The Anatomy of Fear
2023 has been a strange year. There have been some wonderful highlights but it was also a year when there were some very difficult times, both personally and professionally. As you get older you realise nothing in life can be taken for granted, and you need to make the most of every single day. If I focus on the positives, I can look back on 2023 as being the year when saying ‘yes’ led to some fantastic opportunities.
It’s certainly been a year of experimentation, providing a chance for me to step away from the arduous task of writing book after book in the same series. I’d reached the point where I needed a break. Doing so resulted in a real burst of creativity and it’s the first time I’ve had two publications out in a single calendar year. I really enjoyed seizing the chance to try new things, so April saw me put out my first standalone novel, A Quiet Vengeance. Now today (the 16th November) I’ve had a short story published for the first time, as part of the fantasy horror anthology The Anatomy of Fear.
I’ve been writing short fiction for a couple of years but it was a big leap to go from those stories, which expand on an established world in my Viking fantasy series, The Brotherhood of the Eagle, and try something different. Fantasy and horror are genres that work well together, but there’s an art to writing true horror and it took me a while to get into a rhythm and understand the effect I was trying to achieve. I enjoyed stretching myself creatively, working out how to produce a story which slowly builds a mounting sense of dread and then delivers on that promise in the final scenes. It wasn’t easy but by the end I felt refreshed, and doing this definitely helped fill my creative well once more.
The Anatomy of Fear was the brainchild of UK author HL Tinsley, and she assembled an amazing roster of authors who each contributed one of twelve unique tales. When she asked me if I wanted to be involved, this was one of those moments when I knew I needed to say yes, even if it meant stepping outside my comfort zone. I’m so glad I did.
With each author taking one part of the body as their inspiration (hence The Anatomy of Fear), we were then given free rein to come up with our own particular tale. I’m extremely proud of the fact that no two stories in this collection are the same, each having the distinctive voice of their creator. The full line up, in reading order, is:
Trudie Skies
Tim Hardie
LL MacRae
Bjørn Larssen
Lee C Conley
Jacob Sannox
Krystle Matar
BA Bellec
Sean Crow
HL Tinsley
Ryan Howse
Zamil Akhtar
One of the things I liked about this was getting the chance to see a different side to the authors whose work I was already familiar with. I was also able to explore the writing of authors I hadn’t read before, which caused a fair bit of reshuffling of my reading plans for 2024. It looks like I’m going to need more bookshelves.
The collection was edited by Sarah Chorn and the cover and interior illustrations were by Dawn Larder. As a self-editor for my other works, it was an interesting experience being edited by Sarah, who’s a talented author in her own right. It’s not the first time I’ve collaborated on a work of fiction, but I was really impressed with how Sarah brought out certain parts of my story, unearthed their true potential and made them shine.
Another first for me was being part of the team running the Kickstarter crowdfunding project, which raised the money to make the publication of the anthology possible. I have to say a massive thank you to all our supporters, who helped us hit not only our initial funding target but our stretch goals as well. That support has enabled us to put out the best possible version of these stories, including an audiobook recorded by RJ Bayley, whose distinctive voice will already be well-known to many horror fans.
Writing is a solitary profession, so it was good fun to work as a collective on this project, each of us taking on various roles to bring the whole thing together. Whilst not without its stresses at times (I was not a fan of the latter proofreading stages!), the satisfaction of seeing everything come together by the end really was worth it. Again, I have to give credit to HL Tinsley for managing the whole thing and keeping everyone on track. This collection simply wouldn’t have happened without her.
So, despite a difficult year, this is a creative work I’m always going to look back on with real pride at a job well done. It’s definitely one of my highlights of 2023, and I’m immensely grateful I had the chance to be involved.
If after reading this you feel inspired to pick up your own copy, you can do so here!
Next month, my blog will feature my contribution to another anthology, The Advent of Winter, which has a very different brief. You can also take a look at the Kickstarter project page for more information.
