The New Anthology

I’ve been accepted into another anthology. This one (appropriately) is an anthology of Angel stories to balance out the Demon stories in the last Bridge House publication I was in.

‘The Angel Stone’ was written (well, the opening anyway) in the galleries of Colchester Castle on a slow day when there were just two visitors who had already been harassed by me enough and didn’t want to talk about history any more. The tasks at hand had been done, the glass polished, and to keep my sanity, I’d carried a small notebook and started writing by one of the Roman displays.

It was meant to get my brain going on the demon story, which it did do, but not the one that was published – that was something meant for an entire different publisher who didn’t like it as much. My original demon story, ‘Demon Inherited’, now published as a flash fiction with Pill Hill Press (see Daily Bites of Flash Fiction at the side of the page), was inspired by the idea that everybody has demons, but what if someone could actually see them on other people.

Spinning off that idea, what if angels weren’t just heavenly beings, but something inherited in the same way that we inherit our parents’ demons…. So in ‘The Angel Stone’, the manifestation of inherited angels comes in the form of a stone that is passed down from family member to family member until the right candidate is found. I suppose it’s a bit Witchblade, but more of a good-inspired power rather than dark.

Anyhoo, I’m very pleased to have been chosen for the anthology and even more pleased that I can put the angel anthology next to the demon anthology on my bookshelf (even if that demon story has very little to do with my angel story).

My next plan of attack on the writing front will probably change a bit. I do want to formally submit my historical fiction novel for teens to some of the larger houses, despite knowing that they are very unlikely to even read subs, let alone take on one. But the stubborn determination in me is taking over – and yes, the delusions too. It must be a writer thing. To bring things back to reality, I’ll be hitting all the agents with my scribbles too. I had a few bites with two previous children’s stories, but no takers; maybe this time will be different?

Aside from the novel, I think I’ll be focusing more on paid writing work. That means no more anthologies based on royalties (you just have to split them with so many people that it comes to pennies by the end of the month). Pill Hill usually pay for subs, so even though they generally publish various genres of adult, it’s nice to have a bit of payment (the last story paid a whopping £3, but it was still instant gratification).

Okay, enough ranting…

TTFN!