Welcome back to another Dave Chat! I managed to snag some time with Isabella Hunter, who has taken quite a different path on their author journey to me. It’s a really interesting journey, and I thought it might be helpful to anyone feeling a bit lost, not knowing what they can do – or anyone who loves to write short stories!
I admit, I enjoy writing short stories, but I don’t do it as much as I want to, or should. That said, there are ways you can get your name out there and find an audience, as Isabella has been doing.
Let’s find out more.
Dave: Hi Isabella, thanks for taking part in this Dave Chat!
Isabella: Hi!
It feels like we met a long, long time ago – and our writing journeys have been very different. When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?
We did meet quite a while back, to be honest, and it was right at the start of when I seriously started pursuing becoming a writer. I started writing stories back in primary school, which were heavily influenced by the media I was consuming at the time. It wasn’t until high school, where I discovered fan fiction, that I started really experimenting with trying to develop my stories more.
From there, I started wanting to create works that were entirely my own and that one day I could release out into the world, and thus I started to write my first novel.
At the author signing where we met, my boyfriend had actually printed off the first three chapters of my novel to give to the author. I was mortified, but I feel it definitely helped me.
So, you’ve been writing for a long time! Was this author a huge influence on you? Were there any others that inspired you to get to where you are now and keep pushing for more in the future?
It was a Kelley Armstrong signing, and she’s probably been the biggest influence. I actually struggled a lot with reading when I was younger, but one day my dad got a load of books in for my mum to try, and one was Bitten by Kelley Armstrong.
She wasn’t interested but it really grabbed me from the blurb. I ended up absolutely devouring the book at the age of eleven (My dad actually stapled the sex scenes shut!). This was where I really started getting an appreciation for writing – and the feedback she gave me at the signing event spurred me on, even if I’ve since dropped the project.
It’s awesome that she took the time to offer some feedback – it’s not so common a thing these days. Do you have a particular genre, or sub-genre, that you like to write in, and what stood out to make it the right one for you?
I don’t think I have a particular genre I like to write in, more ones I don’t write in such as Lit Fic. Otherwise, I happily swap between horror, gothic, fantasy, and romance at the drop of a hat.
I think probably the genre that means the most for me, though, and no matter how much I say I’m done I always return to it, is Japanese fantasy. I love the folklore and blending parts of history and culture into my writing, so if you have a deeper knowledge you can pick up on details before they are revealed.
That’s really interesting – and great you have a few genres that interest you. Our routes to this stage have been different. What made you start looking for writing opportunities in anthologies and short story collections.
I was approached by A. J. Dalton to be a part of Book of Dragons. I’d given up on getting into magazines as all my works had been rejected by most of the magazines I knew of at the time, and it was reaching a point where I believed my writing was unmarketable.
He specifically wanted me to create a story in my style of Japanese fantasy and I think it renewed my confidence in my prose. I ended up finding more anthology opportunities following that, and I found it gelled a lot better with me. The next step was to start writing stories with specific briefs in mind.
While I am now trying to focus on my novel writing, I still can’t help myself from writing a piece here and there to submit to an interesting opportunity. At the moment I have three shorts all out on submission!
You’re keeping busy. Good luck with your submissions! Of all the collections you’ve been a part of so far, which one did you learn the most from, and what was the one you enjoyed the most?
I probably learnt the most from Book of Witches. You guessed it, another collaboration with A. J. Dalton. He was actually interested in me doing another Japanese fantasy piece, but I’d had an idea for what I referred to in the early stages as a ‘techno witch’. He was more than happy to let me go ahead with my idea, but the more I thought on it the more the word count seemed to strangle the project.
We were meant to aim for 3.5k–5k and the scope of this story was just too large really for a short story format. I still believe that I could easily turn it into a novella, maybe even a novel length piece.
In the end they allowed me to go over word count and it clocked in at over 7k long and the story still feels rushed and shallow in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a really cool piece and so detached from anything I’d ever done before, but I wish (and maybe I might at some point) I had the room to make it a fully thought-out piece.
I have read Book of Witches – and I really enjoyed your story. It’s good that you were able to make it work.
The collection I enjoyed most was Dead Sand in Divinity. Only the people close to me, and the editors, know the situation on this and it’ll probably seem a bit shocking this is my most fun one when I explain.
So, I already had a prewritten story accepted in Divinity and I said I’d try and write up another one before the deadline, which was mid to late February. I was off work and had plenty of time to do this, everything was fine.
Then I’m at home with friends ready to celebrate my boyfriend’s birthday when my temperature spiked. I’m mid-chemotherapy and this is a bad sign. So, I get rushed to A&E, but I really expected to be released by the next morning, but no.
I’m being kept in and turns out I have flu and I’m actually quite at risk. So, I did what any level-headed author would do and told my sister to fetch my laptop. I spent my hospital stay writing up Dead Sand, but, honestly, I loved it. It kept my mind off things, and it allowed me to delve back into my Egyptian mythology knowledge and adapt it to something less graphic for polite readership.
That’s quite the story – but I’m glad you had something to keep you occupied, and that you’re okay! What advice can you give someone looking to find anthologies and short story collections to submit to? Is there a trick, or a particular way of writing that really helps?
I find Facebook is the best place. There are specific groups for submitting to different genres and because they are only for submission calls it isn’t diluted by other writing posts. This one is probably where I found most the places I’ve submitted to.
I would also say to start following the publishers once you learn about them – some of them even have their own groups for authors where you get advance notice on submissions before they get released to the general public, or even the option to add your input on what you’d be most interest in submitting to.
In terms of actually getting accepted I’d say it really helps to actually create original content for the submission. If you write a story with the brief in mind, it’ll stand up better than something which mildly hits the brief that you wrote before.
Even so, if you don’t get accepted, keep the story around and submit it where you can as you never know when it’ll tickle someone’s fancy, and themes can roll around again!
Very useful, thanks. What have you got in the pipeline? Any new releases or projects coming up?
I just sent off the first draft of my story for Book of the Dead. It is another delve into Japanese fantasy but this time exploring a ghost which isn’t as popular as some of the more obvious picks. I’m still editing through my novel The Blood Moon Heir, which I intend to get out to beta readers during 2022. I have a few other things on submission, but I have no guarantee whether anything will come from them. Fingers crossed!
I’ll keep mine crossed for you, too. They sound really interesting and I’m looking forward to reading them. How can people find you, and where can they find your stories?
I’m most active on Twitter, and this is where you will get the more candid insights into my writing life. I’m also on Facebook, and this is where generally only the more noteworthy posts go. My website is also kept up to date with all my publications. If you’re a fan of gaming I also stream, and I always love to chat about my writing whilst I play.