too well. The offer of a stage and a celebrity in one, how could I say no?