I’m back, and I’m writing!
I wanted to briefly share with you some writing updates.
If you’ve been following me on social media, you’d have seen that I’ve recently made a series of announcements about forthcoming anthologies which will feature my stories.
I have a special place of love reserved for short fiction as it was my first ever foray into writing. My short story The Fetch was among my very first pieces of writing published in English – all the way in 2012 – in long-gone literary magazine called Dark Edifice. It was one of those 24-hour miracles when I woke up with a burning idea, wrote it over the course of a day, submitted it in the evening and woke up the next morning to have it accepted by the excited editor. This never happened again since… but I keep the sweet memory alive 🙂 I had The Fetch available for some time on my old blog, but I’ve removed it recently as I’m hoping to have it accepted as a reprint somewhere, to give it a second life.
After The Fetch, I kept on writing short stories, but then I got into the long form and re-focused my efforts on novel-length narratives. When in 2019 (?), during Swinburne Writers Festival I’ve met the wonderful publisher and writer Lindy Cameron (check out the catalogue of Lindy’s Clan Destine Press) and she invited me to pitch for her in-development Sherlock Holmes anthology of retellings called The Only One in the World (edited by Narrelle M. Harris), I knew this was my chance to get back to short stories. The result was A Scandalous Case of Poisoning – my take on Holmes and Watson as two young women studying at a university in Moscow during the perestroika era (a time period which I’m deeply familiar with…). You can read my story – and other awesome contributions – now.
Ever since having been invited to contribute to The Only One in the World I’ve been incredibly lucky to cross paths with some wonderful, awesome people who also happen to be talented writers (and/or) editors. I’ve greatly needed this positive energy in my life, and I’m very grateful for the support I’ve received. …I have to be honest with you, after my double-feature debut with What the Woods Keep and Oasis, I’ve been in recovery mode… I won’t elaborate here (though I’m writing a series of mini confessionals for my newsletter, so make sure to sign up!) but while I’ve had so many great things happen in those couple of years since What The Woods Keep first came out in 2018, I’ve also had a to deal with quite a few negative things. My mental health was generally low, I’ve been overly pessimistic about writing, while my relationship with books as a whole was hit hard by my experiences. I’m still recovering, it’s a process. And the good news – I’m re-discovering my joy of reading and I’m writing lots. Like, LOTS. At the moment, here are main two forthcoming, confirmed, projects:
The Femme Fatale Anthology
The Femme Fatale anthology coming this October! It’s a sixth volume of the Castle of Horror Anthology published by Castle Bridge Media, and edited by the wonderful PJ Hoover. You can read the past volumes of this anthology now. At the moment, all I can say is: please watch this space, as the cover art and purchase links will be available soon. I’m in great company in this anthology and PJ Hoover is a terrific editor. I can’t wait to reveal the title of my story and tell you more about it!
Emporium of Superstition: An Old Wives’ Tale Anthology
This anthology is coming next year – just in time for Halloween, in October 2022. It’s with Midnight Tide Press and you can already add it on GoodReads. We, contributors, including the fabulous Candace Robinson whose work I admire (I mean, I think I’ve blurbed like 70% of her books! :)) are hard at work writing and editing our stories. The length limit here is quite generous (15K), so in fact I can call my story a novelette. I can’t reveal the title yet but I already have a good outline of the story and the feel I want to go for (think: Carmen Maria Machado meets Laird Barron… Are you scared? I think you should be…!) I can’t wait to reveal more, including which ‘Old Wives’ tale’ I’m writing about in my story. Care to take a guess? Leave me a comment and tell…
There’s at least one more anthology I hope to announce soon. And I’m (very slowly) developing a podcast, learning lots about the audio drama format in the process.
Happy reading – and writing!
Katya
Comments
2 responses to “Writing update, including forthcoming anthologies”
hi! new fan here, is there going to be a part two to “what the woods keep”? or was it a one time book? regardless, love your work! keep doing what you’re doing!
Hi!! Always great to hear from readers, old and new, – thank you so much for reading WTWK, my beloved debut. I would love to write a sequel for WTWK (in fact, initially it was envisaged as a 3-book story and I have outlined them all), but it might take me a bit of time and it’ll likely been self-published. But who knows – maybe hearing from you today is exactly what I needed to get moving on that sequel a bit sooner! x