John Elkon is originally from South Africa, but moved to the United Kingdom during Apartheid. He is most known for his books Umfaan’s Heros, Lazlo’s Millions and Sally’s Road.
Every year he hosts the Mega Saga, where writers submit an online story of 100 words, to win £100 and a chance to get their name known in the writing and poetry world.
“It sounds easy, but it isn’t. You have to form a plot, an entire story and title. I’ve entered three times, judged once and my stories were always shortlisted,” said Macleod.
The other two judges of this competition were famous and world-renowned authors, Laura Sebastian who wrote the Ash Princess series and Joie Davidow who wrote An Unofficial Marriage.
This year she received a joint first place for her metaphorical writing pieces titled Mimicked Me. Elkon described her piece as a poetic, evocative stroll through her interior world, the confrontation with death and the determination to carry on.
Macleod said, “I feel ecstatic about winning. I’ve been trying to win for years, even if it was a joint win. Now I can finally put my name out there a bit more.”
Macleod said she has loved writing for as long as she can remember.
“Writing has been a friend that has never judged me. It’s a safe space for me. Equally I am able to get out all my feelings and entwine them with metaphors which has me writing for hours.
"I like to make people ponder and use their imagination even more so than they would a story without metaphors. Naturally I don’t always write this way, though it is my preferred method,” she said.
Macleod also owns an online bookstore and has had a few of her poems published in an online magazine called Ariel Chart.
“My upcoming novel is a fictional depiction of my own life where we, as writers, take the truth and lie about it per say. It’s just a way of making what really was, a little different. It covers many aspects in a spin of metaphors,” she said.
To read her winning piece, visit http://jonelkon.com/winners/
