The Chopping Blog

Acquisitions editors, literary agents, and writing contest screeners are often faced with a large slush pile: a heap of manuscripts that must be quickly assessed. What makes one manuscript stand out from the next? What snags and red flags will land your work in the bin rather than on the shortlist?

We've hit 40 entries, and earlier than expected! That means the prize pool is now spilling over to second place. Third place will begin to grow at 70 entries

A police car passed the shelter three times but didn’t see the troubled watcher within. A sheen of ice covered the pavements and empty roads. Night, time of dreams, unfolded itself. Ash began to shiver, her fingers sore, feet numb. Silence hung black as a blanket. The hours cycled and Ash counted each on its way. The dead sat with her.

The night before the voices started I was arrested for keying Arsehole onto the side of a brand new Ford Mondeo. By the time I recognised the flashing blue lights, Beth and Mandy had fled.

There are twelve important characters in this story: the princess, the blind, the lone wolf, the assassin, the vigilante, the criminal, the good, the silent, the sane, the insane, the wanderer, and the waitress.

It was very difficult to whittle down all these great submissions to a shortlist of ten. There were so many interesting stories from such diverse voices. But, lines had to be drawn, so here are the stories and writers that I have passed along to Michelle Barker for final judging:

It's only July, and we have already hit 40 entries for the First Page Challenge. That means the first prize pool has filled and is now spilling over. Every additional entry from this point increases the pot!

A flash non-fiction story by Darling Axe editor David Brown. Originally published in the Malahat Review, No. 206 – Spring 2019.

The First Page Challenge is a contest for writers who are shoulder-deep in a new manuscript. Hook us in a single page for a chance to win a growing prize pool, plus publication on the Chopping Blog.

English is S P Robin's fifth and last-acquired language. An avid story collector, she now uses English in storytelling. A teen from Czechoslovakia, Robin is an adult Australian who thus hopes to entertain, and perhaps even move, the willing.  

Congratulations to Chad Broughman whose story Tiny Little Mirrors came in second place in the 2019 Axe to Grind flash-fiction contest!

What an honour it was to judge the Darling Axe’s first-ever fiction contest. Thanks to everyone who entered and crafted such wonderful stories. Deciding on the top three was agonizing.