This is the theme that Tales for Canterbury was loosely based around. I was asked to submit a short story for this Anthology a while ago and to be honest – I procrastinated about it. I sat there thinking, ‘How on earth can I submit something loosely themed around those three areas?’ I mean… I mainly write thrillers. ‘Yep,’ my muse, Tangaroa said, ‘death, destruction, no hope, and no foreseeable future.’

But you know what? I have my own stories of hope, survival, and future. Here is one loosely based on my current writing life:

Hope

When I first started writing creatively, I was full of beans for this sudden discovery of creative writing. This spurred on the ‘hope’ within me that one day I would reach an audience with my work. Hope, that perhaps one day I would get published. Hope that I could potentially become a bestselling author like Stephen King (snickers). Well, one can always dream, can’t they? I still have hope for writing. Lots of it, in fact, but I’m just a little more realistic about it now.

Survival

I have survived years of frustration in this lonely profession. There is only one person in this profession that can generate the fiction that I want to produce. And I’m it. But in this time I have pumped out a multitude of draft manuscripts… a bunch of short stories, started a blog, started reviewing other peoples work, studied travel journalism, and now I have survived my first submission for publishing. What’s even more incredible… is that they have accepted it.

Future

Every writer must start somewhere in the publishing scene. Whether that’s with short fiction first, or self-publishing… the fact is… if you want to get published, a writer needs to start somewhere. I have officially started. This week, I have signed a contract with RandomStatic publishing for them to publish one of my short stories in the Tales for Canterbury Anthology. Flabbergasted doesn’t even begin to describe how I am feeling about this. I guess that I didn’t really realise how much I was hoping they would say yes. I had been so laid back about the whole thing… probably because my professional life had forced me to focus on the work that I have been doing over the past few weeks. But right there, on the last day of the financial year, was sitting an acceptance email. Oh, I wanted to get up and dance for joy, cry with relief, or even have one or two celebratory drinks… but I knew that I had to focus on my professional work for just a few more hours. I guess, what I’m trying to say is this: The future is always going to be there. As long as you plan, execute, and celebrate when things start going the right way – it’s all the matters. Welcome to the future baby. The future of publishing.

For more information of Tales for Canterbury – please visit this site. And if you want to pre-order your copy of this incredible Anthology – you can do so here. Just think – You’ll be getting yourself a Leigh K Hunt original, not to mention a bunch of other stories from amazing writers.