I’m proud to announce that “Wither and Other Stories” is now available!
Cover Art by Doug Puller.
Should we or shouldn’t we? It’s a question many ask themselves each day. Should we or shouldn’t we wither in a wooded paradise instead of a broken city? Leave our home when the news warns us of what’s outside? Join in a circle of nighttime delights? Be with someone who awakens our sins?
“Wither and Other Stories” tells four tales of the choice to partake. In the end, the choice may not need to be made. For when we ask ourselves, “Should we or shouldn’t we,” the answer is always yes.
The collection features four brand new short stories: “Wither,” “Nesting,” “Smoke Circles,” and “We Really Shouldn’t.” It’s available in ebook and paperback.
Pick up your copy today — and once you’ve read it, please leave a review. I’d love to hear what you think!
Thanks for reading, everyone.
P.S. Be sure to also pick up a copy of Quoth the Raven — which features my Poe-inspired short story, “Hearts are Just ‘Likes'” — if you haven’t already!
Happy October, everyone! The second week is a busy one on my end, but in an awesome way. I’ll have two books — one a collection of my own, and one an anthology I’m included in — available to purchase next week.
The first is the anthology: Quoth the Raven, a collection of contemporary re-imaginings of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, from Camden Park Press. My story, “Hearts are Just ‘Likes,'” is one of many stories and poems to appear in the collection, which is edited by Lyn Worthen. It’s a modern take on “The Tell-Tale Heart,” one of my favorite Poe stories. The anthology is available for pre-order now, and will be available on October 7, 2018.
The second is my next short story collection, Wither and Other Stories. It will feature four new stories: “Wither,” “Nesting,” “Smoke Circles,” and “We Really Shouldn’t.” It will be available in ebook and paperback on October 9, 2018.
This fall, I’ll be releasing another small collection of short stories called Wither and Other Stories. While I have some finishing touches to do on the collection itself, I’m thrilled to be able to share the cover with all of you:
Art by Doug Puller.
The cover features excellent artwork from my frequent collaborator and friend, Doug Puller. He is hard at work illustrating Volume 1 of Wretched Heroes, the graphic novel which I co-wrote with him; and I’m glad he had time to bring his talents to this collection.
The collection will be available in ebook and paperback form. Below is the full cover that will appear on the paperback, minus the description and author bio (two of the pieces that need finishing touches):
Art by Doug Puller
I anticipate publishing this collection in October, just in time for Halloween. It will feature four short stories: Wither, Nesting, Smoke Circles, and We Really Shouldn’t. It will also have the first chapter of my next book as a bonus. I can’t wait to share all of them with you this fall.
If you just can’t wait that long, I do have another collection of short stories available now: The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales, available in ebook and paperback form. If you’ve already purchased or read it, I’d appreciate it if you left an honest review on Amazon — or, if you’d rather write a review on your own blog or website, please send me a link. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Finally, please add Wither and Other Stories to your shelves on Goodreads if you’d like to read it.
I finished the first draft of my second book a little over two weeks ago. I’m making myself wait to do my readthrough from beginning to end. It’s been pretty hard. I haven’t felt huge urges to write, but I find myself daydreaming about the story and thinking about whether or not certain passages work. Normal, but I also want a month of a clean break, so I can return to it with the freshest eyes possible.
In the interim, I’ve been occupying myself with other projects. Proving that time is a flat circle, I’m revising the short story that I first wrote during my interim period between drafting and revising Please Give.
I received Wither back from my editor earlier this winter, but left it alone while I worked on Without Condition. I’ve been using the waiting period to go through the revisions a little at a time. The story originally started with a broken timeline, divided by stanzas of a poem and the occasional asterisk. The universal feedback I received, from my editor to my writers group, was that this was confusing as all hell. They liked the plot and saw the story’s potential, but no one knew what was happening or when.
This is why it’s so important to not only get feedback before you publish or submit, but a wide range of feedback. If everyone’s saying the same thing, then it’s a thing that needs to be fixed. So, I’m fixing it — and I’m really pleased with how the story is coming together now. It still amazes me how a story can change for the better with even the smallest of fixes, like a reordered paragraph.
In addition to revising Wither, I’ve been keeping the pump primed by casually writing a new story. I haven’t decided if it will be a short story or a novel, or even if I’ll continue working on it after I’ve sent Without Condition to my editor. It’s a story that crept up on me after a dream I had, one that asked for my attention in place of the short story prompts I’d set aside for this resting period (sorry, other stories — soon, I promise). I’ll see where it takes me. For now, it’s begun where my past two novels began to take shape: when my protagonist meets a man. The working title is Someone to Share My Nightmares.
I’ll be picking up Without Condition in two weeks. Until then, I’ll be waiting — and with a couple new projects under my belt, maybe it won’t be so hard after all.
Last year, I was a little less patient during my waiting period between drafting and revising Please Give. I developed the 5 Stages of Feelings about being done with one’s draft. This mostly still applies, even if I’m calmer about it.
I first mentioned Wither in May of 2017. I also mention We Really Shouldn’t for the first time. Both stories, along with two flash pieces, will be in my next short story collection, Wither and Other Stories.
I also had quite a few coals in the fire around this time last summer. The novel-in-progress I mention there is tabled, and will likely remain that way. There may be life yet, though, for Gods into Demons, even though I haven’t worked on that in months.
It’s almost here — publication day! Please Give is in its final stages. It’s with a beta reader, and will soon be with Doug Puller for formatting (you’ll recall that he designed the cover). I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited. I anticipate publishing on Dec. 19. I can’t wait to share it with all of you, especially after talking about it on here for almost a year.
As I put the finishing touches on Please Give, I’m taking some time to write my next pieces. I’m slowly working on my next book — yet another piece I’ve started, but this is one where I have a clear arc in mind. I’m still keeping my unfinished pieces on the table, and adding to them as inspiration comes to me; but I’ve also been trying to focus on this new(er) one so I can get going on it. Even if I write a bare-bones framework that’s more novella length than a novel, I want to get something written down, and something substantial. Please Give took a while to get going too, but it’s easy for me to forget that when, once it took hold, it wouldn’t let me go — and to an extent, it hasn’t yet. But I feel its fingers loosening with each step closer that it gets to publication.
I am also getting ready to submit some short stories to Evelyn, my editor. I’m hoping to put out another collection by mid to late 2018, depending on how edits go. I have five finished pieces of varying length. As of now, their titles are Wither, We Really Shouldn’t, Do Something, Nesting, and Smoke Circles. I may add a sixth story if I can finish another between now and next spring. I’ve created an entry for the collection on Goodreads if you’d like to shelve/follow it.
Thanks for following the blog, and stay tuned for the publication of Please Give!
I’m visiting my parents for the Fourth of July weekend. They live in NC, and even though Chapel Hill is not a small town by any means, it’s quite the change of pace from the hubbub of DC and Northern VA. It’s a nice change, though, especially when my husband and I drive across highways with little traffic and fall asleep with little noise outside the window.
It’s tough for me to write when I’m on vacation. I try to squeeze out at least a few words, but my daily devotion to my stories requires a little more discipline than usual. Still, there’s something to be said for taking a break sometimes. I make myself write a few words so I won’t get rusty, but where I usually aim for a high daily minimum (one section for a short story, 1000 words for a novel), I instead commit to a paragraph or two.
Right now I am working on something that may become my next novel. I want to see how far it gets before I talk more about it on here, but I’ve worked on it most every day for the past few weeks, and am up to 33,000+ words. Even with all that completed, its plot is still revealing itself to me; and the best I can say now is that each piece is a connected vignette. It’ll be interesting to see if it forms into a complete, concise novel as it goes along. One way to find out!
I started a longer short story, one that may become a novella, a couple months ago. I reached a stopping point, and wrote down where I want it to go. I normally try to finish stories before moving on to the next project, but I also believe in listening to what inspires me and trusting that a story worth finishing will be finished in due time. I may use my vacation to take a break from the potential next book and work on this one. It’s currently called Gods Into Demons, and follows a young girl whose new friend may give her unhealthy fixations.
I’ve also completed two short stories, Wither (which I mentioned earlier) and We Really Shouldn’t. We Really Shouldn’t was an idea I’ve had since last summer, and earlier this spring, it finally blossomed into a story. It follows a woman and man who, months after their break-up, meet by chance in a coffee shop. They wonder as they catch up, though, if they really should reconnect. That was the basic premise I had in the beginning, and I was excited to see where it turned from there – particularly the darker corners.
All these stories will find homes down the road. My publishing sights this year are on The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales (still set for September) and Please Give (tentatively set for mid-November or the beginning of December). Stay tuned for more information on all of these pieces. I hope you all have a good holiday weekend!
Sonora Taylor 