Tony Warner, London Independent Story Prize 2024 2nd Competition Short Story Finalist 'The Children will be Late for School'

London Independent Story Prize 2024 2nd Competition Short Story Finalist 'The Children will be Late for School' by Tony Warner

- Can you please tell us about you and your daily life?

My wife is a painter who has a studio on an industrial estate. While she is in the smelly studio in her protective mask I sit in the greasy caff at the other end of the studio and write. If I’m not writing there, I may be in a studio or library elsewhere or, if I’m lucky, in a quiet pub.

- When and how did you get into writing?

When I was tiny I would tell my classmates stories on the way to school. Later I edited and half-wrote the school magazine. University and the first years of work brought an abrupt halt before I started writing articles for arts magazines. Then I got a new job which entailed nights and weeks away in strange, dull cities, which is when I began to write my first novel ‘Vincent and Pablo’, about the impossible meeting of Van Gogh and Picasso in London in 1900. This led to being accepted on the National Centre for Writing’s ‘Escalator’ programme, culminating in the publication of the second novel ‘Childhood, Boyhood, Youth.’ In the meantime I’ve published around thirty short stories, edited an eight volume manual for the British army and a text book for IT students.

- How often do you write? Do you have a writing routine? And what inspires you to write?

Like most writers, I write because I can’t help myself. I write best when I feel passionate about something. I do have a kind of routine (see above) but the lightening can strike at any time

- How does it feel to have your work recognised?

It’s always a gratifying surprise. There’s a lot of good writers out there and being recognised as one of them is a source of satisfaction. Then there’s the problem of ‘what can I do next which will be as good as the last one?’

- What's the best and most challenging thing about writing a Short Story? 

Hitting the emotional buttons without becoming mawkish or sentimental. I’m from the north of England; we don’t show emotion much up there.

-  How did you develop the idea for your LISP-selected story? Is there a story behind your story? And, how long have you been working on it?

I have friends who are developing dementia or being admitted to care homes. It sounds horrific. My wife and I talk more often about what we will do when it all happens to us. This is the third version of the story and the second in the series on the same theme.

- Can you please give us a few tips about writing a Short Story?

 People first; plot second; language third.

- What's the best thing and the most challenging thing about competitions? 

 All judges have different tastes and you never know what they may be. All you can do is look at the word limit and send in the best you’ve got. Ah, but there’s this themed competition for which you don’t have a piece of the right size. Better get down to work, then…..

- Lastly, do you recommend the writers submit to LISP?

Writers should submit to everything, even Mills and Boon or Handel’s Sack of Horror. (I made the last one up.)