WRITING short stories has become somewhat of a passion for Stawell's Keith Lofthouse.
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The only problem is finding the time to fulfil that passion. It's not easy for the 65-year-old, as he juggles managing his Black Range property with competing and training with both the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club and Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club. Add to that his love of horse racing and there's not much spare time, not even for a retiree.
However, Lofthouse's love of writing short stories, anything ranging from 2000 words to almost 5000 words, has landed him success in the Yarram Community Centre Annual Literary Competition.
The competition attracted more than 100 short story entries from all over the state and Lofthouse was one of two winners from the region.
"I was thrilled to be one of the winners and receive a Highly Commended," he said.
Lofthouse is in the process of writing a book of short stories, which he hopes will be published some time in 2016. At least that's when he hopes commitments with both cross country clubs will have eased.
"I'm fairly busy at the moment with the running clubs," Lofthouse said.
"Combining that with looking after my property and running up to 50 kilometres a week there's not much time left at the end of the day to sit down and write.
"I have written horse racing articles and film reviews in the past and just decided that I would have a go at writing some short stories with a difference."
The passion really ignited in Lofthouse after he finished second in a Horsham short story competition about three years ago.
"That really was the motivation for me to say I can do this," he said.
"When you get to my age, you start having a really close look at your bucket list. After the Horsham competition, I decided to move writing a book of short stories right to the top of that list.
"Now I have something to work towards. I've written 14 short stories already and ideally, would like 25 to fill the book."
Lofthouse focuses a lot on crime writing and in a further twist, delving into areas of DNA that haven't been presented before.
To this end, some of his stories have featured mosquitoes and ear wax as unusual bits of DNA.
"I watch a lot of the crime channel on television for motivation," he said.
"Not your regular crime shows that are at times far-fetched, but the true crime stories. I'm then always looking for something unusual that's generally not presented as DNA.
Having a writing background, Lofthouse said he would usually come up with an idea for his stories and just let it flow, not really capping the word count.
"Once I start writing the story, I generally let it take its own course," he said.
"That could mean one story ends at 2000 words and another at 5000 words. There aren't many competitions around that cater for 5000 words, so I try and keep them shorter. "Fortunately I'm able to use the internet a lot for research and that helps a lot. Then there's the review process and I might re-read and tinker with stories up to 40 times before being satisfied."
My last job in the industry was as a proof reader, so I edit my own work. It enables me to be involved in all facets of writing."
With titles such as Cutting Board Killer, Blood Red and the Eighth Dwarf, Devils Doorway and Terror By Torchlight, there's no surprise in the fact that Lofthouse is looking to call his book of short stories 'A Lighter Shade Of Darkness'.
"Because for the most part that is what the stories are about. I try to inject some humour to uncover a lighter shade of darkness," he said.