Hidden Shallows

Inspiration

Hidden Shallows was originally written for Task Nine of the 2008-9 SlingInk Eurofiction Competition. The prompt used was "Write a story set on or near water". It was the round winner out of a total field of unknown size (probably between 20 and 30). The (unnamed) judge commented that it was "wicked, clever, sexy and entertaining. This is a really fun story. A gem!"

Publications

Hidden Shallows was submitted to Every Day Fiction, where it was published on September 1st, 2009.

Notes

I'd been itching to write a story called Hidden Shallows for some time, although I'd no idea what form it might take. I just liked the idea of producing a collection called Hidden Shallows and other stories, largely because it reflected how I felt about the profundity (or rather the lack of it) in my writing. So when this prompt came up, I leapt at it. I liked the idea of turning a cliché on its head and having a couple of hyper-intelligent women fantasising about sex with a dumb bloke. The funny thing about the story is that I felt it was so slight that no-one would like it at all, but I've always had very positive comments about it - especially from men. Strong, sexy, intelligent women are clearly a good thing.