A Much-Needed Bit of Recognition

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A Much-Needed Bit of Recognition

Writing is solitary, and with the increasing numbers of works put out (not to mention the awful AI issue), it can feel as if you are sending your hard-crafted stories into the void. Especially when your sales figures bump along near the zero line regardless of the quality of your work.

But one thing I did do last year was to take a leap of faith and send my self-published short story collection, Devil Kin, to Ellen Datlow for consideration in her The Best of Horror of the Year Volume 16. I did it with hope but zero expectation. And whilst my stories did not make it into the anthology itself, I found that 3 stories from Devil Kin and my poem in the Shakespeare Unleashed anthology, were listed in her Best of the Year Horror Volume 16 Recommendations Part One 2023:

To have more than one mention meant the world, particularly as these three stories – which I loved – were rejected when out on submission. The three are a good example of the range of my horror fiction: ‘Better to Close Your Eyes’ is sf/horror/post-apocalyptic, ‘Dog Rose and Devilkin’ is gothic, and ‘Suspended’ is body horror.

When I compiled this collection it was with a knowledge that the contents were good, that they were amongst the strongest stories I’ve written, regardless that some of them seemed to keep coming back with a ‘not for us’ message. I made the decision after this kept happening that I would put them out myself, because of that belief in their quality. Ellen Datlow’s mention is a true reward.

There are 19 stories in this collection and 13, including those above, were new.