At the beginning of April Yahoo set up a short story competition for stories
to entertain children during the lockdown.
Yesterday, 27 April, they announced the 20 shortlisted stories
and mine, FLYING COLOURS, is one of them.
The stories are now open to public vote (until 8 May) and if you’d like to vote for mine, find story No 16 and drag the purple and white icon between the 1♥ & 10♥ to register your vote. If you do decide to vote, thank you. The 14 most-voted-for stories will be recorded (with the help, as Yahoo Stor14s say, of some famous friends) and made into free podcasts for children to give them story-friends during isolation.
As I wrote mine, I thought about the NHS frontline staff as they do their best to beat the virus, and I thought of all the paintings of rainbows children have put in their windows. I wrote a Just-So allegory that turned the NHS staff into African starlings fighting a deadly locust swarm who, for their courage, are awarded their FLYING COLOURS.
And it is true, as the story tells, that African starlings evolved from plain black
to brilliantly coloured. There’s more about their evolution under the starling. 
Thank you, mine is 15th June, will definitely listen to yours too! x
Hi Chantal,
I just heard that my story made it to the Final 14. I so hope yours did too.
Hi Angela, just came on to message you! Yes mine did also, well done on yours too! 🙂
(ps I tried to reply a couple of times but the comment isn’t appearing so apologies it does come up again afterwards)
I’m so glad. When’s yours being podcast – I want to listen (mine’s 29 June) x
Thanks Angela, I can see we’re both in the same boat – thinking and checking the same things! I also emailed them this week but haven’t had a response yet either. Thanks so much for replying and best of luck to you too 🙂
I haven’t heard anything either Chantal, and I’m wondering whether they’ve chosen the final 14 (and neither of our stories made it) or whether they haven’t yet decided. The site’s still open for voting even though they say votes close 4 May. It’s a bit of a mystery … if they haven’t yet chosen I wish your story good luck. And if they have I can only guess they’ll eventually put a notice up on the site. I too was told they’d let us know by 11 May and I sent an email to the stor14s people who notified us last Friday. I asked when they were planning to let us know but no reply so far. Although I have just found a site called podtail.com which promises podcasts of the stories entered but it’s blank … the plot thickens! PS Wednesday morning: I’ve just found the link to the planned podcast: https://podtail.com/podcast/stor14s/ : very short and mostly ads at the moment. But it says stor14s will be coming 1 June … .
Hi Angela, I was also shortlisted but didn’t know as it went to my junk folder! I haven’t heard anything since and wondered if the chosen 14 have already been notified? I can’t find anything online although the email said we’d know by 11th May. I’d be grateful if you could let me know. Many thanks, Chantal