Tag: short story collection

April 2, 2026

New SFF Anthology and Tea Event

Happy Spring! I have two pieces of news this month.

First (I finally get to announce this), I’m editing an anthology for Flame Tree’s Beyond & Within series. Those are beautiful books with shiny covers and exciting new stories. You may remember me sharing some pictures of them earlier.

The call for submissions is here, and I’m also sharing it below.

Climbing High Short Stories

Women’s ambition is not always welcomed, let alone encouraged. Speculative fiction is a context that offers other possibilities (and worlds), where writers and readers imagine what could be. Climbing High: Speculative Stories of Female Ambition will feature stories exploring contexts where female ambition is treated differently, aspiration and achievement in the face of adversity, and ambitions that extend beyond what’s possible in our contemporary world. This anthology takes an empowering stance of embracing ambition while being unafraid to explore the costs and consequences that characters may face in doing so and the impacts of ambitions pursued or fulfilled.

Stories may engage with the question of navigating disparate values and commitments (the often-asked and often-sexist question of “How do you balance x and y?”), or they may abandon all that, with characters who prioritise their desires above all else. Whether characters are reshaping the world(s), themselves, or aiming to brew the best cup of tea, their drives are the driving force of their stories. Contributors may feel free to question assumptions or norms related to women or gender while they’re at it. Authors are encouraged to explore spaces between representation and aspiration and be as bold as they like in imagining what could be.

This will be a fascinating new anthology for our Beyond & Within series. We’re looking for around four stories to join the selection curated by Melanie Bell!

Melanie Bell is a Canadian writer living in the UK. Her books include a poetry collection, The Heart Decided to Move; a YA novel, Chasing Harmony; a short story collection, Dream Signs; and a nonfiction book, The Modern Enneagram, co-authored with Kacie Berghoef. Her novella The Cliffman was included in the literary horror collection Hard for Hope to Flourish, and one of her stories is featured in the Whispers in the Earth illustrated anthology of world folklore.

Melanie and Hannah Doyle co-wrote Joan: The Musical which was performed in the Brighton Fringe in May 2025. Her short plays have appeared onstage at the Tower Theatre and Barons Court Theatre in London, on Morley College Radio, and in Liverpool’s 24 Hour Play Fest. She loves art, music, wondering and wandering.

Submissions to: anthologies@flametreepublishing.com

Terms:

Multiple submissions are fine but must be in separate emails.
Simultaneous submissions are fine but you must have the right to license your story in an anthology.
Stories that used AI for planning, editing, modifying or generating text will not be accepted. Please declare in your submission email if you have used AI in any way.
For accepted stories we pay Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates of 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories.
We will aim to read each story and confirm its status within 4 months of the submission deadline.
Payment for the chosen stories will be made within 30 days of the final advertised publication date (see our website flametreepublishing.com for details), although some may be paid earlier than that.
Submission does not imply the right to publication. Each story will be read and assessed by the selection panel.
Please only submit unpublished/original/new stories for consideration. Reprints will not be accepted for consideration through this submissions route.

We’re always looking for better ways of working so we’ve tweaked our submission process to allow us to read more stories, and spend more time assessing the balance of our books.

Submissions must use the dedicated email address.
The subject line of the email must be the story title.
The file with the story must be attached to the email (.docx, .doc or .rtf format).
The name of the file must match the name in the subject line.
If submitting more than one story, please submit one story per email.

Other useful tips for a more successful submission:

The file name of the submission must be the story name only.
Please just use spaces between words in the title (not _ or – ).
If the story name starts with A or The, please use it at the beginning of the file name.
Story length is most likely to be successful at 2000–4000 words, but we will still read stories slightly outside this range.
If submitting a story that has recently been submitted to us for consideration to another anthology, please state this in the submission email.
Deadline for submissions is 3rd May 2026.

Literary Tea Salon With Bird & Blend Tea Co.

Here’s another collab I’m excited for! Bird & Blend Tea Co. is my favourite local tea shop. Their products are high quality and delicious. If you’re based in the UK, their shops offer free tastings and are well worth a visit, and they sell online as well.

So, while sampling some tea at the shop, I suggested a literary event, and the Bird & Blend team was interested in hosting one this spring. Here are the details for our Literary Tea Salon on May 11:

Join local author Melanie Bell and Bird & Blend Tea Co. for writing exercises, an author reading, and a book-themed tea tasting.

Monday, May 11 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Literary Tea Salon

Join us for a cosy, bookish evening blending two good things – writing and tea!

Local author Melanie Bell will lead participants in some creative exercises, read from her work, and answer questions about the writing process, while the Bird & Blend team will offer a selection of their literary-themed teas to taste.

Location

Bird & Blend Tea Co.

41 Gardner Street
Brighton and Hove BN1 1UN

Hosted in Bird & Blend’s flagship Brighton store, come along alone, with a loved one or in a group…all are welcome!

The store is fully accessible to customers in wheelchairs with NCP parking nearby. Please note there is no customer toilet on site but there is a wheelchair accessible toilet available in a nearby venue. We can tailor our experience to most disabilities – just let us know when booking.

Tickets on Eventbrite here (£15 each)

I look forward to reading your stories and meeting some of you for tea next month!

October 7, 2024

My Book Is Back!

A few people may get lucky in the writing world. For most of us who look successful, good luck and bad luck whirl around in a sort of tango.

In 2021, a small press called Lost Fox Publishing published my short story collection, Dream Signs. They were a nice team and presented the book with a beautiful cover (thanks to Rob Chandler for the design).

Shortly after publication, Lost Fox closed. The other book I’d contracted with them is still sitting, unpublished, on my computer. Dream Signs, for a while, was nearly unavailable, with just a few copies online and on my shelf at home.

Now, I’m delighted to say that Dream Signs is back! I’ve published a second edition of the collection, which I read from last Friday at Strong Women, Strange Worlds’ QuickReads event. You can pick up an ebook or paperback copy here. Feel free to share – my book is available again, and hopefully will find new readers!

Anthologies and Events

I’ve had a bunch of publications at once. First, the e-books from the world folklore anthology Whispers in the Earth have been sent out to people who pledged in the Kickstarter. Below is Gabriela Houston’s beautiful linocut illustration for my story, “Ghost Ships Passing in the Night.” There’s an illustration for every story, and the book looks gorgeous. The hard copies will ship in December!

Second, my poem “Directions to the Underworld” has been published in Augur magazine, issue 7.2. You can read a few of the pieces (though not my poem) or get your copy here.

Third, my short story “Picking Hazelnuts with the Devil,” inspired by British tree folklore, has been published in the Brighton NightWriters anthology Echoes of Light. You can purchase a copy here, and there will be a launch party in Brighton on November 1.

I’ve had an exciting weekend of writing events, reading with Strong Women, Strange Worlds on Friday. Check out their events here, featuring women and nonbinary writers of speculative fiction! They include book giveaways and are always fabulous.

Saturday was the local Creative Writing workshop I hosted as a fundraiser for Survivors’ Network, supporting survivors of sexual violence and abuse in Sussex. We had a lively and engaged group participating in writing exercises and sharing best practices for getting that project started or finished. I loved doing the workshop and learned from everyone there. Thanks for coming, and for supporting a good cause! East Brighton Trust, the CIC that provided space for us, will post more about the event this week, and I’ll share their photos and blog on social media.

Now I’m catching my breath and basking in the quiet. Here are my intentions for October – a slower, more reflective time to do deep work on projects.

October is cozy.
This month, I'll get things done slowly.
October is pumpkins, coffee, and wine.
October is easy, and everything's fine.

What does your October have in store?

March 2, 2022

Should I Write a Short Story or a Novel?

If you write both long and short fiction, you’ve probably experienced differences between these two lengths of storytelling. As I’ve worked on two books, each focused on fiction of a different length, I’ve been thinking about the contracts between these forms and how to choose the best length for a given project.

I had a short story collection, Dream Signs, published by Lost Fox Publishing in December. I also have a novel, Chasing Harmony, forthcoming this summer. The publisher, Read Furiously, is lovely to work with and has recently shared my author bio on their website.

Both long and short fiction are ways to tell a story. The scope and focus of the story can (some would say must) change depending on the length. And let’s not forget about intermediate length forms like novellas, which have elements of both. I’ve enjoyed writing in these forms, and my novella “The Cliffman” is published in both Hard for Hope to Flourish and Dream Signs.

If you have a story you want to tell, here are some things to consider when deciding if it would work best as a shorter or longer piece.

How big is the story?

The more complex the tale you want to write, the more easily it will lend itself to a longer form. If you have a sprawling world or several points of view in mind, for instance, a novel might be a better storytelling vehicle than a short story.

What pace works best for your story?

Sometimes I have a brief idea or concept that I want to explore and not much of a plot. Sometimes the plot I have in mind is a simple one that can play out over a few pages. In these cases, I keep the writing process brief with a short story. When I want room to sprawl out and develop a longer story, I start a novel, a form where I can describe minutiae and include digressions without wasting page space. The idea and characters have to be compelling enough for me to spend lots of time with them, but when they are, I want to spend that time with them.

Is this a new idea you want to test out?

Sometimes a short story is a good testing ground for an idea that you might want to experiment with but aren’t sure you want to invest in. You can try out new characters, settings, and concepts in short form to see if they work and get a sense of who or what they are.

Which length do you prefer?

If you’re pressed for time right now, maybe you’d rather work on a short story. But if you read mostly novels and love crafting cliffhangers, for instance, maybe you’d rather write a novel. Some writers find one length suits them much better than another. Others enjoy the challenge of both.

There are many questions you can ask yourself when deciding whether to write a short story or a novel. (Of course, you could write both, but you probably want to get started with one project.) The ones above are what I tend to think about. What about you? Do you have a length preference when writing fiction?

January 5, 2022

My short story collection is published! Plus a drinking game

I’m beyond excited to announce that Dream Signs, my short story collection, is out in the world! The author copies just arrived, as you can see from the photo above. I look forward to doing some readings in the new year and will keep you updated once they are scheduled.

Many writers repeat themes, and I decided while washing the dishes that the recurring motifs in Dream Signs could be a drinking game. If you pick up a copy of the book, you can go through the list and follow along. Any drink counts. It could be water, coffee, whiskey, or whatever you like. You should be pretty sloshy by the final pages.

Take a drink each time you read one of these:

A wise mentor
Someone does art
A school is described in detail
A dragon appears
The observers (you’ll know them when you see them)
There’s a list
Make-believe > real life
Painful family dynamics
Cosmic beings we don’t understand
The camera is a metaphor
Sex

If the list above sounds like your idea of a good time, you can get a copy of Dream Signs directly from the publisher or from other online retailers (Kobo, Amazon). New year, new book. Happy reading!