My very first short story, The Impastusae Witch was in The Blood of the Covenant Anthology. This honestly feels like a lifetime ago. I had huffed and puffed over ideas, threw myself against a wall, and dramatically ate snacks inside my closet while telling myself I was a fool by including my little story about a witch from the same coven as the one who captured Hansel and Gretel in a book alongside such amazing authors as E.P. Bali, Britton Brinkley, JL Casten, Dartanyan Johnson, Isabelle Olmo, and Nikita Rogers. But alas, I donned my cape of bravery (a cape which has since been misplaced) and handed that story over with shaky hands.
That cape must have also had a spell of delusion on it because that short went out into that beautiful book and I thought it was the bee’s knees.
Cut to me signing up for a seasonal anthology set and realizing I am either not an author who can write a short story without a hearty serving of stress or maybe I don’t do well with deadlines I didn’t set myself but… chaos. It’s been absolute chaos.
HELP!
What’s the point in me telling you all this? My wandering mind is getting to it.
The first of the Four Seasons Anthology is out and in the wild. The Remnants of Summer is a summer-themed futuristic anthology with five amazing shorts. The ebook, paperback, and hardcover can be found on Amazon. My short is written in dual first-person point of view called Summer Island. It follows Trillian Alta, a space navigator marooned on a summer island floating through space during a mission with her now-deceased grandfather. She’s quirky and giving off Chuck Noland vibes in Cast Away, but who wouldn’t when they’ve been stuck alone floating through space for years? Orion is pulled unintentionally into her orbit when the processing chip she uses to bring an android to life is actually a neurochip that links to him.
It’s got space, romance, and a collection of sticks Trillian has named Martha. Definitely grab your copy or read it with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.
The second in the Seasons Anthology is The Enchantments of Fall, which releases September 22nd.
The Seamstress is also a dual point of view story but it’s told in third person limited narration. It follows Rhapso, a seamstress chained to the veil and tasked with keeping up with its constant repair and Luther, the hellhound who must retrieve her whenever she escapes the veil, causing chaos in both worlds. It’s a paranormal story.
There will be a winter and a spring anthology. The winter will be romance-themed and the spring will be mythological. I have some ideas bouncing around in my head for both, but have made a habit of writing about two or three shorts up to the 75% mark before abandoning them and starting over, so I will keep my lips zipped until I have the stories fully drafted.
Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, because anthologies may just be the death of me.
With that being said, this set will be the last anthology I sign up for (or at least will be for the next year or so… or decade).
Make sure to grab both books in whatever format appeals to you, as this will be a limited run. Right now the end date for publication is up in the air, but I will update my website when I know when these books will finish their run to give readers a final chance to grab them while they can.
xx
SJ Stewart Books 