Karen Comer

Collecting Stories

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Book Reviews
    • Adult Fiction
    • Adult Non-Fiction
    • Young Adult Fiction
    • Children’s Fiction
    • Picture Books
  • Writing Resources
    • Writing Resources – Adults
    • Writing Resources – Children
    • Writing Notes
  • Editing and Workshop Services
  • Reading List
    • Reading List 2018
    • Reading List 2017
    • Reading List 2016
    • Reading List 2015
  • Blog
  • Contact

Publication in Stringybark’s latest anthology!

May 6, 2016 by Karen Comer 12 Comments

Stringybark

I’m happy to share with you that one of my short stories for adults has been accepted for publication in Stringybark’s latest anthology! I entered this competition earlier in the year, and found out this week that my story was highly commended.

The anthology is called Standing by, and is available as an e-book here for the princely sum of $4.00, and will be available as a print book in mid-June for $14.95. You can preorder a copy here – preordering does help with print runs.

My story is called Naming, and I wrote it about two years ago. I was completing an online short story course through Writers Victoria and had submitted a couple of short stories, around the theme of adult fairy tales. I’m interested in these classic tales, the idea of journeys and trials and tribulations, the changes the hero/heroine has to go through to reach their goal, good versus evil, and I love all the imagery in fairy tales – keys, the number three, woods, names, mirrors and so on.

I woke up early one morning and in a half-dream, almost wrote half of this Naming story in my head. When I realised I had half a story, I quickly got out of bed and typed it up before anyone else woke up. Thank goodness for sweetly-sleeping children that morning!

I worked on the second half of the story, and edited the whole story a few times before I sent it into my tutor. She gave me some positive feedback, and I then sent it out to a few competitions, with no success until now!

This is the first time I’ve ever had such a complete idea for a story. Usually I have an idea, then something else latches on to that idea, then I explore it a bit, then I think about the main character some more, then I start writing. But this story felt like a gift.

I used the fairy tale Rumplestiltskin as inspiration, but it’s a contemporary story, told from the viewpoint of a twelve-year-old boy who is somewhere on the autistic spectrum.

Thank you to everyone who has left lovely comments on Facebook or forwarded my tweet on Twitter – I’m so grateful for your support – it’s made my week!

I’m reading my way through the other stories in the anthology, and I’m honoured to be published in such a talented group of writers.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
«
»

Filed Under: Uncategorised

Comments

  1. SP says

    May 6, 2016 at 6:32 am

    Excellent work and a beautiful story

    Reply
    • Karen Comer says

      May 7, 2016 at 1:00 pm

      Thank you, SP – glad you enjoyed reading my story!

      Reply
  2. Terri Dixon says

    May 6, 2016 at 6:52 am

    Well done, Karen. Hope there is more success coming to you.

    Terri.

    Reply
    • Karen Comer says

      May 7, 2016 at 1:01 pm

      Thanks for your support, Terri. Fingers crossed for more of this!

      Reply
  3. Wendy Muir says

    May 6, 2016 at 7:13 am

    Congratulations Karen!

    Reply
    • Karen Comer says

      May 7, 2016 at 1:01 pm

      Thanks, Wendy – I really appreciate your support of my blog.

      Reply
  4. Carolyn says

    May 6, 2016 at 7:46 pm

    Looking forward to reading it, Karen x

    Reply
    • Karen Comer says

      May 7, 2016 at 1:02 pm

      Thanks, Carolyn – hope you like it!

      Reply
  5. Amy says

    May 7, 2016 at 11:24 am

    Fantastic, Karen! I’m very pleased for you. Getting short stories published is tough, so well done!

    Reply
    • Karen Comer says

      May 7, 2016 at 1:02 pm

      Thanks so much, Amy – we’ve both had a good literary week!

      Reply
  6. Gail Arthur says

    May 11, 2016 at 2:51 pm

    Congratulations, Karen. Guess patchworking is on the back burner now.

    Reply
    • Karen Comer says

      May 12, 2016 at 4:59 pm

      Thanks, Gail. My Christmas quilt is a work in progress, just like my manuscripts!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with me

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Dear readers, it’s been a while
  • Christmas wishlist – non-fiction
  • Christmas wishlist – adult fiction
  • Christmas wishlist – young adult fiction
  • Raising a mentally fit generation – author interview

Copyright © 2021 · Karen Comer website by LMB web design

Copyright © 2021 · Blossom Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.