Forget shortbread, it began with cake

Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash

Is there anything better than been woken by the aroma of fresh cake?

That's how I began my piece for the Alpha challenge that you may remember me sharing with you back in November? It was all about writing a story or poem where you refer to all of the five senses. 

As you may recall, I was going to turn a very short story involving shortbread, earl grey tea and murder into a much longer one, but I got stuck. And it turns out it's a good idea that I did, as my new idea proved to work rather well. 

Instead of murder, I went for the far more wholesome topic of baking, and not just ordinary baking, oh no, fairy-tale baking! My piece was all about The Great Fairy-tale Bake Off , and it did rather well. I came joint third with 10 marks, the winner got 13, and I received lovely comments like these:

My favourite story. So enchanting I had to read it over and over again.

I enjoyed this entry. The mention of the senses is very subtle and cleverly done. Well done.

And this one, which is the main ingredient for this post:

I imagine that the author had tremendous fun with this piece of writing – which is a win, in and of itself.

I did have a lot of fun writing it, in fact so much fun, that I'd love to turn it into a longer piece, maybe, and I'll only whisper this, into a children's book. 

I've got a basic plot. I've got many of the characters: Hansel and Gretel are hosting, the judges are Mavis the Witch and Gloria the Fairy Godmother, and a whole host of characters are taking part. I've got a beginning and an end, but even as I write about this idea, the doubts smother my enthusiasm. 

It may be good enough for 300 words but do you have enough ideas for a whole book? 

What if Hansel and Gretel dry up and don't give you the goods as hosts?

And if I'm been honest, it's blooming hard work writing a book, trying to wrestle the words to the page as they tease you and fly out of reach, but I know many of you know that. 

But as I said earlier, I had fun writing it, and a pinch of fun is a pretty special  ingredient to have as you work on something that's close to your heart. 

Please do pray that if this piece is meant to be something more, then the ideas and motivation will come. 

If you'd like to know who won, and who took part, then let me know and I'll send you the piece. 

Next month, I may be telling you about a certain adventure involving a precious ring...