Writers Group BMS award
Dolly Varden-Chambers has received the first prize in a short story competition the Rotorua Writers Group has run
sponsored by Business Media Services Ltd.
Dolly was awarded the prize for her story 'Autumn'. Second place went to Heather Foley, with Jack Stafford, third, who
received certificates from the writers group.
This is the first year BMS has sponsored the prize for $100 and Mr Smith said he did so in recognition of the work the
group was doing and to help give writers an experience of competing in a sponsored competition.
Rotorua Writers Group president Marj Griffiths said the Christmas party wound up an interesting and active year in which
many new members have been welcome.
“We appreciate the support we’ve received from our sponsors, particularly BMS for its sponsorship of the in-house short
story writing competition,” Marj said.
Mr Smith said the choice of a winner was quite a hard, because there was a group of six or seven stories that tested his
resolve.”
“What swayed me to decide on the winner was the stipulation I had placed on the overall competition. Apart from
structure, dialogue and the usual aspects of a short story competition, I placed an emphasis on imagination.”
“I wanted to see a story in which the imagination took flight; a bit like the Red Bull advert.”
Dolly’s story got its nose ahead of the placegetters by having that extra twist of imagination. While it could easily
have been a good story in its own right, the addition of this extra factor added the kind of element I was looking for
in the winner.
“She took what amounted to a leap of faith in writing the story from the point of view of two people. I started off by
reading the story from one view point and was sympathetic to that character; then all of sudden, the writer springs the
point of view of the other character. Two worlds were created in a short space of time.”