Willow & Rose

Hi all,

Iron Faerie have published another anthology containing one of my short stories! You can check it out below…

Willow and Rose is a compilation of fantasy, horror and speculative drabbles and flash fiction from authors worldwide.
Within its pages you will find enchanting stories of myth, legends and fairytales woven throughout.
Dive into the magic and wonder of these 50+ tales in Volume Five.

I love submitting to Iron Faerie as the stories contained are always amazing. They always ask for submissions with great themes and prompts so I will continue submitting to them in the future.

This short story follows Sekhmet and her encounter with a man trying to sell Ancient Eygptian artifacts. If you think that this will go down well with the goddess, then you’ll need to read the story to see her reaction…

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out Willow & Rose! See you next week.

PS; don’t forget to check out this book bundle if you’re heading on holiday:

Binge-Worthy Books to Read on Holiday!

Nephilim

Hi all,

A short of mine, False Comet, has been published in an Iron Faerie anthology! You can check it out below…

Dare to enter the cosmic battleground where angels, demons, and Nephilim collide!
Revealing forbidden love, celestial wars, and the extraordinary powers that shape their entwined fates.
Brace yourself for a rollercoaster ride through realms unseen, as each story lures you into a world where the boundary between light and darkness is blurred. promises a gripping journey that will leave you breathless, craving more of the supernatural tapestry these tales so masterfully weave.

Featured authors:
Barend Nieuwstraten III
B.F. Vega
D.L. Smith-Lee
Ellen Rose
Emily Sharp
Gabby Gilliam
Jessica Turnbull
Jordan Davidson
Spencer Helsel
Sultana Raza

False Comet is actually the first story I submitted to Iron Faerie. After I saw the prompt, I came up with an idea that I couldn’t shake! It follows three teenagers who are waiting for a meteor shower but instead witness a comet crash into the Earth. Upon further investiagtion, they wished they had they had just stayed at home instead…

I love seeing my work published in anthologies and I hope to continue submitting to them this year! I’ve already got my eye on a dragon one which I’m hoping to submit to by the end of the month.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoy Nephilim! See you next week.

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before you go!

Free to Dream (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)

KU Kickstart (All Genre - 1st in Series)

A Dragon-themed New Year’s Adventure

New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

Flights of Fantasy

Hi all!

One of my short stories has managed to find a home in an anthology. You can read ‘Flames of the Moon’ in Flights of Fantasy, which is available now!

Dive into a realm where magic knows no bounds, and legends come to life.
From the mystical depths of ancient forests to the soaring heights of dragon filled skies, these tales will transport you to worlds where heroes rise, kingdoms clash, and the extraordinary becomes ordinary.
Whether you seek epic adventures, tales of mystical creatures, or stories of unlikely heroes, this anthology has it all!
Prepare to be spellbound and experience the magic of an entire universe in a single book.
The authors within this book are:
A J Wilson
Alexandra Haverská
A.M. Cummins
Andra Dill
Andrea Barton
Andrew Kurtz
Angela Zimmerman
Anna-Maria Aschmann
Ariel Finkle
Ashleigh Cattermole-Crump
Austin Worley
Barend Nieuwstraten III
Beth W. Patterson
Blake Jessop
Brandon Hingley-Lovett
Brenda Anderson
Bruce Rowe
Cara Twomey
Cassia Hall
Catherine Berry
Charles Reis
Charlotte Langtree
Chris Hewitt
Chrissie Rohrman
Claire Davon
Connor Sassmannshausen
Dale Parnell
Danielle Mikals
David Bowmore
David Green
Dawn DeBraal
Declan Liam McKendrick
Diane Arrelle
DJ Elton
D’mitri Blackwood
D.M. Slate
Dorian J. Sinnott
Edward Ahern
Elizabeth Nettleton
Ella Everly
Ellie A Goss
Emma Kathryn
Erica Damon
Fiona Honor Hurley
Gabriella Balcom
Gabby Gilliam
Gemma Paul
Georgina Stancer
Ian T. Wilson
Isa Ottoni
James Carraghan
Jasiah Witkofsky
J.A. Skelton
Jessica Labbe
Jessica Turnbull
Jodie Francis
Jon Chan
Jordan Eagles
Joshua D Taylor
Joshua Williams
Juliana Amir
Kailey Alessi
Kaitlyn Arnett
Karen Bayly
Kate Campbell
Katie Jordan
Keith Burdon
Kevin Hopson
Kim Plasket
Lauraine S. Blake
Lisa H. Owens
LJ McLeod
L.J. Wynn
L. T. Emery
Luis Manuel Torres
Lynne Phillips
Lynette S. Hoag
Maggie D Brace
Marianne Reese
Marie Sinadjan
Mckenzie Richardson
Meera Dandekar
Melody E. McIntyre
Michelle Ann King
Michelle Brett
Miriam H. Harrison
M. M. Montelione
MM Reynolds
Monica Schultz
M.W. Irving
Naito Diamond
Natasha Sinclair
Nathan A. Jacobs
NC Smith
Nerisha Kemraj
Nicole Walsh
Olivia Arieti
Pat Woods
Patrick Winters
P.L. Glaser
Rachel L. Tilley
R.A. Clarke
R.A. Goli
R. C. Capasso
Renata Pavrey
Rich Feitelberg
S.A. McKenzie
Sammi Cox
SL Kretschmer
Sophie Wagner
Stacey Jaine McIntosh
Stefan Grieve
Stephen Arndt
Stephen E Sorensen
Stephen Johnson
Stephanie Parent
Susan Cornford
Tabitha Baumander
Taya Rune
Terry Hooker
Terry Keelan
Tim Blaine
Toko Hata
Tony Steven Williams
Toshiya Kamei
Troy Deacon
V.H. Stone
Victor Nandi
Vinny Cucuzza
Vonnie Winslow Crist
Ximena Escobar

As you can see, this anthology is chock full of stories from plenty of authors! There are hundreds of fantasy stories to make your way through. I’ve read quite a few of them already and I think they’re all amazing.

I wrote Flames of the Moon on a whim after a writing prompt from my writer’s group. I had a dream about a girl who was given fire magic from a moon goddess and rolled with it. Despite only being 500 words, I really loved writing it. So much in fact that I have ideas to turn it into a book. The moon goddess will still give out fire magic but there will be three other goddesses too. Once I’ve plotted the story out a bit more I’ll share a few more details with you.

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out Flights of Fantasy. See you next week!

PS; don’t forget to check out this awesome bundle of fantasy books before it ends:

Abundant Woo-niverse Giveaways for Magical Realism, Supernatural, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

Hawthorn and Ash Book 3: Alder & Ebony

Hi all,

One of my writing/publishing goals last year was to write more short stories and submit them to anthologies. One of the anthologies that accepted one of my stories has been published! You can check out Alder & Ebony below:

Alder and Ebony is a compilation of fantasy drabbles and flash fiction from authors worldwide.
Within its pages you will find enchanting stories of myth, legends and fairytales woven throughout.
Dive into the magic and wonder of these 50+ tales in Volume Three.

My story for this anthology is called Reclaim. It features the cat goddess Bastet, in her cat form, taking something back that was stolen from her. The piece was originally written for a contest that it unfortunately didn’t place in, but now you can read it in this anthology! The story doesn’t contain spoilers for the Curse of Anubis series and only features Bastet. You can get an idea of her character and her behaviour from this story, however.

The publisher is Iron Faerie Publishing and they have plenty of other submission calls on their website for various anthologies. My favourites are the fantasy and horror ones! You can check out their website and published anthologies here: Iron Faerie Publishing. I’ve submitted to one of their other anthologies and would also like to contribute to more of their anthologies in the future. They have great prompts and themes which are different to ones that you usually see for submission calls. Their Nephilim anthology is the one I originally submitted to as the theme was something I’d never come across before.

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out Alder & Ebony and Iron Faerie Publishing! Next week keep an eye out for the cover reveal of Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana… See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books to download? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Science Fiction Giveaway

My First Book Launch Party

Hi all,

For anyone who has missed my social media posts - I attended the launch party for Adverbially Challenged Volume Four and Sensorially Challenged Volume Two on Tuesday. It was my first ever launch party and writing event that I've ever attended.

All the readers at the event

My boyfriend and I went to a cat cafe, You & Meow, beforehand to try and settle my anxiety. Although I have a cat at home, Bristol is a two hour drive from where we live, so I needed to pet some cats just before the launch party. The cats were all very sweet and playful, they even had some new kittens! Overall it was a great experience and helped me calm down a bit. We also had some delicious carrot cake that we had to eat quickly because a few of the cats were eyeing it up.

One of the cats trying to get a taste of my smoothie

Now, for the launch party itself.

There was quite a lot of people there, most getting ready to read their stories in front of everyone. My stomach churned the entire time as I was waiting for my slot. Eventually my turn came and I managed to make my way up to the stage without tripping. Although the reading of my story, Mother Cat, was short and a bit rushed, I managed to do it. The entire time I was waiting to go up I felt like I was back in school again, about to do a presentation in front of the whole class. The whole experience made me very thankful that I'm not in school anymore!

Me, reading ‘Mother Cat’ from Adverbially Challenged Volume Four

The evening was great and I loved the stories that were read out by others. I've never seen so many authors in one place, and it was good to see that so many people have a passion for writing.

Would I do it again?

Yes.

Would I read another story out?

Maybe.

The experience brought back a lot of bad memories from my school days, so I'm not sure if I could put myself through that again. I'm so glad I faced my fears and did it though, and that my boyfriend was there to support me.

I hope you enjoyed this week's blog post.

See you next week!

Sensorially Challenged Volume Two

Hi all,

In March I wrote a blog post about Adverbially Challenged Volume Four, an anthology I had written a short story for. This week I'm going to talk about Sensorially Challenged Volume Two, another anthology I'm included in.

The anthology has been published by Christopher Fielden, who hosts writing challenges on his website. You submit your themed story to one of the challenges and it is guaranteed to make it into the book. Once a challenge has received one hundred stories, he publishes them in print and ebook. I'm so grateful to be included in two of his anthologies, it truly is a wonderful feeling to see your work published!

The cover and blurb for Sensorially Challenged Volume Two

To visit his website and check out his writing challenges, books and competitions, please click the link below:

https://www.christopherfielden.com

I highly recommend buying the anthology, it's a great read. If you wish to buy a copy, please click the link below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sensorially-Challenged-2-Christopher-Fielden-ebook/dp/B07SB1FK92/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=christfielde-21&linkCode=w00&linkId=64ea5d30124998ce95f6342ac9fcc37f&creativeASIN=B07SB1FK92

One of the best parts about the anthology is that a portion of the proceeds from each book goes to charity, in this case: National Literacy Trust.

To visit their website and check out the wonderful work they do, click here:

https://literacytrust.org.uk

Unlike my last story which was about cats, this one was about a fox. Foxes are one of my favourite animals (I bet you can guess what my number one favourite animal is) and I've always wanted to write a story about one. This anthology is themed around senses, so I've tried to include as many as possible from the point of view of the fox.

Foxes are such sweet animals, and it was an easy choice to write a short piece about one. I thought about making the fox a Kitsune, but changed that idea at the last minute.

I hope you enjoyed this week's post. Next week I'm going to talk about why authors, traditionally published and self published, need to promote their books.

See you next week!

Adverbially Challenged Volume Four

Hi all!

If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed me tweeting and retweeting about an anthology I contributed to: Adverbially Challenged Volume Four.

The anthology contains one hundred flash fiction stories from one hundred authors. This has been put together by Christopher Fielden, who runs many writing challenges on his website that offer authors the chance to see their work in publication. Once he has received one hundred stories in a challenge, he puts them together in an anthology. Each anthology supports a charity, in the case of this one, First Story.

If you would like to find out more about Christopher Fielden and his writing challenges, I have linked his website: 

https://www.christopherfielden.com

If you want something new to read and also want to support charity at the same time, I have linked the book below (it's available in ebook and paperback):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adverbially-Challenged-4-Christopher-Fielden/dp/1796910031/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=christfielde-21&linkCode=w00&linkId=6dd0e4f7975de853588c16156403b0d5&creativeASIN=1796910031

To find out more about First Story and the work they do, I have linked their website:

https://www.firststory.org.uk/about-us/

The cover and blurb of Adverbially Challenged Volume Four

The story that I wrote for the anthology is called Mother Cat, and it is based off of Mishka's Mum, Mallie. I always thought she looked exhausted with four rambunctious kittens so whenever my boyfriend and I visited Mishka we would try to distract the kittens for a bit so poor Mallie could get some rest.

It also didn't help that the kitten's aunt, Millie, would also bug Mallie for hours on end. Once all the kittens were adopted her owner got Mallie spayed so she wouldn't have any more litters. I just hope now she's enjoying the rest of her kitten-free days in peace.

Mallie with her kittens: Mishka, Poppy, Mabel and Chip

That's it for this week! I hope you will check out the writing challenges, anthology and First Story. It's a brilliant way to support charity and also add to your writing portfolio.