Paul explains: “When my story Reggie in Love was named joint-winner of July’s Global Short Story Competition, Fiona Cooper hoped that the winners would ‘think about writing a novel. Now!’
“Strangely enough, during the very month of the July competition I was working on a novella, written in the poetic style of Geoffrey Chaucer, for the zombie horror publisher, Coscom Entertainment. The result has now been published in paperback and eBook.

“So how did a writer whose preference was crime fiction end up writing over 2,000 lines of rhyming couplets?
“Three years ago, after a small amount of publishing success, I left my comfort zone and set to work on the Chaucer module of the Creative Writing MA I was working on.
“My initial effort at a Canterbury Tale, The Squire’s Second Tale, made the short list of the Canterbury Festival of Poetry’s competition in 1997. Then, last year, an abridged version of The Knight’s Second Tale was highly commended in Writers’ Forum magazine.
“However, my fortunes turned in May this year, when I submitted a 1,100-word narrative poem to Coscom Entertainment for their zombie poetry anthology Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes. The editor/publisher told me that if I could write an 18-20,000-word zombie narrative poem, he would publish it as a novella.
“The gauntlet was thrown down, and after a month of five-hour days sat behind the computer Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers (aka The Monk’s Second Tale) was born.
“Well, that’s my story. I hope this small success will serve to encourage everyone who enters the monthly GSS Competition. Through perseverance and a pinch of luck, that publishing break could be just around the corner.”

We at the competition are delighted to hear about Paul’s success. If you want to find out more about the book, I suggest you use the link http://coscomentertainment.com/robinhoodzombies.html
John Dean