A while ago I entered a writing competition called the Douglas Copeland Award. £1000 for a short story 1000 words long. Anyway, I've been told that my story has made the longlist of 40 stories out of 1,500 entries!
The longlist will be whittled down to 10 stories on the 1st of May and the winner announced on 5th May.
The thing is, I got an email from them today inviting me to the awards party and asking if I'd like to read my story! Apparently all the finalists have invites, but I'm not sure if that's all 40 from the longlist, or if this is an indication that I've made the top 10!
BUT, the party is at the Poetry Cafe in London on Weds night (May 5th). I've love to go and read my story out, but how do I get there? ds is only 4 months and still breastfed. I don't think we'd be able to take them with us as the party is in the evening anyway. Yet we can't leave them with anyone as he is too young yet and sometimes still wakes at night. I could go on my own but I don't want to go to this party all by myself! Plus I've nowhere to stay!
What do I do?