a few years ago i wrote an article which won me a place with 3 others out of hundreds of thousands, to create a magazine for the BBC’s new project ‘BLAST’; aimed at promoting the arts to young people in the United Kingdom. i saw the call asking us young’uns to write and tell the bigshots at the BBC, Dazed & Confused Magazine & Livity Studios why WE were so damn worthy of being picked. I wrote my application fucked out of my face; I had just done a hit of heroin to sink a battle ship (infact, because i was so determined to finish the piece, the next morning i woke up with a bruised forehead where i kept repeatedly hitting the keyboard) and had drunk so much vodka and grapefruit I’m suprised I could even type. Is that saying something? Because I got picked. The BBC took me off to a hotel for 2 weeks in Tottenham Court Road. I worked at Livity Studios in London, went to Dazed & Confused Magazine, worked with the editor. Why am I mentioning this?

I don’t know. Maybe because, all the while I was working down there, I was a heroin addict. And I sat writing and typing and interviewing people for the “MAGAZINE” and all I could think of was why the hell they had let a junkie like me infiltrate their shiney-clean BBC publication. Jesus, the photo of us on the back of the magazine features me in shorts and short sleeves. Yes, I have razor blade cuts and stitches and bandages all over my legs, but are you telling me nobody saw my track marks all over my arms? J-E-S-U-Z.

Everybody, visit this  http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/writing/magazine.pdf     take a look at Naomi Cave, junkified, 15.

I am still sitting here trying to write the best I can for the University of Hertfordshire 3,500 word Story Competition. I have been working on this since late November and I have used up nearly a whole notebook with plans and story variations. The hardest thing I am having to deal with is the word count. Every time I get into Word I am nowhere near finished the story when it peaks about 3,000. But I am enjoying the challenge. I am used to writing novel length pieces or articles for the local press I am involved with… this is something I am having to learn to do- condense everything into 3,500 words and make it every bit as powerful as I would something that was six or seven times that. Anyway, the theme is VISION. They just gave you that to work on so its up to you what definition of Vision you choose to go with and work upon.

1st prize £1,000 2nd prize £500 3rd prize £300 4th prize £200

£1,000 £500 £300 £200 The winner will also be able to apply for the UH Writing Award three-year scholarship to the University of Hertfordshire, study commencing in 2007. You can go visit the competition page here. It is a brilliant opportunity- that being the scholarship. It would be my dream to bag that. I doubt I will but I am going to have a bloody good pop. Deadline is 15th January so I better get cracking. I’ll publish what I have wrote soon.