SECRET STAIRS: A Welcome Challenge
- Mar 6, 2018
- 3 min read
No writer, who is trying to make a name for themselves, is a stranger to seeking out opportunities to submit their work. Being fairly new to the game, I struggle to balance what little time I have to write between working on my next manuscript, pounding the pavement for representation on my first manuscript, and finding other ways to get my work in front of eager eyes.
In the summer of 2017 I stumbled upon an open call for submissions for short fiction surrounding an urban legend, which was intriguing on its own. As I read further, the idea of a mysterious staircase standing alone in the middle of the woods with no evidence of a surrounding structure got me really excited. Not in a weird way, I just loved the topic!
My first instinct was to go out and research the legend, find its origin, see what other people had said, find "first hand accounts" and all that good stuff, but as I set fingers to keyboard to launch my first search I stopped myself. I had a great topic, and a blank slate on which I could elaborate. Did I really want to let others' perspectives on the topic muddy my own creative impulses?
The answer was a resounding NO! So I did what I love to do. I sat down at my computer, mentally placed myself in the middle of the woods and started writing. I didn't know where the story would go. I didn't know when the stairs would come into play. I didn't know who my main character was, if it was a man or a woman, if they were good or bad, if it was day or night. My fingers began moving and the first line was on the page before I even know I was thinking about it:
"I heard the crow first."
I was headed to the races in first person. Nothing compares to the feeling of watching a story unfold on the page, taking twists and turns that were not premeditated in any way. In this story, I worked backwards, having the main character remember things as he went along until the final realization overcomes him.
MONTHS later, long after I'd assumed I had not been selected for the anthology, I received an email notifying me that the call for submissions had gone viral and they had so many request that it took them THAT long to go through them all and decide which to include. In the end, I was selected as one of thirty-four writers whose interpretation of this urban legend would be featured in the short story anthology "Secret Stairs". I was through the roof, as any writer is when they know people will be reading their work.
I have read this book from start to finish, and I can say with all honesty that I am humbled to be included with this batch of talented authors. The stories in this book will captivate you. Amazingly, the fact that all of the stories are based on the same general theme does not take away from their individual entertainment value in the least. Best of all, you can take it in one story at a time, as time allows. Pick up the book and read one. Skip around, or read them in order. No matter how you enjoy it, you will not regret it.
Comments